Is Google The Only Tool I Need To Search the Web?

Not if you want the best results

By Kevin M. Ryan Posted 02.06.2009 at 8:11 am 2 Comments

Web-M@rt Tado

Google's index reached a trillion pages last year, but that doesn't mean it (or other large search engines, like Yahoo) will always understand the exact intent of your search and yield results that have the information you really want.

If Google isn't coming up with quite what you were looking for, you may want to turn to other people for help instead of relying on algorithms. On mahalo.com, guides provide reviews and comments on Web sites to help bring up more relevant results. You're also likely to find deeper content by using topic-specific search engines known as vertical-interest sites, such as snooth.com, a search engine and community site for wine lovers, or organizedwisdom.com, a search site for health information. Besides narrowing down the field, vertical-interest sites often offer useful services as well.

Seamlessweb.com, for example, not only includes menus and restaurant reviews but also lets users searching for lunch order it online.

Keep in mind that many smaller engines require you to submit some personal information so they can optimize search results. And of course, to find these types of sites in the first place, you'll probably have to start with some Googling.

Kevin M. Ryan is chairman of the advisory board of the Search Engine Strategies conference series.

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2 Comments

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larryv

02/06/09 at 9:25 am

I found a search engine the other day called pipl.com. I don't mean to spam here - I am not affiliated with it - but I was amazed at the amount of data you could find just by entering someones name. Much better results than Google for that sort of thing.

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dontbother

02/09/09 at 10:13 am

Funny you say that larryv. Pipl uses google's search engine to give you you results. My belie is that is just further's the search by optimizing it for usernames.