More on search engines

Most of you probably know about the big players like Google, Yahoo and now Bing and you probably use them everyday. There are others out there though! Check them out and you may be surprised with their usefulness. Once engine I just stumbled upon is kosmix. So, what is different about this engine when comparing it to the big players? Several things.

There is not just a search box like Google or Bing. The search box is at the top of the screen and below it are groups(basically widgets) of related items such as videos, blogs, web,  etc. When you type a query, there results are displayed in those groups (web, videos, images, etc). The results list looks more like a social media site with information coming from mlive, meehive, digg, facebook, wikis, etc. Grouping the information by type is very helpful because there is more organization  instead of looking at a big results list or limiting the search through a tab. The group boxes can also be moved around the page so the user can change the look of the site. 

I found the “related in the kosmos” group to be very useful. A simple search of Lansing, Michigan will yield results in the “related in the kosmos” section for Ingham and Eaton Counties and sports and education in Lansing.

bing

You probably heard by now of Microsoft’s search engine called bing. Here is a short review of what I think about bing so far.

bing has a lot of nice features:

• The start page has a different background image with links to what is significant or important about the image
• The results list is clean looking an easy to read
• There is a “related searches” and “search history” so you can refine your search and know were you have been
• Depending on what you are searching for, bing will give you a menu ( on the left-side of screen) to more refined results. Example: search for a singer and that menu will probably provide links to lyrics, albums and concert tickets 

There are several really good features. To the right-side of each result is a vertical line with a yellow dot. Hover the mouse over the yellow dot and you will get a short preview of that link’s content. The preview is very nice and unabtrusive. XRank is a nice feature to see how popular searches of notable people are. The advance search function is not another page, but appears at the top of the results list. It is nice and compact and easy to use. Finally, there is “cashback,” a service that gives you money back on online purchases. I have not tried it, but it looks interesting.

Overall, I think bing is a good search engine. Bottom line, use it and see if you like it.