Although hailed as a "Google killer" when it was launched in May, Wolfram Alpha is more of a hybrid of Wikipedia and the search engine market leader.

Rather than being a means of sifting through information already available on the web, it is a computational knowledge engine used to generate answers to direct questions, drawing on a knowledge database of specific topics.

Developed by British mathematician Stephen Wolfram, all data used in the Wolfram Alpha engine comes from trusted sources, collated and verified by experts. Its value lies in making complex comparisons - overlaying stock charts, socio-economic data and the like - in ways that help conclusions to be drawn from intersecting details.

David J Gee, CIO at Lilly USA, has written in his blog: "I remember feeling the same way the first time I saw Yahoo!, then AskJeeves and then Google. Just try some questions and see how it interprets them and throws data and analysis back to you. If Wolfram Alpha doesn't make you feel awestruck, I'm not sure what will."