Branton, Marilyn

SLM 521

Search Engines

 

Search Engine Survey

 

I.       Travel Search Engines:

 

Winner!

 

Cruise.com

cruise.com    

 

Winner because it is a well organized user friendly site.  The site provides a list of places to travel all over the world by just a click.  Cruise.com provides maps, photographs of the ships, and an option called compare prices.  The home page is easy to read providing all the information that one would need to book a cruise.

 

Honorable Mention!

 

Royalcarribean.com

www.royalcaribbean.com/

 

Honorable mention because Royal Caribbean no matter how large or small the cruise they can provide the traveler with options.  They also provide a site for the first time cruisers.  Dream on!

 

II.      Medical Search Engines:

 

Winner!

 

American Heart Association

www.americanheart.com

 

Winner because the site is filled with information on heart health.  You can put in your zip code to find local events in your community.  Most importantly there is a “Heart Profilers” where in twenty minutes you can get incredible information on your own heart condition.  

 

Honorable Mention!

 

High Blood Pressure – Treatment and Medication

www.bpsuccesszone.com

 

Honorable mention because this site provides detailed information on blood pressure, and how you can reduce blood pressure.  Requesting the information is free by filling out a short survey.  

 

III.    News Search Engines:

 

Winner!

 

Google News

http://news.google.com/

 

Winner because it gives the user the ability to keyword search across thousands of news sources, while always providing the ability to browse categories of news.  Winner for Best News Search Engine from Search Engine 2002.

 

Honorable Mention!

 

Television

http://TVEye.com/

 

Honorable mention because it lets you keyword search each and every word spoken during TV news broadcasts from well-known news organizations.

 

·       FoxNews.com

·       CNN.com

·       MSNBC.com

·       CBSnews.com

·       Reuters.com

·       News.BBC.co.uk

 

One drawback is that not every segment from every news program is placed on the web.

 

IV.              Law Search Engines:

 

Winner!

 

FindLaw

http://www.findlaw.com/

 

Winner because features include News & Analysis; Lawyers; Market Center; CLE; and Cases & Codes.   You can also sign up to have court decisions from the federal courts of appeal and several state supreme courts delivered to your inbox via email.

 

Honorable Mention!

 

Findlaw LawCrawler

http://lawcrawler.findlaw.com/

 

Honorable mention because it gives the user the ability to search for material from a wide range of sources, including the sites for each of the federal agencies, the Library of Congress, US Military, the Federal Judicial Center, all state government sites, a legal dictionary, and scholarly articles and legal news in the Findlaw database.

 

V.                 Shopping Search Engines:

 

Winner!

 

BizRate

http://www.bizrate.com/

 

Winner because it allows the user to search for products from hundreds of online vendors.  Features include merchant ratings, reviews, tax, and shipping information, as well as a list of the users’ most recent searches and recently viewed products.

 

Honorable Mention!

 

DealTime

http://www.dealtime.com

 

Honorable mention because of the major comparison shopping search engines it provides.

 

http://www2.mcdaniel.edu/slm/student/brantonm/searchengines