Heather
Owings
SLM 521 (MD)
Fall 2003
Search Engine Activity
Search
Engine Awards
Roll
out the red carpet 
Get
out your cameras
It's time to award the prizes to my favorite search engines
The
Best General Search Engine Is...drum roll please!
Google
- Google's crawler-based search engine is not only the most comprehensive, but
also the one with the greatest relevancy. Google offers a plethora of options
in addition to searching for web pages. With Google, you can search for products
with Froogle or browse mail-order catalogs
with Google Catalogs. You can search
for Images, Groups, News, and you can even check out Google
Labs! It also offers great features such as cached links which allows you
to see older versions of recently changed web pages. http://www.google.com
The
runner up is AllTheWeb. I like the set
up of this minimalistic web page, I cannot stand Yahoo's page because it has
all those ads and graphics on it. If I cannot find it on Google, AllTheWeb.com
is my next stop. It also allows searches for news, images, video clips and MP3s
and FTP files. I also like that it tells you exactly how many web pages it is
currently searching! http://www.alltheweb.com
And
even the worst dressed this year, Yahoo!,
deserves an Honorable Mention. Yahoo's special feature is that it shows "category"
links on its search result pages. This link takes you to a list of web sites
that have been approved by a human editor. Also if you search
from the Yahoo Directory home page, instead
of the regular Yahoo.com page, you get human-compiled search results too. http://www.yahoo.com
Please
Welcome My All Time Favorite Meta Search Engines 
And
the winner is...Vivisimo. I like the simple
graphics. I like that you can chose to search the web, search top news, search
FirstGov or Britannica. And if that were not great enough, it compiles your
results into categories too! It also offers you the option of opening your result
in a new window or you can preview it first. Both are nice features when researching
on the web. http://vivisimo.com
My
second choice is ProFusion which is powered
by Intelliseek, an Ohio-based company. This service combines results from both
general search engines and "Invisible Web" resources. It also has
category listings to help "target your search." If you link to a category,
you are able to choose from where ProFusion will pull your results. For example,
the category "education," offers web search engines, college resources,
financial aid, as well as K12 Resources. The variety of choices makes this one
of my favorites, and I am not just saying that because its based in Ohio! http://www.profusion.com
The
Honorable Mention goes to Dogpile. As much
as I like this meta search engine, I was disappointed to realize that paid listings
can end up in your results list without any warning or disclaimer. http://www.dogpile.com
Let's
hear It for the Multimedia Search Engines!
Even
though AllTheWebis a previous winner,
I feel that it really is the best for finding images, audio, and video. Just
click on the different tabs at the top of the search bar to limit your results
to Pictures, Audio, or Video, it is that simple. If you are looking for a specific
image, go to the Advanced Search option. It allows you to pick your file format
(.jpg, .gif, or .bmp), your image type (color, grayscale, or art image) and
you can choose your background (transparent or non-transparent). Comprehensive
and easy to use, is it any surprise this site wins twice? http://www.alltheweb.com
My
second in command of multimedia is Alta Vista.
Began in December 1995, Alta Vista is the oldest crawler-based search engine
on the web. And although not as favored as it once was, it still has a strong
Images search, as well as MP3/Audio and Video searches. With the image search,
options abound. You can choose between graphics or photos, what source you want
your image pulled from, what colors, and even the size. http://www.altavista.com
An
Honorable Mention goes to another past winner, Google.
The only drawback to Google is that it only does image searches. But it is an
excellent feature of this search engine. http://www.google.com
And
Now the News...
Although
Google, Yahoo, AllTheWeb, and Alta Vista have outstanding news search engines,
the news is just a small part of the search engine. I wanted to explore search
engines who focus predominantly on the news..
The
winner of this award is NewsNow. It
is a UK site that gathers news from around the world. The little flag icons
next to the articles represents the country in which the news report originated.
Another nice feature, you can browse the newsfeeds by category. But I like it
best because it offers fresh and different perspectives on US News. http://www.newsnow.co.uk/
The
vice president of news search engines is Ananova,
another Brit winner. My favorite link is to the light-hearted "Quirky Stories,"
which includes anything from a police dog that prefers sweets to stopping crime
to a German woman who insists that a 4-year-old dug up her driveway with a toy
shovel. The irreverent tidbits side-by-side with the deeper, darker dreadful
news makes this a well-balanced information source. Also fun is watching the
virtual newscaster, Ananova. http://www.ananova.com
This
plain, unassuming web site called Daypop
deserves an Honorable Mention. It searches over 50,000 news sites and weblogs
for current events and breaking news. It does not have a news archive, but I
find it great for up-to-date news coverage. However, since it is significantly
smaller than the major search engines listed above, it does have a few server
glitches. But when its up, its grand! http://www.daypop.com/news
Here's
a Little Something Just for the Kids:
The line leader is KidsClick!
This awesome search engine is the pet project of the Ramapo Catskill Library
System. It links to about 5,000 web sites. In addition to its primary function
of searching the web, it also offers browsing by category, and both picture
and sound searches. It has a selection policy that refuses: web sites that ask
for too much personal information (name, address, or phone number), sites that
might require a fee to enter, or sites that infringe or break copyright laws.
And on top of all that, it is compiled and updated by librarians! http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/KidsClick!/
Next
in line is Yahooligans!Launched in
March of 1996, Yahooligans! is the oldest search engine for children. One of
the safety precautions for children in place on this site is that no adult-oriented
banner ads appear. Everything on the site has been approved by editors. Nothing
"sleazy, slimy, snarly, paranoid, hateful, hideous, harmful, pornographic,
or prejudiced" is accepted by Yahooligans! And as its specifically designed
for children 7-12, it is fun, fascinating and colorful. http://www.yahooligans.com/
Last,
but not least, an Honorable Mention to the Awesome
Library for Kids. It offers browsing by school subject, titles, author,
projects, games, etc. I really like the Awesome Library site, but the branch
site for kids is not as colorful or fun as Yahooligans! or KidsClick! (Maybe
because it does not have an "!" at the end!) So even though it has
the substance, it lacks the sparkle. http://www.awesomelibrary.org/student.html