Project #15

Search Engines

For this project, I was required to search eight different search engines that do different things. I will review each one of them and include a link so you can try them as well.

1. Blinkx : Blinkx is a search engine for videos. You type in what you are searching for, and it pulls videos from all over the web in order to provide the most results for your search. It's very easy to use and has a simple layout. This website is most useful for entertaining videos. It has educational videos that could be used in the classroom, but the search has to be very specific and it doesn't always come up with what you are looking for. I recommend it for personal entertainment, but I'm not sure if I would use it for research or in the classroom.
2. eHow : eHow is a search engine for finding step-by-step instructions on how to do things. You can type what you are looking for into the search engine or you can look under the various categories if you don't know exactly what you're looking for. It also gives you what's trending on the home page. It gives you results from what people have posted on the site.When you pick an article, a question box pops up that asks if you want to talk to someone who is an expert in what you are trying to do. It is a great resource for people who want to learn how to do things by themselves. 
3. Freebooksearch : Freebooksearch.net is a search engine for books. You simply type in the title or author and it loads various sites where you can get the book from. You can do a simple, advanced, extended, or audiobook search. It gives sites that you can get the book from for free or it gives sites that you can buy it from. It is very useful if you are trying to find a book quickly and see if it is offered for free. I recommend it for anyone who enjoys reading or is trying to find a book for class. Teachers could also use it to find free books for the class.
4.  Monster : Monster.com is a search engine that allows you to look for jobs or that allows employers to add jobs. You can also join the website and post your resume for employers to see. You just type in the type of job you are looking for, any skills or keywords, and your location. It then sorts through several jobs to provide you with the ones closest to your search results. The website also provides articles and resources that can help you with your job search and interviews. I recommend it to everyone because it gives you the best results for your search and is very easy to navigate.
5. Newslookup : Newslookup.com is a search engine for looking up articles and headlines. The main page gives you the top headlines for the day and also lists several categories you can look under if you don't know what you are looking for specifically. When you type something into the search engine, it gives you the most recent articles in your results. From there, it has several options to narrow down the search results. It is very useful for anyone who is interested in current events or needs the most recent articles for an assignment. I recommend it to anyone because it is a great way to keep up with the news and get a wide variety of articles on a subject.
6. WebMD : WebMD is a search engine for medical information. You can search symptoms, doctors, news, medications, etc. Pretty much anything related to the medical field is available for you to search on this engine. It gives overviews of diseases along with their symptoms and treatments. This can be very helpful to anyone who is trying to go into the medical field or anyone who just wants to learn more about all kinds of medical information. I recommend this to people doing research, but I don't recommend it as a way to diagnose yourself. You can easily misdiagnose yourself on this site because there are so many diseases that have similar symptoms.
7. WolframAlpha : WolframAlpha is a computational knowledge engine. You type in what you want to learn or compute and it gives you the most accurate and reliable information it can find. It gives you a small amount of information, but it tells you what you need to know without all of the other random stuff that comes with most search engines. I think it is a very good engine to use for help in school. I recommend it to students and teachers mainly since it is a really good resource for learning.
8. Zoo Search : Zoo Search (also called Metacrawler) is a metasearch engine. Basically, it takes results from several different search engines which gives you a wide variety of sites to get information from. The first sites it gives you are the top sites on the web. It also has side tabs that can narrow your search results by categories (images, videos, news). It is easy to use, but there is an overload of information. I only recommend it for entertainment use. I wouldn't use it when doing research.