Friday, September 12, 2014

Project #15

Search Engines

The search engine I use 99% of the time Google so when talking about these other search engines I will compare them to Google since that is the one I know most about.

1. WolframAlpha reminds me of Google since it has one search bar on its main page then once you type something in it goes to a different sort of page set up that is nothing like Google. For instance I typed in Facebook and on that page you have a button that goes to the website, then there is what seems to be the definition of Facebook, and then a few other options to click on. After taking the tour I found out that WolframAlpha is knowledge engine not a search engine. This meaning that its information comes from built in knowledge created by humans. I think this search engine would be great when you are needing a bunch of knowledge on something specific. 

2. Bing is a search engine I have never really liked; not for any particular reason I might add. It is a like Google as far as having the main page with a search engine bar. I do like how on the main page you have a range of things going on in the world from news to celebrity gossip to click on and check out. When I searched for Facebook on Bing I had a list of a bunch of different websites to choose from, I had a little bit of background information on what Facebook was, its stock price, and a list of other websites that people who searched for Facebook also searched for these other sites. I think Bing has come a long way since the last time I got on it. I feel that it gives you a lot more information on what you are searching for; kind of like a background check. 

3. Ask has a search engine bar like Google as well as having a question of the day on its main page. I feel like the questions of the day did not have any relevance to anything; just a bunch of useless facts unless maybe being on Who Wants to be a Millionaire or some other question game show. After searching Facebook I had question/answer scenario with some different websites to choose from come up. I think ask.com would be a good search engine when you needed to find the answer to a question.

4. Yahoo I think is a good search engine for news related searches. On the main page of Yahoo you always see news related stuff on the front page which I think is a good source to find out what is going on. You can also use Yahoo for your e-mail. When searching Facebook I had different links to websites come up; most being about the news on Facebook.

5. Cuil I think is the closest search engine I have found to Google. Honestly, I would say it is identical to Google just a different name. Everything happens and shows up just the same as Google. This may be because the people who developed the website were ex-googlers. I still would not use this search engine over Google even if it is the same because there would be no reason to change to it.

6. Excite is a very "busy" website and what I mean by this is it has too much going on on its main page. Simple is better. First off you have a tiny search engine bar then you have over 100 links to click on all being about different various stuff and all the writing is too small. I feel like it is all just too clustered and it should be better organized. When searching for Facebook it was the same as Google with different links about Facebook coming up. To me this is one of the low end search engines and any of the above search engines would be better than this one.

7. Hotbot kind of weird-ed me out. At first I thought it would be cool for younger kids to use because the main page seemed fun with having a robot on it. It was also easy by only having the search engine bar on it. I have never been to this webpage before though and it already knew that I had different searches on other tabs opened; for example the college of education website. After searching Facebook different links came up to click on just like on Google.

8. Gigablast seemed to be set up a little weird to me. It also had a small search engine box but it did not have a whole bunch of stuff going on on the main page which was a plus. After searching Facebook though I had different links come up and under those links I had a 'search in category' option which I thought to be different but I think it might be good if you were needing it for different languages or origins.

After looking at all these different search engines WolframAlpha, Bing, and Yahoo were my favorite. I will try exploring and using these search engines more often. Sometimes we as humans get so used to one thing that once we try something once and don't like it we won't go back to trying it. It is kind of like a first impressions thing.

Search Engines













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