Microsoft recently launched some new features for its Bing search engine, and among those was the integration of some Wolfram Alpha data. Just like that, it seemed to dawn on the search industry that maybe this thing could indeed play a significant role in the future of search, perhaps not as a standalone engine, but maybe behind the scenes.
http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2009/12/18/wolfram-alpha-open-to-other-conversations-like-the-bing-deal