Wolfram Alpha, the brainy search engine that seeks to best Google by providing instant answers to queries, announced Tuesday it had entered into a partnership with Samsung to power several search apps on Samsung mobile devices.
Specifically, Wolfram Alpha’s “knowledge base” technology will be used to power the search results for Samsung’s S Voice app on the Samasung Galaxy S III smartphone and also deliver answers to user queries “written” on the screen of the Samsung Galaxy Note hybrid smartphone/tablet using a stylus and the built-in Samsung S Note app.
“Whether you’re asking questions through the pen or through yourvoice, Wolfram Alpha will deliver high-quality, factual answers,” said Luc Barthelet, Executive Director of Wolfram Alpha, in a statement. “Samsung is releasing some high-performance phones and we are proud to be part of it.”
Voice-activated search apps are in vogue right now, with Google recently unveiling its own voice-activated search for phones running its Android 4.1 Jelly Bean operating system. AT&T just released the first developer code of Watson, its own voice-activated apps platform, and of course, there’s Apple’s heavily-advertised Siri voice activated personal assistant for the iPhone, which also relies on Wolfram Alpha to provide its own search results.
But Samsung’s foray into voice-activated search is unique because the company already runs Google’s Android on most of its smartphones, including the Galaxy S III and the Galaxy Note, and so in some ways, turning to a rival search engine would seem to be a slap in the face to Google.
Still, the move could help Samsung improve its own voice-activated search options: “S voice is not very good or functional,” wrote one rankled customer on Samsung’s website.
