Wolfram Alpha is a great search engine for data geeks, but it has plenty of computation tricks up its sleeve that are useful for the rest of us too. Here are some of the most useful.

Mac: Wolfram Alpha is packed with a ton of great info, but it's easy to forget about it sometimes. Nimble is a little menu bar app that will stuff that search engine into your Mac's menu bar.

Wolfram Alpha is the place to go to do all kinds of calculations. You can even use it to estimate your blood alcohol level after you've put away a few drinks.

Reading actual scientific research can greatly improve your understanding of the world, but if you run into unfamiliar measurements you can find the process derailed. Writer Ben Young Landis suggests using Wolfram Alpha to convert that measurement into something you can understand.

Wolfram Alpha, the intelligent, computational search engine, has just launched a new tool that breaks down your Facebook activity into numerous charts and graphs. If nothing else, it's an eye-opening reminder of everything Facebook knows about you.

If you come upon a file extension you don't know, the endlessly useful Wolfram Alpha has a tool built-in that will tell you what it is and what programs you'll need to open it.

This is just one more awesome thing Wolfram Alpha is capable of: it can take a jumbled set of letters and tell you what Scrabble words you can make with them.

Impressive "computational knowledge engine" Wolfram Alpha has many awesome applications; add to the list generating strong passwords and providing a phonetic form to make them easier to remember.

We all know how much of a pain flying can be, but you can ease your pain by avoiding the airlines more likely to delay your flights. Weblog Digital Inspiration shows us how to find the worst offenders with Wolfram Alpha.

Another handy use case for Wolfram Alpha: enter a date such as September 8, 1980 and it will immediately tell you it was a Monday.

Wolfram Alpha, the "computational knowledge engine" that can help you count your calorie burn, explain confusing once-removed-type relationships, teach you step-by-step maths and otherwise raise your eyebrows just landed in the Android Market.

If you're exercising outside of the gym but still want the comforting statistics provided by modern technology, Wolfram Alpha can help you calculate your calorie burn.

Wolfram Alpha's not the first place you'd think to look for medical information, but try it out next time you're digging in online. The computational search site offers detailed statistics on disease symptoms, treatments, drugs and their generics, and other data-geek details.

What do you call the son of your mum's cousin? How about the husband of your mother's uncle's daughter? Type how you're related into Wolfram Alpha's computation engine, and it returns the relationship — first cousin once removed, in that last example.

Two changes have just occurredfor Wolfram Alpha, the computational search engine that's actually pretty handy for step-by-step maths or as a writing tool.

Wolfram Alpha may be a data geek's dream, but if you're not all that interested in its more obscure uses, here's one thing we could all use a little help with: step-by-step math calculations.

Wolfram Alpha, the computational knowledge search engine, launched its iPhone application today.

Search engine aggregators which combine results from multiple sites are nothing that new, but Heapr combines the expected Google results with Twitter, Wolfram Alpha and Wikipedia for a pretty contemporary mix of results.

Wolfram Alpha, the "computational knowledge engine" that's steadily updating, has a good but hidden use as a word and language tool for use while writing. In other words, it can be a smart and snappy thesaurus/dictionary/translator/anagram tool.