Project #15

This project is all about search engines, and I will be giving personal reviews on each and how I think these search engines could be useful to you.

WolframAlpha

 

 

WolframAlpha is a search engine, but it is much more than what you expect! WolframAlpha does not just search by typing in a random word; it is also good for math problems, which I thought was really neat! I entered a simple problem into the search engine: 2+2 and hit the compute button, and I was given the answer to the problem. It gave me a numerical answer, a word answer, a number line answer, and also a picture answer using counting blocks. I was shocked by how many ways I was given the answer! Having so many examples is great for learning, but also great for people with different ways of learning. WolframAlpha also has an extended keyboard for extra use or for people with disabilities. What a great tool right? I think so too! This search engine also gives feedback on random data. I uploaded a picture and once it was done computing it gave me image characteristics, pixel value histograms, possible dominant colors, image keypoints, and image transformations. In my opinion, WolframAlpha is greater than your average search engine and can be extremely beneficial to everyone.

DuckDuckGo

 

 

I came upon this search engine called DuckDuckGo and it amazed me! This is a search engine dedicated to making answers easier to find and protecting people's personal information by not collecting or sharing anything about its users. DuckDuckGo also lets you refine your search by selecting a specific region and language. By searching a word, many options will appear on the screen. For example, I searched the word "talking". It gave me these five options: about, images, videos, meaning, and definition. This search engine is very useful for getting definitions of words. Instead of having to search "definition of talking" you can simply type in "talking" and choose the definition category. This tool is great for learning vocabulary!



Ask

 

 

Ask is all about questions. Ask a question and it will provide you with the website that has the best possible answer. This is the search engine where all the questions are answered! Ask also has a Q&A Community tab for people to create their own questions and have other people in the community answer them instead of relying solely on the search engine itself. This search engine has a tab called theKnow where fun facts can be found. It is a very interesting part that left me on Ask for a few hours looking at all the nifty stuff. Try it out!

Dogpile

 

What is super neat about Dogpile is that this search engine has a shopping tab and a white pages tab! The shopping tab is very handy for whenever you want to cut out all of the images and random information about what you typed in; you can simply shop. Also, the white pages is a great tool to have at your fingertips. Most people do not get phonebooks any longer, and if they do it does not have citizens phone numbers; it only has businesses and important emergency numbers. With that being said, if you need a phone number quick, Dogpile is the search engine of choice!

 

Zoo

 

 

Zoo is a neat search engine! The layout is really cool and colorful and the site has great organization. There is an added bonus: Zoo does not have advertisements (ads) anywhere on their site. Not having ads on this site makes searching easier and more convenient, because you will not accidentally click on some ad and it redirect you to another site. Zoo also has the weather posted directly on their home page. Instead of searching for the weather, it finds your location and sends the weather to you. Overall, this search engine is good for whenever you need to find something quickly!

 

Gigablast

 

 

I found a search engine called Gigablast and the tool that I thought was most useful was the advanced search. You can search exact words, exact phrases, multiple words, a certain language, a URL, and words can also be excluded from your search as well. This is a really great tool for cutting out unnecessary results. Gigablast also has a directory. These categories vary from arts, to games, to kids/teens, to science, to sports. If you choose the category kids/teens, some other categories will come up. I chose the preschool category and so many choices came up! Such as: ABC's and 123's, shapes and colors, crafts, and sea animals. These categories are extremely wonderful for parents at home who want to teach their children basic knowledge for their age. Gigablast is a great learning tool!

 

Lycos

 

 

The Lycos search engine has so much more than any other search engine! Lycos has weather, mail, news, entertainment, chat, TV, gamesville, a variety of languages to choose from, and a regular search bar. What I find most useful on this site is the TV category. This category shows short videos on news, entertainment, or really anything! Sometimes we get tired or reading articles over and over again to find out the information that we are searching for. So instead, take a break and watch a couple of informative videos on Lycos!
 

MagPortal

 

 

MagPortal is a search engine specifically for searching magazines. You can create an account on this website and save magazine articles that you have searched. This is a great tool if someone has a research paper to do and needs a lot of different sources. You can also search by category, publication, and date. MagPortal is a research guru!