Field Notes Inside an Integrated Communications Agency

For me, most Friday evenings aren’t spent watching Justin.TV for the much-awaited launch of Wolfram|Alpha (WA), a new computational search engine that could revolutionize the way we use the web.

But it happened to me. This past Friday, I was all geeked out, on the couch, with a blanket, my laptop and my browser pointed toboth www.wolframalpha.com and Justin.TV . And yes, I even followed comments about WA, using TweetGrid (www.tweetgrid.com ). Why was I so interested? Why so much attention? Because, in this ever-changing landscape of PR and media relations, it is important that communications professionals are informed about the newest thing, the most interesting gadget or tool or even, this new computational search engine. What are its applications? How could this impact a client’s business? Remember back in the day when folks didn’t know Twitter (started in 2007 baby). Initial reaction is that WA has some great properties. My concern isthat for some searches, I receive the message “Wolfram|Alpha isn't sure what to do with your input.”

Ah, such is life. Oh well, back to Twitter. Come share your thoughts at @Lilyn.