Again, that's all 'really neat', but the headline of the story is stating that people need what they're doing, which is b.s., so long as I can't ask how many people are using Linux and get something like an answer. I don't need to know how many cephids are visible from Modesto, CA. If you do, Wolfram Alpha is 'really neat'.

The beautiful thing about Google is that most questions along the lines of 'what is the distance between Mars and Jupiter", or "how many mililitres are in a gallon?" have already been answered, somewhere, and Google will point you to the answer. If it aint broke, don't fix it. Now, I don't doubt there are applications for Wolfram Alpha (I've heard their API is what really gets people excited), but do 'people need what they're doing'? Not particularly. It's a lot of hype.