"Why do I need to know about searching on the internet?" you may ask. "I just Google it."
The above most definitely applies to me. Whenever I want to look for anything online, I simply Google it. I am hoping that what I am learning via 23 Things will change this for the better.
I have had a look at Phil Bradley's list of Search Engines - http://www.philb.com/webse.htm
Within the Phil Bradley website there is a link to 170+ web search engines. One of these is www.answers.com - I used this to type in the question "How many passengers does the Queen Mary 2 hold?" - and compared the results to a Google search. I have to say that the 'Answers' website took me around the houses whereas I found the answer immediately on Google.
For the next part of this module I created my own search engine by using Google custom search. I chose to select sites on the ocean liner Queen Mary 2 as I am making the transatlantic crossing to New York on her this October.
Here is the search engine I created:
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Next, I watched a short video on how to use Yahoo Answers - available here:
http://www.5min.com/Video/Essential-Yahoo---6---How-to-use-Yahoo-Answers-210064834
Perhaps unfortunately, I chose to ask the question "What do you call someone from Edinburgh?" because this was a question which genuinely came up at home over the Festive Season. Some of the answers were just plain annoying/funny, such as "Unlucky", "A Scot", "McSnob" and "An alcoholic". The answer given which seemed nearest the truth was "An Edinburgher" - but as I was unsure whether this was 100% correct or not I went into Google to find a website to verify it.
Due to the stupidity of some of the answers I found using Yahoo Answers I probably wouldn't use this site in future.
Excellent piece of work. Well thought out and investigated. Like you, I sometimes wonder why we are encouraged to use other search engines than Google as google usually provides the answer we need more quickly than other sites. However, as Phil Bradley showed in a presentation I attended, if you can tailor a web search to prefer sites recommended by those you trust in certain subjects, you are more certain of finding authoratative sites. However, like Googles tracking function, this could also be criticised for narrowing our field of view. Best to know the options and tailor them to the need. Google is a great 'quick fix'.
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