Biting the hand that feeds you

With some degree of exaggeration, it seems that Google is fast becoming the Tiddalik the frog of the internet world, consuming all before it. Is this a good thing? This report highlights claims of a decline in the quality of Google's search results. As an information professional working in the education sector, I observe the information seeking behaviours of many of my patrons. It concerns me that some of them seem to rely too heavily on Google when doing research. They seem unaware that its search results are not ranked on relevance or quality, but on popularity.

On another level, as the first sentence in this post indirectly implies, I'm also concerned about Google's predominance in the search engine and web services market. In the old media age, some commentators opposed the concentration of media ownership in the hands of a few powerful individuals. They said that it would stifle diversity and reduce freedom of expression. The internet and digital media has changed the media landscape. Nobody has absolute control over it, and freedom of expression has flourished. Even so, I think that corporations like Google have too much control over it, and wish that people would take the time to have a look at other search engines out there. They might be pleasantly surprised at what they find.

The searchers

At the recent ALIA unconference, which was held at Thomastown Library, I learnt about the new search engine Searchme. Unlike other search engines, which display search results textually, Searchme lets you see what you're searching for. When you enter a search term, categories appear that relate to your query. Choose a category, and you'll see snapshots of web pages that relate to your search. You can preview the content of these pages before you click through to them. This is similar to the preview pane in Apple's iTunes. Based on a search I did for pages about our Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, it seems to work quite well. You also have the option to search for web, video, and images, and also create a stack, which is a personal folder of pages of interest.