Recently I realized that I’ve been in a search-engine rut. Chances are that you might be, too.

For years now it’s been Google, Google, Google when I want to search the Internet. In large part that’s because I use Google as my browser’s Home page. After all, I return Home dozens of times throughout an average work day; when I do, I don’t want to be distracted by the latest news, lots of bling and flash, crawl lines, etc. I prefer as much of a blank page as possible, which is exactly what Google’s search page provides. And as my Home page, Google is always ready to carry out my searches.

But one day recently, while trying to research the way in which a topic was being discussed in the blogging universe, Google wasn’t being helpful. In fact, Google was kind of useless. A friend suggested that I try a search engine called Keotag, which returns results based on tags (author-inserted keywords used to identify information contained within a post). I did so, and found exactly the info I sought.

After that I started looking at other search engines. As a freelance journalist, I am constantly seeking information, so it stands to reason that I should tap into as many data sources as I can. Google does a great job at being a general information aggregator, but I have found that other sources can offer me more targeted or more specific data. It’s a bit of a twist on Search Engine Optimization; I suppose you could call it “Optimizing Search Engines.”

I’ve now added a few sites to my search engine repertoire (I use Firefox as a browser, and its generic toolbar makes easy work out of adding a search engine to the drop-down menu). I’ve arranged the dozen or so search engines below by the type of search they carry out. I hope you find these useful in your own work:

• General Search & Personalization: Addict-o-matic (see top photo) searches the top live sites on the web for the latest news, blog posts, videos and images on the topic you type in. The results come back neatly arranged in boxes headed with a source name (Google Blog Search, Digg, YouTube, Wikio, etc.). After searching, you can personalize your results by moving around the source boxes. When you’re done, bookmark the page and keep coming back to your personalized results dashboard to refresh that search. This is a particularly good search engine to use if you need to regularly keep track of a topic.

• Search Simply: One of the newest search engines around, DuckDuckGo is simple and powerful—as the company says, they give “better results and less garbage.” It has a clean, simple interface and offers some extras—e.g., a Karma Widget that allows you to announce your online affiliations.

• Search Statistical (and other) Data: Wolfram Alpha’s intended goal is to make all systematic knowledge immediately computable and accessible. It has far to go in that regard, but it’s quite useful in its current state, especially if you’re looking for statistics across a wide number of subjects, mathematical analysis, and more. In the “more” category, I typed in the name “Brad Pitt” and received a factual summation that included Brad’s full name (William Bradley Pitt), date and place of birth, and awards and nominations. Not a single mention of Angelina.

• Blog Tag Searches: Keotag lets you search blogs via post tags, using multiple search engines in the process—including Google, Technorati, del.icio.us, 43 Things, Newsvine, and more. Keotag also offers a tag generator that you might want to check out.

• Search Blogs: Using a different method than Keotag, BlogScope tracks more than 42 million blogs around the world. It can help you discover info from these blogs via “a set of numerous unique features including popularity curves, identification of information bursts, related terms, and geographical search.” I also find Technorati to be a valuable blog-search tool—I like its Home page, which aggregates current topics, and I like the way it categorizes content.

• Search for In-Depth Content: Cuil (pronounced Cool) is one of my favorite new discoveries, because time and again it returns really good content, along with timelines, video, photos, streaming, and even a “hotness quotient.” Cuil claims to index three times as many pages as Google.

• Search Forum Conversations: Omgili (which stands for “Oh My God, I Love It!”) lets you query a subject and find out where people are talking about it across online communities—and clues you in to the way they’re talking about it. Omgili’s tagline, “Find out what people are saying,” says it all.

• Search Global Trading Firms: Alibaba calls itself “the world’s largest online B2B marketplace, connecting millions of buyers and suppliers worldwide every day.” You have to join to play, but that’s free. Aside from Search, there’s a directory and lead sourcing.

• Search Old Email Addresses: Email-Search is a one-topic search engine, but it’s so handy that I’m including it anyway. If you have an old email address for someone, you may be able to find the current one through a search here. You can also delete your old addresses. Give it a try.

• Search Human-Generated Answers: In a method known as “social searching,” the questions typed into ChaCha get answered by real people (who apparently earn points for their answers). Catalogued answers are returned instantly.
• Search w/o Leaving Tracks: At ixquick your privacy is protected, since your IP address is not recorded (the company claims it’s the only search engine that does this).

• Search Travel-Only Planning Sites: Kayak compares hundreds of travel sites to gather the best deals on flights, car rentals, cruises, etc. Another site that offers a similar service: Mobissimo.

• Search Video: Blinkx has catalogued more than 18 million hours of video, and you can search it all!

• Search Bing: I don’t know what to say here, as I really haven’t figured out what Microsoft’s new Bing has to offer that takes new ground. Results seem fairly standard, and not much different than Google. One thing I do like, though, is the way they return photos when you search under Images. They’re not surrounded by any text at all (as they are in Google Image searches). You just get the photo. An image search for Jon Hamm, star of television’s fabulous “Mad Men,” returned hundreds of photos. It’ wasn’t until I clicked on a photo that I saw text, with the image in original context.

Well, that’s a start. There are countless search engines out there, but I think I’ve highlighted a few of the best. Good luck on optimizing your search engines!

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© 2010 Suzanne Rodriguez

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