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Re: Wolfram|Alpha Lookup Tool for Mathematica

  • To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
  • Subject: [mg99968] Re: Wolfram|Alpha Lookup Tool for Mathematica
  • From: mark mcclure <mcmcclur at unca.edu>
  • Date: Wed, 20 May 2009 05:02:08 -0400 (EDT)
  • References: <gum0br$q3a$1@smc.vnet.net>

On May 16, 5:17 am, David Reiss <dbre... at gmail.com> wrote:
> With the release of Wolfram|Alpha I have created a small tool that
> allows you to send a query to Wolfram|Alpha directly from
> Mathematica.

Unfortunately, this is clearly against the terms of use:
http://www.wolframalpha.com/termsofuse.html

In particular:
"The Wolfram|Alpha service may be used only by a human
being using a conventional web browser to manually enter
queries one at a time."

I think that Mathematica is clearly not a conventional web browser.
Now, I don't mean to imply that this tool should not have been
written or that it is Wolfram Research's intention to forbid this
specific use.  On the contrary, the ease of writing such a tool
using query strings would indicate otherwise.  Hopefully, the
forthcoming API will include separate terms of use that clarify
this matter.

Mark McClure


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