Project #15

For this project I have chosen eight different search engines and taken time to use them. For my main search criteria I used my husband's full name "Jonathon Marc Sanders" to compare what the engines could pull up.

The first engine I searched was Yahoo. With in the first page of links this engine pulled up my husband's facebook page. It also shows the images as a row on the first page rather than having to click the "images" link to get to the first few. The first image on the Yahoo search was of my husband and I at our first Easter dinner together a few years ago. I think this engine worked well, pulled good information, and I liked that the images were also shown on the first page. This search engine would be good for really all searches.

The next engine was Webcrawler. The first thing I noticed on this engine was all the ads. There were six ad links taking up half the page. I do not like that about this engine. Webcrawler did bring up my husbands facebook page within the first page of links. However, it does not show images on the first page of links. Though, when I clicked on images it did show the same picture that Yahoo had. It was also the first image. I do not think I would use this engine again. This search engines seems it would be good for all searches if you don't mind a bunch of ads.

Wow is the next search engine on the list. Wow had five ads on the page. This search engine did not seem to search the whole name but focused on "Marc" instead. There was no information on my husband in the links or in the images. This site does not show a row of images in the initial search either. This search engine would probably be better for searching factual information and one worded searches. I will not use this search engine again.

Wolframalpha was a different but good search engine. When I searched my husband's name it showed the message "development of this topic is under investigation" and gave me an option to email them about the search topic. I decided to search a simple math problem and it gave me that answer as well as additional information such as a number line, graphs and other information that might be useful. I also typed in "square root" and just hit about 15 different numbers in random order. It gave me the answer, explanation, and other information like the first math problem. Other topics I searched were "COD", "ukelele", "piano chords" and "civil war". It recognized that COD is a video game but did not give much information. It pulled up good musical information and very useful information about the war. This engine obviously is for educational searches and less for popular or people criteria.

I liked the option that you could upload a picture and search based on that upload. You could do the same with a file. You could also input a whole set of data and I assume it figure it for you. I did not test these functions but it is useful to know they are there. I will use this engine in the future.

The next search engine was aol. I did not like this search. It suggested a spelling change to how it thought Jonathon's name should be spelled. That is not the bad part. The bad part is that it proceeded to search with the suggestion and not what I typed! It didn't even wait for me to click the suggestion but rather assumed that is what I meant. Needless to say it did not pull up any information on my husband nor any images. It also focused a lot on the "Marc". I would not use this search engine given a choice. It probably is useful for popular news and gossip.

ask was the next engine I tried. This search engine was pretty much identical to the aol search engine. It made a suggestion and searched by that. However, it did have the Easter image as the first image. This search engine was okay and overall pretty basic. This would be good for probably all general searches.

A search engine I had never heard of before this assignment is Blekko. I really liked the layout of this engine. It had a nice blue color and good format. It was appealing to look at. It pulled up Jonathon's facebook page and also had the Easter image as the first picture. I would consider using this search engine again. It seems it would be good for all searches.

infospace was the final search engine I tried out. There were four ads at the top of this page. However, it did pull up Jonathon's facebook page and the Easter image was the first. Nothing about this search engine really stood out to me. I will most likely not use this engine again.