Have librarians got Google Goggles on? Are we not using other search engines/strategies as much as we used to for general internet searching? I’m not really thinking about specific database here – more just what do we turn to for searching the free internet.
iLibrarian had a post recently 100+ Alternative Search Engines You Should Know. The title jogged me to think about this, although the article in fact looks at search engine alternatives often for specialised types of searches.
First up – I use Google a lot, not quite exclusively, but as near as. When I suggested this topic to the other LINT writers several admitted they were ‘guilty’ of the same search engine loyalty. Note the use of the word ‘guilty’. There was this common feeling that it was wrong for librarians as information professionals to not choose more broadly in the search engine arena.
One said “I usually use Google first and only turn to others if I’m having difficulties. Guilty also of buying into their whole
package – Gmail, Google Reader, Chrome, Search History (which is extremely useful for “what did I find that other day, which I can’t seem to find now…)”
So, if Google is the default search engine for librarians do we mostly keep our options open for new/different/better/complementary search functionality? Another reported that he has a few specialist search tools. Librarians will often have their favourites in niche areas, but it would be interesting to find out just how broad or narrow is our scope.
In recent weeks, Microsoft launched its new search engine, Bing, replacing Live search. I tried it, it was OK. It did not have a search plugin available at that stage, but that oversight has since been addressed, and I added it to my set of browser search. However, I can’t say I have used it a lot.
Phil Bradley’s Weblog (Search Engine Category) covers internet searching, web 2.0 resources and search engines and their development. It’s a good place to start checking out some alternatives. Phil’s recent post Search Engine Comparisons, lists some tools that offer comparisons of major search engines in blind ‘taste’ tests.
What do you use? Is Google the default choice of librarians?
Image Search-Engine-Marketing by Danard Vincente, reproduced here under a Creative Commons License.
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July 27, 2009 at 10:47
I am notorious for automatically going to Google, but it helps that it is the default search engine on my Firefox toolbar.
However, if I’m not as successful as I would hope on Google, then I will check out others. I remember from my early search engine training, that no one search engine can cover everything. I keep my ears and eyes open for new search engines and reviews of them and will try something out to see how it goes.
That’s the best I can do. Google is not the only option, but for me its the best and the vast majority of the time it delivers the results.
July 27, 2009 at 13:07
I’m afraid I’m living the Google lifestyle – have my iGoogle page loaded up with everything I need to survive the day (inc. RSS blog feeds such as this one), work calendar synching to Google Calendar so I can check it when I get up in the morning, etc. etc.
I used to use metasearch engines fairly regularly for obscure material, back when the web was smaller and less trawled, but I just haven’t found another search engine for a long time that gives better general results or ease of use than Google.
We tried demonstrating Clusty.com as an interesting alternative in our “internet research” client education sessions for a while. It made attendees sit up with its cute and useful clustering of results by topic, but the coverage was just so tiny that we ended up dropping it. (eg. a search for my surname brings up 185 results, vs 49000 on Google.)
August 27, 2009 at 13:22
A couple of blog posts with tips for using Bing, if you want to explore it some more:
50 Fantastic Bing Tricks for Students and Librarians
Some Cool Bing Search Tricks