Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Firstrade



Firstrade: Online Brokerage Firm
Simple and affordable. For you. For the casual and serious investor alike. One of the lower charging online brokers. 10,000 types of mutual funds offered.

Firstrade: Online Brokerage Firm
This is a great online only place for early investors. It is cheap, it is easy. They don't ask for a minimum amount in the thousands of dollars before you can start investing.

The site is very easy to navigate. It scores high on functionality. Firstrade does stocks, bonds, mutual funds. Many reviewers have ranked it above Schwab, Ameritrade and Etrade.

Monday, May 25, 2009

Wolfram Alpha: An Answer Engine, Not A Search Engine

Image representing Wolfram Alpha as depicted i...Image via CrunchBase


Wolfram Alpha Approaches 100 Million Queries Mashable

Google is a search engine. Wolfram Alpha is an answer engine. Microsoft is a desktop company. Google is an internet company. Google is a search engine. Facebook is a social site.

Fractals: Apple, Windows 95, Netscape, Google, Facebook, Twitter

Wolfram Alpha is an answer engine. It is not even trying to compete with Google, but it is already a niche king.

Content Is Queen, Marketing Is Princess

Yahoo's boast of wanting to "kill those 10 blue lines" is on the vacant side. Microsoft wanting to rename and remarket an old search engine is not exactly challenging: where's the innovation? But Wolfram Alpha does kill those "10 blue lines." That is its strength and weakness.

100 million queries? Come on. That is prime real estate already. And the site was selling ad space before it launched. Smart. A sound answer engine and a sound business model: what else do you need to fuel growth?

Google Is Working On Search

It has a small database for now. But that will change as it makes more money and has more resources. But it is good enough now to make good money now.

Wolfram Alpha is not a Google challenger, I don't think so. But what if it were? Look at how fast it hit 100 million queries. That might be the real news. Google, be awake, be very awake.

https://twitter.com/paramendra/status/1908944676


You know how you can watch a video clip on YouTube, and then you can get the code to embed that clip on to your blog? I wish this answer engine had a similar share/embed appendage.

But I guess you can always just plain link: New York.

http://www.wolframalpha.com

In The News

Hyped-up Wolfram Alpha gets delta-minus from me New Zealand Herald
Wolfram Alpha doesn't impress me FierceContentManagement
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