Think all search engines are alike? Not so! Compare how different they are at thumbshots or BlindSearch.
When I do training, most people are surprised that the search engines come up with quite different results. Research shows most of us click on one of the first ones.
If you use the same engine all the time you might be missing some better information. Try another search engine.
Here’s a fun test to compare the big three: Try BlindSearch, which has you do just that – put in search terms and get results for three search engines. But you don’t know which is which. Pick the one you think is best and it will tell you which you chose. Many Google lovers are surprised to find it was Yahoo! or Bing.
Thumbshots shows a visual representation of the first 60 sites found by two search engines for a certain keyword(s). It highlights and draws a line between those that are the same, and often there aren’t a lot. Here’s an example for the search: Obama speech
You can see from the few blue dots that Google and Yahoo! results are quite different.
Bottom line: know the search engine you use the most. And try other search engines when you’re having difficulty finding just what you want.
P.S. Ahem, have you ever read the search guide at your favorite search engine so you’re a quicker, better, smarter searcher? Google Bing Yahoo!
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