The Wolfram Alpha API Has Arrived

#1

Post by edw519 » Fri, Oct 16, 2009, 12:35 AM UTC

The Wolfram Alpha API Has Arrived
blog.wolframalpha.com

Re: The Wolfram Alpha API Has Arrived

#2

Post by babyshake » Fri, Oct 16, 2009, 1:08 AM UTC

Charging developers to try out your API. Questionable. If anything, don't they want to do everything they possibly can to attract developers?

Re: The Wolfram Alpha API Has Arrived

#3

Post by adatta02 » Fri, Oct 16, 2009, 1:25 AM UTC

babyshake wrote: post #2

Charging developers to try out your API. Questionable. If anything, don't they want to do everything they possibly can to attract developers?

That is the first thing I noticed also. the pricing is non-trivial to. $60 for 1k/day requests? damn

Re: The Wolfram Alpha API Has Arrived

#4

Post by lpolovets » Fri, Oct 16, 2009, 1:45 AM UTC

The prices seem insanely high, and the most expensive plan also has a bizarre structure (http://products.wolframalpha.com/api/pricing.html). After you pass your initial 10 million request quota, the per request price is higher than during the quota! This means if you're doing 50 million requests, it's cheaper to buy 5 API keys w/10 million requests than to have one API key doing all 50 million. I would've expected that Wolfram encourage higher usage w/deeper discounts especially when you reach the top, not until you reach the top.

I also wonder if ~6 cents/request is supply and demand or maybe gree, or if the system is so complex and sophisticated that they actually need to charge that much to pay for the computational requirements.

Re: The Wolfram Alpha API Has Arrived

#5

Post by cldwalker » Fri, Oct 16, 2009, 1:49 AM UTC

They have temporary free plans called Pioneer Grants but you have to "discuss your application" with a representative. Oh silly wolfram, wasn't it enough to see microsoft learn a lesson the hard way from google?

Re: The Wolfram Alpha API Has Arrived

#6

Post by trafficlight » Fri, Oct 16, 2009, 1:50 AM UTC

$60 for 1000 requests just for protyping and personal use? Do they actually want anybody to use their product?

Re: The Wolfram Alpha API Has Arrived

#7

Post by madmotive » Fri, Oct 16, 2009, 1:58 AM UTC

babyshake wrote: post #2

Charging developers to try out your API. Questionable. If anything, don't they want to do everything they possibly can to attract developers?

I find it amusing that they actually seem to think $60 is the right price point for "students, hobbyists, individual developers". How out of touch with the community can you get.

Looking at their visitor stats (http://siteanalytics.compete.com/wolframalpha.com/) I'd guess they have unused capacity for at least 2MM queries a month if back in May each visitor was hitting it twice. I don't get the impression they are using an infrastructure that they only pay for on demand.

If they want anyone to use their API (or their service as a whole) they should give away at least 1000 queries a month to the first 2000 developers that sign up.

Re: The Wolfram Alpha API Has Arrived

#8

Post by jasonlbaptiste » Fri, Oct 16, 2009, 2:01 AM UTC

If you want an example of how NOT to launch an API and get developers on board, take a look at Wolfram's API.

Re: The Wolfram Alpha API Has Arrived

#9

Post by slig » Fri, Oct 16, 2009, 2:04 AM UTC

jasonlbaptiste wrote: post #8

If you want an example of how NOT to launch an API and get developers on board, take a look at Wolfram's API.

They lost me before that, precisely on "download a pdf to see the api docs".

Re: The Wolfram Alpha API Has Arrived

#10

Post by dmix » Fri, Oct 16, 2009, 2:04 AM UTC

jasonlbaptiste wrote: post #8

If you want an example of how NOT to launch an API and get developers on board, take a look at Wolfram's API.

Let's wait to see how well it does before making these kinds of statements.