Google, though a popular favorite, is not the only search engine in town. Here are a few more, along with their URLs, to get the searches going:
Teoma at www.teoma.com
Viv simo at www.vivisimo.com
WiseNut at www.wisenut.com
Daypop at www.daypop.com
Yahoo! at www.yahoo.com
Excite at www.excite.com
InfoSeek at infoseek.go.com
Lycos at www.lycos.com
AltaVista at www.altavista.com
Northern Light at www.northernlight.com
Ask Jeeves at www.ask.com
Metacrawler at www.metacrawler.com
Internet search engines all use different methodologies for searching, so the same search with different engines will likely yield different results. Google’s accuracy is derived from its underpinnings; it displays results partly based on a Web site’s frequency of access.
Apple’s included application, Sherlock, provides a unique method of searching the Internet, by gathering information without having to actually launch a Web browser and view a Web page, and by providing a GUI (Graphical User Interface) for the Internet. More on Sherlock in Chapter 7. Other non-Web browsers that use the Internet to access information are OmniDictionary (www.omnigroup.com) and Watson (http://karelia.com).
The explosion in the number and popularity of Web pages has spawned a corresponding increase in the number of search sites. These sites use different methods for collecting and displaying pages. Sites such as Yahoo! are primarily directories; Yahoo! lists Web sites, organized hierarchically by category, that have been submitted by Web site developers and manually reviewed by Yahoo!’s staff. Other popular search sites, such as Google and AltaVista, use robots or spiders to automatically crawl through the Web and gather information, which is collected in a database and made available for searching via keywords or phrases. Many robot-driven sites also feature part of their database of Web sites in directory-style lists of links, for those users who prefer browsing rather than searching on keywords. The directory-style sites take advantage of the automated sites’ technology as well. As of this writing, if a search turns up nothing in Yahoo!’s categories, Yahoo! automatically forwards the search to Google.
All Web sites need to pay the bills, and search sites are no exception. In addition to the usual banner advertisements, many search sites are becoming portals, which provide not only search functionality but also links to online shopping, weather, news, and just about any other kind of information they think you might need. The search sites partner with other providers, such as online bookstores. You can continue your search for information or products at that provider’s site.
Don’t be disappointed if a favorite site of yours doesn’t show up in searches. It takes awhile for automated robots to crawl through the billions of pages on the Web, and directory sites make editorial decisions about which sites to include.
America Online deserves special mention here. It’s an interesting concept, and a unique case. Instead of separating your ISP, your Web browser, your email, your text chatting, and your content into separate entities, AOL is all these things combined. With an EarthLink dial-up connection, EarthLink connects you to the Internet, but you browse the Web with Safari. You check your email with Entourage. You chat with iChat, and you search with Google. AOL, however, is your ISP. When you open the AOL application, they dial you up. AOL is also your Web browser, and your chat application. While this sounds okay, the downside stems from the fact that AOL also provides you with their own content. This content is not the World Wide Web. It’s stuff that AOL generates; and because they make money when you view it, they try to keep you in their world as much as possible, and it’s not the same thing as being truly on the Web. You can, however, use AOL as just your ISP, your connector, and use another browser, email program, and so on, just like you normally might, with a non-AOL type of connection.
It’s easy to feel trapped by AOL. It’s your email address, your screen name, and it’s a pain to give that up. The good news is that AOL offers a little-known plan called the bring your own access plan, where you can pay AOL a small monthly fee to retain your AOL world, without using them as your ISP, that is, to dial you up. For example, if you have a cable connection, you can use AOL as your email application by telling AOL to not dial you up and to connect instead over your cable service.
AOL does have some plusses. They have local dial-up access numbers in some of the remotest areas on the globe (Siberia!), so if you travel a lot, an AOL account can be very handy. It also provides a level of content filtering, for blocking offensive material. The point is that AOL is okay to use, just don’t be fooled: AOL is not the Internet.