Will Google "Square" Off Wolfram Alpha?

Semantic search and structured results are finally becoming reality - from re-search papers to real-search engines!

If you haven't tried Wolfram Alpha, give it a try. It is too good with some certain predetermined set of queries. Like:

• http://www78.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=microsoft+google+amazon
• http://www78.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=tan(x)

But... be ready to accept its "no results" for 90% of your queries. Yes, it would be premature to expect it to be on par with Google when it comes to the results.  We should call it a good analytical tool than a result-fetcher.

Of course, there are other semantic engines - Hakia, SenseBot, PowerSet (now part of Microsoft), DeepDyve, Cognition. But they don't seem to be very impressive (except maybe Hakia), as they are too limited in their capabilities or they have very narrow focus like Health, legal etc.  It could take few more years for them to be more useful.

Google also revealed its baby from its labs called "Google Squared".  It still may not be categorized as full-fledged semantic engine. All it does is present the results in the form of a table and you can define columns. Hmm, seems very exciting and does have very high potential. Suppose you want to get all Bollywood stars along with their personal details like DOB, whom they are going around with now - you can get it in single click. Fastest way to get gossips huh? Or if you want find all the companies in Sensex with their market cap, revenues, profit and P/E ratio, it's again, a single button away! But wait.. "Squared" is still at its infancy - For most of the queries, it does returns results, but the results are completely arbitrary. For. e.g. when you try the following query -
http://www.google.com/squared/search?q=indian+software+companies
the results ("squares" as they call it) don't make much sense at all. Again, it would take some years for Google to be synonymous with "squaring" like "searching".

Let's not become over-ambitious. One step at a time. There are existing engines like Hakia, Yahoo Glue Page and Ask which present the search results in a more engaging and useful manner than the traditional view of Google. The latest sensation, Bing, the 2nd innings of Live, the old lady with the sexier outfit, also has some marginal improvements like categorization and mouse-roll-over-summary of search results . Yes, the undisputed leader of search, Google, still needs to catch up with these new ladies.

But you know what... All these knowledge doesn't make me or most of the common people change their search preference. Google is still the King when it comes to the results, the content. Its simple, clean and fast response has been liked by everyone in the past. Will it still be the case in the age of Semantic search?