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DEL.ICIO.USTo Google or not to Google
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Russ Oaks, senior system engineer here at the AJC, has contributed to this blog before. Today he takes a look at the Del.icio.us bookmark site. Feel free to ask him questions - about this posting or other computer-related topics. . He has more than 15 years experience in IT and 12 years in IT management.
As far as Internet search engines go, Google holds the bear’s share of the web search engine market.
It’s always being mentioned; at the movies, television, radio, etc. You see and hear “Google this” or “Google it” constantly. We all use Google or one of their products for one thing or another. It is a widely used tool in my industry as well - especially for problem determination and resolutions.
Recently though, I found myself becoming more and more frustrating every time I used Google for a search. Whether searching for technical issues or not, I was constantly receiving results that seemed to be more commerce-based for companies wanting me to either buy search results or sign up for a Web site dedicated to the particular technology (chocked full of pop up ads…)
I was troubleshooting, not shopping.
For the longest time, I could count on a quick resolution based on my Google search query, but after a few months of more commercial query results I suddenly remembered that there are quite a few more search engines out there. The same item that produced practically useless results on the Google site, produced excellent results via the Yahoo site.
Other good “general” search engines are MSN, Yahoo, Ask.com, and Wikipedia. If at first you can’t find what you’re searching for, try, try,… another search engine.
Permalink | Comments (3) | Post your comment | Categories: General
Comments
By Dwayne
October 5, 2006 08:00 PM | Link to this
I use google at work also, not as much as you probably do, but it has always worked for me. I hate using msn or yahoo searches. They are always too limited. Ask is ok, but google has always worked for me (so far).
By Burdell
October 5, 2006 11:02 PM | Link to this
As I understand it, Google’s results are based on each site’s relative popularity on the internet. But for most obscure things (and some common issues), the most popular sites are not the most useful. If I go 5-6 pages deep into Google results and still haven’t found anything, I randomly go to page 15 or so. If that doesn’t yield anything useful, I check out the other search sites. Usually works.
By Prootwadl
October 6, 2006 11:37 AM | Link to this
When I’m looking for solutions to problems or recommendations for hardware/software, I use the “Google Groups” search engine, not Google’s web search.
Why?
Because Google Groups includes what use to be the DejaNews USENET archive, and that includes roughly 20 years of discussions on just about every topic you can imagine.