Project #15

In this ever changing world of technology, information is at the tips of our fingers. Search engines are a great resource, but which search engines are actually helping you? We all know the big guy, Google, but have you heard of Dogpile, WolframAlpha, Yippy? You probably haven't unless you're doing some hardcore searching. Not only are the multiple search engines, but there are different types of search engines. Breaking it down that far can get messy though. For the sake of keeping things easy and simple, I have picked out eight search engines and will review each one. For a base, I have used the word dog. It's simple and easy to define.

*These are in no specific order and the opinions for each site are purely my own.
Yippy is an obscure search engine that I had never heard of until this project. If I had to describe this search engine in one word...it would be horrific. The homepage is easy to maneuver and there isn't much to it. However, the results that pop up after searching are less than favorable.

As you can see by the screenshot, the first result that popped up was Food.com. There is a way to narrow your results, but as far as convenience, the search engine is lacking. I would not use it on a regular basis nor would I recommend it to anyone.

Dogpile grabs it search results from Google and Yahoo which means you could of just used Google or Yahoo.

The only thing you'd be missing out on if you didn't use Dogpile would be the dog puns.

WolframAlpha was suggested to me by Dr. Strange. The home page is delightful to look at and even has a tab for you to "give your brain a quick workout with the Wolfram Problem Generator." Not only can you type in a phrase, but you can also type in an equation and it will solve it for you. The search results are different from the standard results page. Instead of having different links leading to another source that will tell you more about what you're searching, Wolfram will bring you actual information on what you searched, as seen in the screenshot below. It will also ask how you want to use that certain search phrase. Overall, this is a great search site for children because it knocks out all the advertisements and misleading websites.

Bing is the 'better' version of Google. You've seen the commercials for it. However, Bing is still the standard search engine and that gives you the same links you'll get from Google or even Yahoo. Developed by the makers of Internet Explorer, if you visit Bing using Chrome a little box will pop up asking if you Chrome is running slow and will give you the option to switch to Internet Explorer. After searching dog, the result pages gives not only links to websites but images and a box that has some fast facts in it. At least this search engine's results are about dogs.

AskJeeves has been around for a while now. I remember using it back in middle school. The main page is a bland gray, but you are able to change it by looking at the themes presented by Askjeeves. There is also a question of that day that you can explore. After searching the word 'dog', the standard wikipedia link did not show up. I considered that a plus until I looked at the 'Explore Answers About'. There is a spot that says 'Explore Answers About' and the top suggestion was Non Surgical Face Lift.

Duckduckgo is a search engine where their slogan is "The search engine that doesn't track you." They have a simple design and I like the duck mascot. The results are fair and the links are websites that relate back to the word 'dog.' I would recommend this search engine to someone if they didn't want to be tracked.

Faroo is a peer-to-peer search engine website. This means that it tracks what links people on other computers have clicked on and displays the most popular pages. This means that this search engine is not the most accurate, nor is it actually helpful. If you're looking for some fast news about a celebrity or possibly just some fun facts, this might be for you. If you're writing a research paper, I would stick to the more known, not peer-to-peer based search engines.

Yahoo the not Google version of Google. It's search bar is surrounded by news, weather, business, and other interesting articles. Unlike other search engines, Yahoo utilizes it's home page space by putting all those news articles on there. It's search results are standard and even duckduckgo.com gave the same results. As far as search engines go, Yahoo isn't the best and it's not the holy grail of all search engines.