Desert Sky Computing

Users have a very wide selection of Search Engines, (listed as SEs in this article) and naturally all of them are not created equally.  My preferences are Bing and Google and I will tell you why.

 

Most of you use the SE that was pre-installed on your machine when you purchased it. If Yahoo, AOL or MSN were preinstalled, you are probably still using it. Why switch to a different program after you have invested time in trying to figure out this one. Additionally if you have an Email account associated with them it is even harder to leave.  Pre-installed software pay the computer manufacture for the privilege of being the first thing you see.  They make money on the ads you click on and the ads placed there. 

 

Many of these pre-loaded SEs are very flashy, to catch the eye and interest in the user, they bombard you with mini-videos, photos and story leads. They are specifically designed that way.   See the samples below.

                        SMALL YAHOO               SMALL GOOGLE               MSNSMALL            BINGSMALL          AOLSMALL           

                            Yahoo.com                                   Google.com                                  MSN.com                                   Bing.com                                    Aol.com

 

On them you will find a load of celebrity gossip articles, snippets of news and just about anything they can throw on the page to get your attention.  Many are more of a one-stop news, weather, and dating sites with the actual search ability a second thought.

 

I normally suggest trying something like Bing or Google to my clients but, more often than not, they are happy and familiar with what they are using. They are after all legitimate SEs and all provide a service to their customers.  So why would I want to change a person’s personal home page?  Good Question.  My answers, safety speed and accuracy. 

 

My goal is to keep my clients safe,  and while you can be safe on any of the major SEs  The big guys like Bing and Google are more likely (in my opinion) to present you with far fewer bad choices. These SE sites have much less clutter on the opening page, but they have excellent search abilities and after all that is why you should use a SE.

 

First of all, they reduce or eliminate ads on their first page. Then they try hard to filter bad sites from the results windows after you make your search. They also present you with results more related to your actual search and they present many fewer ads in the result. These big search engines make a lot of money charging people to put their name high on the results list and they certainly have some ads listed as well but in sections declared as ad sections.  To illustrate, see the samples below.   Using three different SEs I have search for the single word "Avast.  "

                            YAHOO SEARCH                           GOOGLESMALL                BINGSMALL                     AOLSMALL                             

It is important to note that all the information listed in SEs like Yahoo! , AOL or MSN and others  can be found on regular news feeds, like the NY Times, USA Today, Fox News and People just to name a few. All of them are free.  You don’t even have to register.

 

Finally, for those of you that use a Home Page or SE because that is where you are getting your email.  There are better choices right on your machine without even having to change your email address.  Check out my Email page.