Search Engines

Well this week, since we are free to talk about any subject in media we desire, I will be talking about search engines. Today there are many choices to pick from when choosing the right search engine for you. Some are more reliable than others, and some are more reliable when searching for something in particular to that sight. The most reliable in my opinion and I would think most people’s opinions would be Google. You can find pretty much anything you want on Google. Often you hear teachers say, “Google it.” On the show, House, you notice that when they are trying to figure out what their patient has that is making them sick, Dr. House often goes on the Google website and searches the symptoms to determine what the possibilities could be. Google is not only a search engine sight for content, you also have the ability to search for specific images, videos, news, maps, shopping, finance, and books. Although the Google website has mainly good sources and uses, parents be aware. Violence and Adult Sexual Content are also very easily accessible through Google. For this reason, there is a parental control setting on this site. It has three settings, do not filter results, moderately filter results, or strictly filter results. The default setting is the moderate filter and I believe this does a decent job.
Other search engines include MSN, Yahoo, Ask, and Dogpile. These sites all have similar features as the Google site but do not always have the same quality results for you search. Often, each site comes up with different results than the next site so it often becomes useful to use more than one search engine when researching a topic. Sites that may be more helpful for the specific search you are doing would be the Internet Movie Database when searching for movies and WebMD when searching for medical issues. My point of all this is to know the sight you are using, know the source you have picked, and use multiple sources when doing research.