Google Web Searches

I just love Google’s Wonder Wheel … it is so simple to use and gives a variety of like subjects to search under … really great for looking at a topic from different angles and building a series of sub-headings for report/project.

I searched using Orcas as a keyword with mixed results. Apparently there is an Orcas Island off the coast of Washington. Businesses and tourist sites on the island featured heavily in every search; however, by refining to ‘orca whale’ (or ‘orca killer whale’), sites relating to orcas (the mammals) became more prevalent. Other than Google, Bing probably gave the best results with good, relevant related search options. Interestingly, all sites returned using Exalead related to commercial ventures – none appeared to be about whales. The first ten or so results from Dogpile and Metacrawler looked to be the same and not as full a list as using Google, Bing or Yahoo separately.

Various other searches using different keywords produced similar results. My first choice after Google would be Bing, closely followed by Yahoo. I like the related searches option in Bing and think the search pad on Yahoo an interesting feature – I’m sure it will be very useful once I figure out how to use it!! I still like Google best … perhaps because I’m more familiar with it … and have already shown a friend’s teenage son how to use Wonder Wheel and Timeline.

Open ID

Although I hadn’t heard the term Open ID, I had already figured out that there were links from Google and Yahoo to other sites, such as Blogger and Flickr, and that I could access these without needing to sign in again. A bit of a trap for the unwary … glad I created non-de-plume accounts, particularly after realising how much internet activity is being tracked by ‘someone out there’ … although activity is probably still being traced back to my home pc. Still, I think there is a use for Open ID, provided care is taken regarding use and passwords.