The following was written by Andrew Goodman

Every so often, it dawns on you that the whole Internet environment has traveled too far from that quiet, information-oriented era that got you so interested in the medium in the first place.

Attendees at my Nielsen Norman User Experience seminar in Boston on Sunday (including a number of "old hands" in Internet years, many of them web developers) expressed sentiments that (in spite of me showing slides outlining the obvious dominance of the leading SE's) seemed to say "I try to find search sites where it's uncluttered and quiet, away from the crowd." The cluttered look of SERP's with 10 ads on them (3 of those on top), among other things, was cited as a reason why a small core of power users will seek more low-key venues.

But it isn't just ad clutter, is it? On some of your favorite search queries, you've probably been disappointed by the general indexes.

For example, look at the regular search results for this new-product query in the automotive world. You see the usual ads and the usual list of "car info portals."

But for vibrant, current commentary, you want to know what's going on in the blogosphere, and in the news. At first, when I found it difficult to get the right info from a search of the Google index, I started doing the same query in Google News. Then they released Google blog search, and it was something else! A new way to look at the world, and also, for now anyway, a weird flashback to the days when no ads were shown next to SERP's on Google.

Yahoo's new "blogs and news" search is another totally useful entry into this realm. Notice how much better the info is in this search for the same car query as above, if you were a certain kind of searcher who is looking for recent articles and buzz, rather than the "same old same old" canned information on the usual car portal sites. It does look like Google blog search is a bit better on this query, though.

One thing is for sure: when it comes to the latest automotive technology, it's a very cheap thrill to read about it. The problem starts when you act on it. :)

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Former WebProWorld Admin

But for vibrant, current commentary, you want to know what's going on in the blogosphere, and in the news. At first, when I found it difficult to get the right info from a search of the Google index, I started doing the same query in Google News.

because it can find good new sites faster? Great new sites, you seldom find them at the top of the SERP's. In addition you have the aging delay and the Google sandbox.

Questions:
1. How is news search operating for the 3 big ones?
2. How is it related to their bots?
Comments:
1. Your own WPW FeedBot is good.
2. Following links, especially on African and Asian sites may be one of the best ways to find new great sites.

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Kjell Gunnar Bleivik:: Financial information at your fingertips
Learn object oriented programming where it started

My sentiments, exactly! I'm not a web developer but I own and lead a consulting business and live and work in the mountains where it's far easier to interact and shop online than f2f. My partner here is a part-time web developer and operates her own webstore. We don't have TV and spend more time here in the mountains with animals than we do with people. So the internet is our primary means of connecting to the outside world - a vital part of our existence here! This means we take SE's very seriously, from the perspective of both an e-provider and an e-consumer. They are as much of a "lifeline" necessity for us as a telephone or a car.

I have found that the "leading" search engines are indeed far too cluttered and biased toward businesses that meet their criteria, not mine. So I found this article to be quite refreshing, because I too seek "search sites where it's uncluttered and quiet," far from the madding crowd. I do use the leading SE's on occasion, especially for simple online shopping or as the first stop before I dig deeper into a subject. But I have found that there are specialty search engines for almost every purpose, so I have become quite accustomed to using "the right tool for the job" when searching. The best list I have ever found listing SE's by specialty is on the Noodle Tools site: http://www.noodletools.com/debbie/li...iceengine.html

As a systems thinker and complex living systems consultant, I tend to favor visual search engines for research-focused searches. I can take in the entire field or "whole system" of all search returns on one screen, see the relationships between them, and see them categorized by affinity groupings. This is far more useful than the typical Google-style list, where I have to wade through pages and pages of random text to find what I'm looking for, and usually give up before I find what I'm looking for. These engines are listed on the Noodle Tools SE list under: "I need to visualize relationships among ideas". Among these three visual SE's, I tend to use Grokker the most. I prefer Kartoo's graphic interface over Grokker's but found that they return too many foreign sites (not surprising since they're based in France). This is handy when I want European info sources but not when I am trying to find English language or U.S.-based sources, which is most of the time. If you haven't tried a visual SE, I invite you to give one of these a try. If you're not used to using systems thinking tools, they could be a good learning tool for you. Systems thinking is the wave of the future for the whole systems we live and work in - organizations, economies, communities, societies, ecosystems, etc. So why not get comfortable with some tools that do a better job of helping us to visualize, understand, and work with the complexities that surround us?