Using search engines other than Google
Google has pretty much become the King of search engines, because it is so focused on the quality of user experience. It’s clean, it’s simple, and generally relevant.
Yahoo! doesn’t seem to take search seriously. Take the UK Yahoo! search URL: uk.search.yahoo.co.uk. Seriously? Google.co.uk is easier on the fingers and memory. :)
And no one take’s MSN Live search seriously…
Entrpreneur.com published an interesting list of search engines that work in different verticals:
10 Search Engines You Don’t Know About
TopTenWholesale.com: One of the biggest hurdles for new retailers is finding wholesale merchandise to sell. Prescott aims to place all those product sellers in one place so that when you search for shoes, you receive wholesale results, not Zappos.com. The site also offers news, a blog, directory listings, forums and classifieds, fulfilling Prescott’s goal to create not just a wholesale search site, but a wholesale portal.
ThomasNet.com: ThomasRegister has been a leader in the business information field for more than 100 years, and ThomasNet.com is the place to go if you’re in the market for industrial and manufacturing goods and services. This robust site allows you to search by product/service, company name, brand name, industrial websites or CAD models. You can narrow your search by U.S. state or Canadian province. Browse by category, download 2D and 3D CAD models of mechanical parts, and even download a search plug-in for your Firefox browser.
FindLaw.com: Both FindLaw.com and Lawyers.com serve the same primary functions: They allow users to search for attorneys by location and specialty. But FindLaw has an easier-to-use interface, making its extra information quicker to find, such as the free form examples, free full-text books and legal dictionary. Both have general search functionality, message boards and blogs, but again FindLaw.com wins us over with its small business section.
USA.gov: The government has a labyrinthine web of sites, and if you’re looking for information, it’s easy to get lost. This all-things-U.S.-government portal/search engine has a tab specifically for businesses and nonprofits, and you can browse by topic. By far, the most helpful area in the business tab is Get It Done Online, an area with links to business necessities that, yes, you can take care of online.
IT.com: Rather than offering a plain vanilla directory or just one basic search bar, IT.com provides several tech-oriented search options. This includes product and service categories (enterprise networking, open source, product development) or industry solutions (government, SMB, financial markets). The interface takes non-tech folks into consideration as well; each search choice has a roll-over with an explanation of the terminology. In the main search bar, you can choose to search for news, companies, white papers or webcasts.
Zibb.com: Reed Business is one of the leading vertical publishers with more than 200 business titles. Zibb.com is the company’s new online venture, a vertical search service for business that offers not only websites and blogs in the results, but also Reed Business content. This site has a strong UK bent to its information, but it’s one to keep an eye on because of its strong news element along with the typical search results and directory listings.
VerticalSearch.com: VerticalSearch gets super meta as a vertical search engine for vertical sites. The homepage offers pre-determined categories, but you also can choose your own keywords. Results pages offer feeds of headlines and research papers, and you can choose to pull an RSS feed from any search that you choose.
SearchFinance.com: This site bills itself as the “search engine for financial executives,” making it quite the portal for corporate finance. While search is front-and-center, there are a ton of browsing options: blogs, podcasts, events, webcasts, magazines and alerts. Search results are particularly impressive. Directory matches pop up first, but you can also scroll over the results sources for more information on a particular company and choose to remove any “commercial” sources from your results.
Yahoo! Local: This site is the most consumer-oriented of the bunch, but a recent redesign with a focus on vertical categories makes it worth a look. Yahoo! Local has broken out of the restaurants-and-nightclubs city guide mold to offer a number of business categories like health and beauty, automotive, and real estate–useful information whether you’re looking for professional service vendors in your neighborhood, a new bistro to take a client to, or a local advertising solution for your business.
Melissa Data: This is a slight fudge on our part as this site is more of a new customer enticement for data service provider Melissa Data than true vertical search, but there are so many free search options, it may become a favorite on your bookmarks. You can search for basic demographic and market data, maps and mailing information, statistics or specific data like SIC codes. There’s a daily limit to your number of “lookups,” so unless you subscribe, you’ll have to curb your information appetite.
However, don’t think you actually have to use a branded search engine to use search.
A much overlooked tool is to actually use mainstream websites with search functions to actually search for stuff. While many regurgitate results from Google or Yahoo!, some actually modify them slightly with their own bias, such as AOL search. And then there are lesser known search engines such as Izito which somehow look like both Google and Yahoo without really being either. The BBC website seems to use a version of Windows Live for BBC search, while CNN Search uses a version of Google.
The bottom line is that you don’t need to stick to any one search engine, not matter how good - once you start looking at really complicated queries and searches, the really niche areas and specialist providers can be a real help.
Permalink: Using search engines other than Google
Search without Google?
Google has become so synonymous with web search that it’s become a verb - you can “Google your name” and similar activities.
And let’s face it, Google became the big cheese of search by having an idealistic bunch of geniuses running the show, who were concerned with user experience first, and monetisation second.
Somehow, that’s allowed them to become one of the world’s largest advertising companies.
Even still, there are something things you can’t find easily on Google - the array and volume of spam thrown at it means the various filters in play can sometimes make it difficult to find exactly what you want.
Now Rea Maor suggests 8 ways of searching the web outside of Google.
It’s a nice attempt to try and bring together a few different search alternatives - Nelson’s Search is a nice one I hadn’t heard of before - but most of the other suggestions seem to focus on checking up fragments set up by other search companies.
And no Yahoo! Search or MSN Live.
I think the biggest asset for search online is recommendations. I run a forum on books that people come to by word of mouth. It probably does okay on Google, but there’s nothing like people coming to your site because someone told them it was great, rather than having to crawl the web looking for something great.
Permalink: Search without Google?
Fake download service created to spy on users
Media Defender, a group apparently working to fight fight “piracy” on behalf of media representative such as the RIAA and MPAA, have apparently set up a fake downloads site called Miivi.
The reported aim of the site is that once signed up, users are encouraged to download illegal files. However, the Miivi software will then search a users hard drive for other illegal downloads - alerting MediaDefender furtively of the users IP address and other details.
Which reminds me of a series of nasty sting tactics the UK polics tried a few years back - they’d park a lorry filled with alcohol and cigareets, open up the back, then walk away and leave it. Anyone tempted to grab a packet from the back ended up grabbed themselves by plains clothed officers nearby.
I think what the recent Media Defender move really underlines is how clueless record and movie companies have become. They want to own every inch of the music they distribute - which is fair enough - but they have never totally grasped this thing called the internet.
In the meantime, the way remains open for internet-based media companies to pull the rug under from underneath the billion dollar corporate giants, who have yet to wake up to the opportunities of the 21st century.
Permalink: Fake download service created to spy on users
Free money and free stuff!
Imagine this - you post on discussion boards as normal.
But get paid for doing so.
And get free stuff. Such as iPods or computer games.
Sounds mad - but there are actually places online where this happens. :)
What’s happening is that a number of sites are trying to attract new members and grow faster by offering to share advertising income directly with members.
It’s called revenue share.
They usually do it directly via Google Adsense, so that the members are guaranteed their cash - a lot different to those dodgy “pay per post” and “paid to surf” companies that often don’t pay out.
And some push harder by offering free stuff to the “member of the month” and similar competitions, to help make sure the members they attract are more likely to be constructive than spammy.
This free stuff could be anything from computer games to iPods!
So here’s 5 sites to watch out for that are either sharing their advertising cash with members or offering free stuff as well - likely something for everyone here. :)
About: It’s a site for discussing cell phones, text messaging, ringtones, networks, laptops, etc.
Free stuff: Free iPod every month for the next 3 months, plus revenue share
TIPS: 1. Start discussions about individual phone and PDA products, and link to some reviews on other sites. Then reply to threads other people start about products. 2. Talk about ringtones! List ones you’ve found online that are free. WHY? Because the Adsense on these types of pages can earn a good $2-$3 per click. :)
About: Um…computer games. :) Xbox, Playstation, Nintendo, PC, etc.
Free stuff: Member of the Month gets a free game, plus revenue share
TIPS: Revenues won’t be great unless you really build up your post count, but as most of us play games, it should be easy to become a part of the discussions and earn from them over time.
About: Alternative music: indie, metal, rock, punk, emo, goth, harcore, etc.
Free stuff: Free CD each month - July is a random draw, August is top voted member. No info on how the free stuff is given out after. Revenue share.
TIPS: A great place to hang out if you have alternative tastes in music - and get paid to do so?!
About: Webdevelopment, webdesign, and general internet stuff
Free stuff: Revenue share
TIPS: Start threads about really technical stuff - mention hardware by model number and type where possible. If you don;t know anything, just copy/paste stuff from elsewhere, such as reviews. :)
Best till last …
About: General personal finance and saving, lending, etc.
Free stuff: Revenue share
TIPS: HIGH PAYOUTS! It’s amazing to see a high-paying area like finance sharing revenue, so this is a real gem to get involved with. I’ve seen individual clicks go for as much as $10, so if you can get a couple of those a day you’re laughing!
To get started:
then join the forums above and place your Adsense publisher ID in your profile.
Then post. :)
And earn. :D
Permalink: Free money and free stuff!
T-mobile takes service hit
I’ve read plenty of unpleasant reports about the customer service - or lack of - provided by companies such as AOL, Dell, and 1&1.
Now it seems as though T Mobile is joining the list - Sean posts a pretty horrific series of telephone support conversations about a problem with a T Mobile hotspot. Or not, as the case turned out to be.
Permalink: T-mobile takes service hit
How to get around Helio YouTube mobile charges
Here’s a nasty little revelation from Heliocity: Helio charging Ocean users for free content.
Helio have apparently set up an auto-detect for the YouTube Mobile homepage prompting for payment of a $6 subscription.
Even though YouTube Mobile is free.
Apparently all is not lost, though - you can get around the Helio subscription page simply by accessing an internal URL for YouTube mobile - real or fake - ie, http://m.youtube/?something
And that should do it. :)
Permalink: How to get around Helio YouTube mobile charges
