Project #15: Search Engines

1. Dogpile

Dogpile was created by InfoSpace and is powered by Metasearch. It was created to time efficiently provide its users with the best quality of information. Dogpile finds the results its users search for from various different providers including Google and Yahoo! From the information gathered, Dogpile sorts out what they find to be the most suited information and returns it to the user. The idea of Dogpile is to save time of the users by piling all the information a user could possibly need in a timely manner. Hints the name, DogPILE. One thing I found interesting about about Dogpile is that it has a mascot, Arfie. Arfie is on the page at any time and is ready to help the user search.


2. Bing

Bing, formally Live Search is a search engine created and powered by Microsoft in 2009. Microsoft refers to Bing as its "Decision Engine". Bing was created to address the searchers needs as well as providing them with related searches. Something I found useful that Bing offers is a quick link to see your recent search history. Bing is technologically powered through a company called Powerset, which is also Microsoft owned. Bing had several other interesting features such as its mouse over feature. When you mouse over a Bing search result it provides you with a link with more information about the search. It also gives you a contact email link if there is one. Bing has become well known for its social media and travel search.


3. Yahoo!

Yahoo! is a search engine that provides it users with more than just traditional web search results. You can search for maps, music, images, and videos. Yahoo! also has features such a email and live groups that users can access through them for free, and with our economy free is the way to be! Yahoo! was created by two college students as a bookmark history and has became such a bigger success than what it started out to be. Yahoo! is powered by the corporation itself, Yahoo incorporated.


4. Ask

Ask was originally created to allow its users to ask common ever day questions in to a search bar and the search engine be able to find it an answer. The corporation then decided to change things up and made Ask.com a search engine where users could search anything on the web. Do to competition with search engines such as Google and Yahoo! there wasn't as much success in web search as there was when they just had Q&A. So now Ask.com is strictly a Q&A based search engine. Ask has a huge downfall though, when the website is accessed it automatically downloads the Ask Toolbar without the users permission, this toolbar allows Ask to access personal information form the users computers without consent of the user.


5. Duck Duck Go

Duck Duck Go is a user friendly search engine that allows users to search the web without being tracked. Duck Duck Go does not use your current location for any searches. So users who want results similar to Google but without the invasion of privacy, Duck Duck Go would be a good option. Duck Duck Go also has a few neat features. One being, in the margins of your searches they are steadily updating national news stories for users to read. Duck Duck Go is beginning to become very popular, corporations such as Apple and Mozilla are starting to recognize them.


6. Wolfram Alpha

Wolfram Alpha was created by Wolfram Research, the corporation that created Mathmatica. Wolfram Alpha goes beyond a basic web search engine; it allows you to search questions, problems, and data and also allows you to calculate answers. Wolfram Alpha provides its results based on facts, not opinions or suggestions. This search engine would be more user friendly towards a student or teacher due to it being a knowledge based search engine. Wolfram Alpha seems to be more of a study engine, particularly in mathematics. For example, when given a math problem it shows you step by step how to get the solution, which can be very useful to a studying student.

7. Yandex

Yandex is very universal and user friendly, it can be searched all around the world in languages such as English, German, and French. Yandex would be useful to someone trying to learn more about another country. It allows users to search images, videos, and maps. Users can also set up a email account through Yandex. Yandex is basically Google but used in countries other than the USA.


8. Mahalo

Mahalo did not seem to be a useful search engine. The majority of its offerings were how to videos. It claims to be a learning site, so I guess users who are looking for directions on how to do things (tutorials), Mahalo would be the best search engine to access.