Wolfram|Alpha Puts 300 Hand-Drawn Query Icons On Its New Homepage

Here’s something you don’t see every day: hand-drawn artwork turned into search queries.

Wolfram|Alpha has rolled out a new home page that features nearly 300 icons surrounding the traditional search box.

The company says each icon is hand-drawn and represents an “interactive starting point” to help users understand better the types of data and answers that Wolfram|Alpha offers. Clicking any icon creates a pop-up that previews what the search term is, and then clicking again does the search itself.

It’s a pretty clever way to introduce new visitors to using Wolfram|Alpha — certainly different from the standard video demos that many websites offer to new users.

If you’re a regular Wolfram|Alpha user that’s already set a custom background for the home page, you’ll have to go into settings and change that in order to see the new home page.