At a recent teaching and learning conference, the audience was asked to identify the first search tool they use when looking for information on the Web. Overwhelmingly, the audience listed Google…and was further challenged to consider other search options, including the following:
Bing is the recently unveiled Microsoft search engine. Check out the map features that might show a crystal-clear picture of your home or your vacation spot. The video-search tool allows you to mouse over a video and view a short excerpt before viewing the entire video.
Wolfram Alpha is touted as a “computational knowledge engine”. Type in your birth date and learn more than you ever wanted to know about longevity, others who share the same date, and more. Computations are a snap with this tool.
Exalead is an “enterprise search” engine that posts results of your search with a thumbnail of each website.
Clusty is a search engine that, just as the name signifies, clusters information into categories while providing a listing of results.
Blackle is a site that, while “powered by Google Custom Search”, is promoted as a way to save energy due to the black background.
Ask.com provides “lots of answers” based on the search text.
