Project 15

Photo by: PSDgraphics


Exploring Different Search Engines


WolframAlpha
This search engine, WolframAlpha, is new to me. From my research I did, it would be most useful for mathematics, science, and units of measure. This search engine would be great for helping you with statistic values or if you simply wanted to know more about something. I think that this would be a helpful website for any computing knowledge that you want to know. I have never been on this website until now, but I will most definitely use it in the future.

Bing
This is a common search engine that most people are familiar with and it is very similar to Google. Aside from Google, I think that Bing is a useful search engine for everyday information. I think that it is not the most useful for specific things, but it is beneficial for more common information that you might need. I have used Bing, and the layout is user friendly because all that is displayed is a background picture and the tool bar where you enter in what you want to search. Easy and to the point is what I like about it.

Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC)
This is a search engine used for educational purposes and it is populated by the U.S. Department of Education. I have never heard of this site before, but when I was researching different search engines I found it and it is full of beneficial tools. For instance, it provides access to educational journal articles, books, research synthesis' and more. I think this search engine would be useful for searching certain topics you want to become more educated about and to find education articles.

Yahoo
This is a well known search engine that provides information on anything and everything. This search engine is very user friendly. It is easy to use because the search box is in plain view and it searches in every category. I would recommend using this search engine for basic information, questions, or certain topics you want to know more information about.

RefSeek
This search engine is great for students and researchers. It provides academic sources from the web, books, academic journals, encyclopedias, documents, and more. You will see these items listen under "directory." When you search a single time it searches through one billion sources to find the best information to match your search. This search engine would be best to use when writing papers or doing research for class when you have a topic you need to gain more academic knowledge on. The site is very user friendly and through my own research it told me everything I needed to know about the search engine and what its purpose is.

WOW
This search engine is "enhanced" by Google, so it uses about the same searching techniques that Google does. I would not use this website for educational purposes because it does not have many viewers from what I researched. it is more of a broad searcher and the results may not always be accurate. I would use this search engine for basic questions I have or looking up something that is not very complicated. For instance, I may use this website to look up something I already am informed about, but search it to see what their sources say.

Dictionary
This search engine is very popular because we all like to know the definitions to words we are using. This engine is especially good for looking up the meaning of words and also access the thesaurus. This site is very user-friendly because it is set up in a simple way. This site is most useful when writing a paper or other documents that require you know in detail what a specific definition is.

Ask
This search engine is mostly used to gain more knowledge or something you are searching, but in my opinion, it isn't academically credible. I say this because If I am researching for a certain topic I do not use this search engine. I think that it is user friendly and it does have answers to questions, but you never know if they are accurate. On this site, you simply type in a question and it gives you many different sources that provides you with answers but they may not always all be the same. Most of the information is probably correct, but I have a hard time trusting this engine because of the way it displays its information.