University of Kentucky UKnowledge
Library Faculty and Staff ubP lications University of Kentucky Libraries
Winter 2014 Internet Reviews: Alternatives to Google Jennifer A. Bartlett University of Kentucky, [email protected] Click here to let us know how access to this document benefits oy u.
Follow this and additional works at: https://uknowledge.uky.edu/libraries_facpub Part of the Library and Information Science Commons
Repository Citation Bartlett, Jennifer A., "Internet Reviews: Alternatives to Google" (2014). Library Faculty and Staff Publications. 247. https://uknowledge.uky.edu/libraries_facpub/247
This Review is brought to you for free and open access by the University of Kentucky Libraries at UKnowledge. It has been accepted for inclusion in Library Faculty and Staff ubP lications by an authorized administrator of UKnowledge. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Internet Reviews: Alternatives to Google
Notes/Citation Information Published in Kentucky Libraries, v. 78, no. 1, p. 10-13.
The opc yright holder has granted permission for posting the article here.
This review is available at UKnowledge: https://uknowledge.uky.edu/libraries_facpub/247 DEPARTMENT KENTUCKY LIBRARY ASSOCIATION
INTERNET REVIEWS: ALTERNATIVES TO GOOGLE
BY JENNIFER A. BARTLETT
HEAD OF W.T YOUNG LIBRARY REFERENCE SERVICES UNIVERSITÍ OF KENTUCKY LIBRARIES
lev'uick, what is the world's largest search attractive, user-friendly interface. The canine engine? Most people would immediately, and theme is evident throughout: you can "go correctly, answer "Google." As of 2012, fetch" on the toolbar, and "Favorite Fetches" Google dominated the traditional web search are trending searches listed on the first screen. market with nearly 67% market share, fol- lowed by Microsoft's Bing and Yahoo!.' But is Metacrawler/Zoo ^metacrawler larger necessarily better? Although both librar- http://www.metacrawler.com/ ians and our library patrons often "google" our http://www.zoo.com web searches, other competing sites, old and Metacrawler has long been a new, may indeed be viable options to use popular metasearch option, alongside, or even to replace, the "Big Tbree." featuring results from Google, Yahoo! and Yandex. Developed in 1994 at the University METASEARCHING of Washington, Metacrawler was acquired in Rather than maintain vast lists of web pages, 2000 by Infospace, Inc., and will be renamed as major search engines such as Google do, "Zoo.com" in early 2014- Zoo.com aims to metasearch engines create their own virtual attract more users to its simple, graphically- database of sources and then send search intensive home page with local weather, topic terms to several search engine platforms at searches, and prominent links to Twitter, once, returning a compiled list of results often Facebook, Pinterest and Tumblr. Zoo.com organized by type or theme. One of the first searcbes Google, Yahoo!, and Truveo (for metasearch engines, Mamma.com videos). (http://mamma.com), was created in 1996 and called itself "the mother of all search engines" Ixquick because of the perceived comprehensive nature ixquick https://ixquick.com of this model of searching and aggregation. Ixquick, launched in 1998, is Most metasearch engines offer advanced search more well-known in Europe than the United features such as Boolean operators, phrase States, and bills itself as "the world's most pri- searching, wildcards and field searching. vate search engine." Users can search in 17 languages (including Norwegian, Finnish, Dogpile Turkish, Chinese and Polish), and each lan- ddgpile' http://www.dogpile.com/ guage version includes local search engines. Dogpile, created in 2006, Searches return the top ten results from global searches engines and directories including and relevant local search engines, but do not Google, Yahoo!, and Yandex. Users can use Google results. Ixquick's "star system" choose to search web pages, images, video, ranks results by awarding a star for each top news, local sources, and white pages. Helpful ten result returned by a specific search engine; features include a list of related alternate those results with the most stars will be listed searches on the results screen, as well as a list first. It also offers an international phone of a user's most recent 15 searches. The directory for businesses, individuals and advanced search will allow users to search by reverse number searching. A particularly exact word phrases, language, and domain, interesting feature, especially from a privacy and Preferences offers options for adult filters, standpoint, is the ability to access a webpage as well as how local results are displayed. from the results page using the Ixquick proxy, Dogpile presents useful, relevant results in an which will open the page anonymously with 10 KENTUCKY LIBRARIES • VOLUME 78 • NUMBER 1 INTERNET no IP address or other user information. The Using triggers such as "news" and "map" to IxQuick Highlighter, another results page searches will narrow results to specific types of REVIEWS option, emphasizes the search terms on the content, and DDG's "Ihang" syntax searches CONTINUED webpage. over 1,000 other search engines directly. For example, typing "lahehooks siddhartha" will Yippy search the Ahebooks.com website for all titles yîrr/ http://yippy.com including the word "siddhartha." Directly Yippy (formerly known as echoing Google's "I'm Feeling Lucky" search Clusty) is a metasearch engine that collects option, the "I'm Feeling Ducky" option allows results from Ask, Gigahlast, Open Directory users to bring up only the first search result and others. Similar results in Yippy are (and hopefully most relevant) search results arranged into topics, called "clouds." As with by including a back slash ( \ ) before the an increasing number of search engines, Yippy search term. Also interesting is the goodies advertises itself as a private search engine that pages, which lists specialized search queries in does not track user activity and history on its categories including Geography, Travel, Trivia website. In addition, it aims to be a "one-stop- and Fntertainment. DDG falls short hy not shop" for users, offering weh-based e-mail, yet providing image searching, although it can document storage, calendars, a contact list, he accomplished hy adding manually adding video conferencing, and an array of widgets. "!i" to any search. Additional options are Self-described as a "family-friendly" platform, available in the drop-down menu next to the Yippy removes results dealing with pornogra- search box. phy, sexual products, gambling, and sites inap- propriate for children (see the site's censorship Startpage FAQ for more details). Start https://startpage.com/ Another site claiming to pro- PRIVACY tect user privacy is Ixquick's A hot topic in the news recently has been Startpage, which hills itself as "the world's online security and privacy, which has direct most private search engine." Unlike Duck applicability to major search engines. Google, Duck Go, Startpage gets its search results from Bing and Yahoo! have one thing in common: Google, but first removes all identifying infor- tracking search histories and using that data mation from the query. It records no informa- to tailor results to searchers' interests. While tion ahout its users, including search logs and tracking might improve the search experience IP addresses. Further, Startpage offers an for end users, it also may he perceived as an optional proxy server service that allows users invasion of online privacy.' Several altemate to connect to websites outside Startpage with- search engines are geared toward protecting out passing along personal data such as cookie user anonymity, while claiming to provide information and IP addresses. Startpage, equally comprehensive results. launched relatively recently in 2009 in the United States, is hased on the previously men- Duck Duck Go tioned Ixquick search engine (https://www. https://duckduckgo.com/ ixquick.com/). Both sites use the same search- Founded in 2008, Duck Duck ing and privacy features. Go says it protects user priva- cy and avoids the "filter huh- USER INVOLVEMENT ble," a situation in which search algorithms Why do you see what you do in a list of web predict what information users would most search results? Search engine algorithms take like to see based on previous searches and into account many of the factors that we as thus isolates them in their own information librarians observe, alheit in a mechanized way: echo chamber.' Fxamples of common filter relevance of keywords, authority, trust level, hubbies include Facehook's advertisements domain, location and so on (including adver- and news stream, Amazon's purchase recom- tising, in some cases).'' These signals combine mendations and Google's personalized search to present the user, ideally, with the most rele- results. DDG purports to avoid this issue by vant results depending on the types of materi- not tracking search queries or IP address. In als requested. Search Engine Optimization, or addition to using results collated from its own SEO, involves finding ways to make wehsite wehcrawler, DDG also runs searches against appear higher in search results, thus attracting Bing, Yahoo, crowd-sourced sites such as more traffic, and is of major concern to mar- Wikipedia, and over 30 other search engines. keting professionals.' Another factor that new
11 KENTUCKY LBRARIES • VOLUME 78 • NUMBER 1 INTERNET search engines are incorporating, however, is might be a hard sell, Blippex emphasizes that user opinion, delivered either passively there is no registration process, and that user REVIEWS through searching behavior or actively by privacy is a major emphasis. In addition, CONTINUED means of comments and scoring; examples of Blippex is remarkably open about its data, "crowdsourced" information platforms include providing a monthly database dump of the Elickr, Waze, Google Maps, and YouTube. Blippex search index, in addition to a variety of interesting search statistics. Blekko blekko http://blekko.com/ SPECIALIZED AND DEEP Launched in 2010, Blekko is a human-curated WEB SEARCH ENGINES search engine that searches 3 billion selected Name any subject, and there will probably be "trusted websites." Rather than troll the web dozens of niche search engines devoted to it. for everything, Blekko concentrates on sites Eurther, some search engines specialize in spe- its search algorithms and human curators con- cific types of materials such as blog posts, sider to be the most reputable, which ideally images, games, and so on. Three well-known cuts down on irrelevant results. The initial and comprehensive directories of specialized search page offers a selection of trending top- search engines may be found at Best of the ics in addition to a simple, Google-like search Web (http://botw.org/), the dmoz Open box, which includes an easy option for search- Directory Project (http://www.dm02.org/) and ing photos and videos. Search results are pre- the Yahoo! Directory (http://dir.yahoo.com/). sented in pre-defined categories based on search terms, for example, "Top Results," , These directories will often include sites not "News," "Shopping," and so on. In addition to indexed through major search engines such as built-in categories, Blekko relies on the con- Google, which indexes primarily the "visible cept of "slashtags" to further define search web." The "deep" or "invisible" web includes results. There are hundreds of pre-existing, dynamic searchable databases which require a human-created topical slashtags, or users can login procedure or the entry of keywords in a formulate their own slashtags and build a col- search box, websites behind corporate fire- lection of favorite websites by creating a walls, unlinked sites, and other pages deliber- Blekko account. The slashtags are then added ately blocked from search crawlers by their to the list and can then be used by other authors. One example of a specialized "deep searchers. Eor example, the search "garbage web" search tool that gets around some of disposal" will retrieve results split into seven these barriers is Pipi (https://pipl.com), which discrete categories: "Quick Answer" (a is designed to find information about individ- description of garbage disposals from uals using sources such as public records, Wikipedia), "Top Results," "Shopping," "DIY," member directories, and social profiles not "Appliances," "Magazines," and "Latest." The typically retrieved using traditional search search "garbage disposal /diy" will retrieve engines. Other deep web search engines and only pages related to garbage disposal installa- directories include lnfomine tion and repair. Blekko's interface is heavily (http://infomine.ucr.edu/) and Complete graphics-intensive, and the mobile version in Planet (http://aip.completeplanet.com). particular, named "izik," has been designed specifically for the layout and gesture controls Einally, this hybrid search engine is an inter- of iPad and Android tablets. esting example of a human-curated, special- ized search tool: blippex^ Blippex https://www.blippex.org/ Wolfram/Alpha Another site priding itself on its protections http://www.wolframalpha.com of user privacy is Blippex, the next iteration of Not a search engine per se. Wolfram Alpha is a the Archify search engine, which was discon- "computational knowledge engine" that tinued in mid-2013. Blippex's search algo- answers factual questions using a system of rithm ranks search results based on how long algorithms and human-curated data ftom out- users stay on a website, or its "DwellRank." In side sources, rather than presenting the user order to gauge user engagement, Blippex with a list of possibly relevant websites. Eor requires users to install a browser plugin, example, the query "life expectancy" in Google which tracks the page URL, current time, and will present the user with a Wikipedia article the amount of time spent at a particular page. and data chart, a life expectancy calculator, No doubt realizing that this requirement and statistics from the Centers for Disease
12 KENTUCKY LIBRARIES • VOLUME 78 • NUMBER 1 INTERNET Control and Prevention. Wolfram Alpha will Web search platforms change almost daily and extract relevant data from its library of sources your favorite site may change its ownership, REVIEWS and present it on the results pages: the mean, interface and features in the blink of an eye. CONTINUED median, highest and lowest lifespan worldwide, To keep up with the latest news in web search a life expectancy world map, mean life engines, try Search Engine ]oumal (http://www. expectancy history and distribution, country searchenginejournal.com/) and Search Engine rankings, and so on. In addition to mathemat- Land (http://searchengineland.com/). ics and statistics questions (a particular strength of the service). Wolfram Alpha's cate- Happy searching! gories also include money and finance, socioe- conomic data, geography, food and nutrition, life sciences, sports and games, and more. A Pro subscription allows manipulation and Jennifer Bartlett downloading of information and images. [email protected]
WORKS CITED ' "In Search, Coogle Still Leads." New York Times.com. New York Times, 3 April 2013. Web. 15 Dec. 2013.
^ Magid. Larry. "Protecting Your Privacy from Corporations, the Govemment, And You." . Forbes.com. Dec. 31, 2013. Web. 4 Jan. 2014.
' Green, Holly. "Breaking Out of Your Intemet Filter Bubble." Forbes.com. 29 Aug. 2011. Web. 22 Dec. 2013.
•• Harry, David. "How Search Engines Rank Web Pages." Search Engine Watch. 23 Sept. 2013. Web. 2 Jan. 2014.
' Male, Bianca. "10 Basic SEO Tips To Get You Started." Business Insider. 13 Jan. 2010. Web. 23 Dec. 2013.
13 KENTUCKY LIBRARIES • VOLUME 78 • NUMBER 1