Search Engines: The
Very Best in Their Class
General:
Google – As a
general search engine, Google is far and away preferred by Americans today. Google
is streamlined (there are no extraneous items cluttering up the screen),
attractive, and incredibly easy to use – not to mention that the site is
constantly being updated and expanded. With a simple Google search, you are
linked to thousands of possible websites with the most relevant displayed
first. Words from your search are bolded in the excerpts from the web page,
which are located below the web link. These excerpts allow you to quickly scan
to determine the usefulness of the web page, before clicking again.
www.google.com
Yahoo – The
second most recognizable name in search engines, Yahoo also gets a vote for
great general search engine. While still a bit cluttered on the page for the
liking of some, Yahoo has more recently remodeled to look more like the
interfacing of Google. They, too, feature highlighted text excerpts in your
search results and Cached links to snapshots of the pages.
www.search.yahoo.com
Dogpile – Dogpile allows you to search
all the major search engines at one time: Google and Yahoo (my picks for top
general search engines), as well as Ask and new kid on the block, Bing!, the decision engine. The home page is easy on the eyes,
the interfacing of the search results again follows Google’s model, and it has
a loveable dog mascot named Arfie. Dogpile does not seem to be quite as adept as Google
guessing your search query once you start typing, but your search is sure to
get excellent results. Similar to Bing!, though not quite so concise, Dogpile limits your search results to about 2 pages, so you
receive the very best web links without all the riff-raff and distractions.
www.dogpile.com
Clusty – Clusty is known as the
clustering search engine. Like Dogpile, it has the
meta-capability of accessing the results of multiple search engines at one time
(although it does not specify which ones) but it also groups your search
results into clusters according to similiarity. These
clustered groupings show up as links on the left side of the screen. If you
search a poem, for instance, two of the clusters are sure to be “Poem” and
“Analysis.” This lets you limit your search results easily without the guess
work of wondering exactly what word combination you should enter to get the
best results.
www.clusty.com
Kid
Appropriate:
Ask Kids – With
just one glance at Ask Kids, it becomes clear that it was designed with Kids in
mind. The search page is decked out in elementary school glory with a dog in
sunglasses, an Avery label menu bar on yellow ruled and a pencil box in the
corner that allows site visitors to doodle and place stickers on the page. The
menu bar features five different featured link options: Schoolhouse for
homework-helping sites and features, Movies, Games, Video, and Images. Search
results are displayed on a three-paneled page with suggested limiters on the
left (because kids are just learning how to get what they want out of the web),
standard search results in the center with the top result on a paper-clipped
sheet of notebook paper at the top, and related image results on the right. Ask
Kids allows children ages 6-12 to have access to all the academic and just-plain-fun
sites that the internet has to offer without encountering more adult material
along the way.
www.askkids.com
Yahoo Kids – Yahoo
Kids’ search page is a bit more cluttered than that of Ask Kids, but with a fun
patterned blue circle background and rotating special features like e-cards and
cartoons, kids are sure to love it. Yahoo Kids has a Study Zone that includes
conveniently-placed links to online reference materials such as dictionaries,
encyclopedias, and almanacs. Search results appear in a soothing blue and are
limited to ten per page to avoid overwhelming young students.
www.kids.yahoo.com
News
and Media:
Google News –
Google News further proves why the company is taking over the web. Already
featured on the search page are the day’s top events, with icon links directly
to You Tube clips. Scroll further down and additional top stories are
categorized by topic:
www.news.google.com
Yahoo News –
Yahoo News also features links to top news stories on its home page, featuring
simply the story headlines to avoid unnecessary text on the page. Links to the
most popular news stories of the day are grouped by “Most Emailed,” “Most
Viewed,” and “Most Recommended” and set off to the right in their own box.
Lower on the page are the weather and fourteen top news story subheadings: Top
Stories, Most Popular,
www.news.yahoo.com
Images:
Bing Images –
When it comes to searching for images, Bing keeps things clean and simple.
Related searches are featured on the left-hand side of the page, and images are
presented in a manner that allows them to speak for themselves, in individual
framed outlines without any distracting text below. Hovering over the images
reveals essential site and size information about the image, as well as the
option to access more similar images.
www.bing.com/images
Google Images –
Continuing its streak of web dominance, Google’s Image Search is extremely
comprehensive. Listed with each image is its label, size, and web address. And
searchers have the opportunity to personally help make the site better through
the Google Image Labeler. Essentially a useful game, you can label sets of
images with a partner, and Google tracks the number of times you contribute.
Your responses help shape the word combinations that will result in the display
of those images in the future.
www.images.google.com