Project #15 Search Engines

Discovering the vast world of different Search Engines can be life changing! People out there have taken the time and invested so much into making certain search engines, just to make our lives, as Internet users, better. The sad thing is, many people and students don't even know about these different tools that are available to them to make their research projects and overall lives easier. Unfortunately, I'm guilty as well, I'm one of those students who hasn't fully explored the possibilities that Search Engines have to offer, but thanks to this weeks assignment, I was able to introduce myself to a simpler more efficient way to search with the Internet.

• Wolfram Alpha: What I concluded about this search engine is that the information is presented in a very organized way. I searched "alabama" and the information was displayed very neatly and easy to read and decipher essential facts. 

• Sweet Search: This search engine appeals to individuals because whatever you search, you will only find information from sources that have been validated by expert researchers. I searched " Where did Mardi Gras originate?" and the first two sources that were displayed were CNN and al.gov., so I would say those were two credible sources. 

• Pipl: This is good for searching people, it could be good to reconnect with old friends or even help dig out skeletons because the reports can pull up criminal activity and even traffic violations. I searched myself and went through a few pages to eventually download my report and when I tried to access it, it asked for my credit card, and that's when I left. 

• Internet Archive: The neat thing about this search engine is, it is able to pull up older sources and sites that google would probably have listed on a far far away page.

• IxQuick: If privacy is your main concern, this search engine is what you need. The site informs that you're searches are not saved in your history and neither is your credit card information, which in this day and age with identity thieves being so frequent, this seems like a great idea.

• Bing:  What I enjoy the most about Bing, is the visuals, everyday when you pull up the search engine, the picture is always different and I find it very stimulating, but besides from that, I hardly see a difference between Bing and google.

• Duck Duck Go: The main slogan of this search engine is that the site doesn't track you, for example if you buy a pair of shoes somewhere, sometimes you will see ads pop up with relevance to the shoes you purchased, but with this search engine, that kind of information is not tracked.

• Blekko: At the homepage of this search engine is an array of vivid images of trending people, I like that, because I am interested in popular culture and I would be interested in using this engine.