I remember training staff in the use of Google (what's a google I would get asked a google times...it's a million zeros after one although can't find that in many online dictionaries these days!). In those days in the last century the search engine of choice was Dogpile (for meta searches) or Ask Jeeves. They were both great, in particular Ask Jeeves. Very good results even early on in the life of the Internet. I still will check both out if I have time as sometimes they can pick up some great hits. I used to keep up with search engine news via Searchenginewatch (gee how that has changed to encompass everything about technology!).Anyway, enough reminiscing....
Checked out Kngine and it looks interesting but pretty basic and more of a local search type app. Also checked out Twurdy as I like it when you can refine your search to level of difficulty. I did think twice though when I saw that it is powered by Bing (don't love Bing) but I did a few searches and its simple interface meant I will keep it in my list of potentials.
These days I am pretty hooked on Wolfram Alpha and Trove (isn't what the NLA do amazing?) I think Wolfram Alpha has a big future, in particular with mathematics (with Mathematica) and the education side of things. I think this mix of algorithm with human input is the future.
Most of the other searching I do is specific to a subject or academic and so, I use online databases for such searching, usually via NLA or SLNSW. Indeed, if I reflect on my searching practices I will go to Google for a quick search but if I know what area I am looking in I will use a tried and trusted specific website and use its internal search engine. For example, when looking for travel info I will go to Flyertalk or Milepoint and when I am looking for authors and books I will use Fantastic Fiction and Goodreads or for age recommendations I will use the WA DET catalogue.
Anyway, this is my last blog for the course. I am off to do a Power Searching course with Google at http://www.google.com/insidesearch/landing/powersearching.html - it starts July 10th and looks pretty interesting.
Very very cool Megan, I'm so glad you liked this one and yes the course modules will still be up an running for some time. It took me much too long to write them to pull them down anytime soon! As for searching for further reads have you seen this one http://bookseer.com/ very cute :) Also quite like whichbook.net
ReplyDeleteGeeking out aside, it's been great fun reading your posts over the course of the program, you relate your own learning to everything we look at so well it's been a discovery course for me too! Good luck with your next course and please feel free to call or email me at any time if you have any further questions or comments. congratulations!!