Comments on: How Do You Search?

By: Glaurung_quena

Glaurung_quena — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 01:56:09 +0000

“I like the option of news and video returns you get with a standard search, but I also want the option to turn that off.”

YES!! Especially with sites that are trying to sell me X when I am trying to find out information ABOUT X. It’s nice that google has a “shopping” link, but 90% of the time, I want a “not-shopping” link.

By: Matthew

Matthew — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 17:53:58 +0000

Glaurung_quena: Heh. But some of us graduated before the Internet, and our poor brains are filled with now-useless skills like how to use the Reader’s Guide to Periodic Literature. If there are testing sites that let you stretch your Google-fu, it’s a shame that they aren’t better known.

I’m not getting this MS-Yahoo team-up, though. To coin a phrase, those who do not understand Google search technology are doomed to reimplement it — poorly. Even the standard Google search for A-Rod returns links to mlb.com and a generous supply of news stories, and http://tinyurl.com/ml2xbt shows that you can also get information on the results page if you like typing more than surfing.

But DWIM-heavy search engines can be useful if they really know their subject. I wrote a story here about Wolfram|Alpha handily beating my usual combo of Google/Wikipedia when I needed a math formula.

By: Avram

Avram — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 17:51:52 +0000

I think the reason people like Google is that it’s blazing fast, simple, and accurate. At least that is why I prefer them. People who are poor searchers may indeed prefer the Bing approach as generally the most popular searches are the broadest.

I can’t tell you how many people search for “Web site” or even Google the term “google.” I automatically dislike any technology that assumes its users are unsaavy, but I’m a nerd and realize not everyone is like me.

By: Michelle Muenzler

Michelle Muenzler — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 16:41:49 +0000

I think a lot of my preference depends on what I am searching for. If my query were just “Alex Rodriguez”, then it appears I am just looking for any and all random information concerning him. There isn’t much else in that kind of query to target my needs, so receiving latest news articles, etc, might be helpful in fully understanding everything there is to know about him (though Wikipedia might be a better starting point for definition style queries!).

However, I rarely make general queries such as that. I am usually seeking a very specific information nugget, in which case I prefer Google. But I would like it even better if the advanced search options allowed me to utilize some core NLP tools (like lexchains, or direct synonymy for specific word senses, at the least!). The more NLP tools that get added to searching, though, the slower searching tends to become. And most folk demand that above all things, searching be swift.

Ah well. Search will never be perfect.

By: Josh Jasper

Josh Jasper — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 16:23:30 +0000

If anything, I’d like google to be more customizable in it’s returns, not more broad. I like the option of news and video returns you get with a standard search, but I also want the option to turn that off.

By: Glaurung_quena

Glaurung_quena — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 15:34:06 +0000

Definitely the Google approach would be better for me, and for my partner. Then again, I am perpetually astonished at how few people seem to comprehend the concept of searching, so maybe there’s a demographic out there that slept through those elementary school classes in “how to use a library” who would find the MS/Yahoo approach useful.