by Helen Gallagher
as published in
The Freelancer, Editorial Freelance
Association
Do you lose focus
and find your concentration faltering as you slice through thousands of
web
search results, when all you need is one perfect anecdotal fact?
Do you start your
article research on the web and find you’ve wasted an hour searching
Google and
have nothing worthwhile?
There has to be
a better way. With 5,000
new web sites added to Google’s index every week, plowing through
search results
becomes a bigger task every time you go online.
Google was the top
choice for over 47 percent of web searchers last year, according to
Promo
Magazine and Nielsen/NetRatings. But a good fit depends on your need
and there
are better tools for online searching than Google. Tools that save time
and
yield more relevant results. Because Google search results are based on
the
number of links to sites, i.e., popularity, its results are based on
overall
volume of hits, which often has nothing to do with relevance.
As a brand, and for
shareholder value, Google soars above others who can’t seem to make
money
online. Google is a dynamic, innovative company breaking new ground in
information storage and retrieval. But, the next time you’re doing a
search,
consider whether it really meets your needs, or has just become a habit.
Exploring other
search tools widens your knowledge base, supports a dynamic market, and
prevents the dominance of a sole player.
Here are just a few
powerful search tools with advanced benefits for effective online
searches.
A9 from Amazon.com is better than Google because, without
having to do an
advanced search, A9 includes media columns, images and blogs in your
results.
Its toolbar lets you leave notes on web pages, sort of like bookmarks,
and lets
you search your history files and bookmarks. Users can search at
generic.a9.com
to avoid having their browser information collected.
Answers.com You
may already use this site as a homework helper for the family. It searches authoritative sites, not popular
sites, bringing you research from Columbia University Press, Merriam
Webster,
MarketWatch and more. It also uses a new paradigm that brings instant
information, with topic-based responses, not just links to where the
search
term may or may not exist.
Clusty.com is my personal favorite, and was named one
of the fifty coolest web sites by TIME this year. It clusters results
from
several search engines and sorts by topic. A click on “advanced” also
expands
your search to include news sources including Reuters, New York Times,
CNN, USA
Today, Washington Post and BBC News. You can cluster your search to
return from
100 up to 500 results, all sorted by category.
Grokker.com If you’re a visual person, you’ll enjoy the
non-linear display of results here. This Yahoo-powered search tool
takes a bit
longer than average to load, but rewards you with a graph containing
circles
full of dots, with pop-up boxes for a preview of each site found. You
have to
see it to appreciate how unique this tool really is.
HotBot.com was a mainstay of search tools long before
Google. Now that it’s turbocharged with content from four of the best
search
engines on the Web: Google,
FAST,
Inktomi,
and Teoma,
it can, like Info.com, give you Google results along with those of
other search
engines.
Info.com is even better because it provides results from 14 different
search
engines and directories, including Google, Ask Jeeves, Yahoo, and more.
Info.com's
news service integrates news feed from Topix.net, to
continuously
monitor breaking news from more than 7,000 sources.
LII.org is the Librarian’s Index to the Internet, and we writers
love our
librarians. This tool provides a
well-organized point of access for reliable,
trustworthy, librarian-selected Internet resources, serving California,
the
nation, and the world. Instead of
automatic classification of sites by web robots, every site entered in
the LII
database is reviewed at least twice--sometimes three or four
times--before it
goes live.
Teoma.com
is a favorite of researchers because it’s
focus is relevance. It’s available through Hotbot as well as directly
at teoma.com.
Teoma is one step ahead of Google. Although it also returns search
results
based on popularity, it does so with a subject-specific filter to
determine
relevance. Advanced tools at Teoma include narrowing your selection by
exact
phrase, page location, geographic region, and date range and other
filters.
If I haven’t
convinced you to surrender your Google loyalty, at least expand your
use of
Google with some of its new features:
Sign up for
personalized search and Google will organize your search results based
on
what’s most relevant to you. It does to by reviewing your prior search
history.
Google’s desktop
toolbar gives you a sidebar offering a preview of your e-mail, web
content,
news, weather, and quick links to files on your computer. It allows you
to
expand your searches not only to the web but also to your hard drive,
folders,
and e-mail messages.
Other advanced
features include full-text book search, definitions, phone number
look-up,
movie reviews, spell check, and language translation.
Most search
engines, like many online programs we use, collect some personal
information
including internet addresses, connection information, browser type,
operating
system, the path of clicks to and from web sites, and pages you’ve
viewed. If
you install any free desktop search bars, be aware they are collecting
at least
basic web behavior information from you.
If you download
Google’s toolbar, there are further privacy concerns. One way Google
amasses so
much information is by reaching out to collect data from users. Through
the
toolbar Google collects personal information, which it shares with
advertisers,
business partners, sponsors, and other third parties.
You’ve got plenty
of choices in search technology, and while Google might be the perfect
tool for
the latest research on pop stars or old lovers, don’t let brand loyalty
cut you
off from other more powerful resources. When you need to check facts
and do
quality research, there’s a world of options to explore, and room in
the market
for plenty of diversity.
Helen Gallagher is
the author of Computer
Ease, and computer consultant based in Glenview, Illinois, where
she helps
bridge the gap between people and technology. She can be reached at Helen@cclarity.com.