I recently wrote an article about the effects of ChatGPT on libraries and librarians and I wanted to expand on some of the points relating to information seeking and web search. We are truly at a watershed moment for information literacy that has the potential to be just as revolutionary as when Google first blazed […]
Search Engines
Is Siri a Threat to Google and Search Engines?
With Google’s current dominance over search, it’s natural to speculate about possible threats. Microsoft’s Bing, for one, is investing big time resources in hopes of gaining market share, and up-and-coming services such as DuckDuckGo are also intriguing. But the strongest competitor might not be a traditional search engine at all, but rather a fundamental new […]
What is a Vertical Search Engine?
When we think of search engines, Google typically comes to mind first. And this makes sense, since they own a dominating market share over Yahoo and Bing, the closest competitors. But there are plenty of other search engines that stick to one subject instead of trying to do it all. These are known as vertical […]
Some Thoughts on Google’s Freshness Algorithm Update
Last week, Google announced its most recent algorithm update. And although the search giant regularly makes small tweaks to the way they present search results, this one affects 35% percent of searches.1 While Google’s previous updates have focused on attacking low-quality sites, this one centers on the timeliness of online content. For topics that frequently […]
What Google Can’t Find: An Intro to the Deep Web
Due to its intuitive single search box and ever-improving algorithms, it’s easy to rely 100% on Google (or another search engine) when it comes to finding information online. You simply type in a few words to instantly view the webpages that have been identified as the most relevant to that search. The beauty of Google […]
Google Universal Search: What Is It? …And Is It Fair?
Universal Search is actually something Google unveiled way back in May 2007, and it’s become so ingrained in their user experience that you’re actually most likely using it every day without even realizing it. It simply refers to Google’s practice of including a mix of results from their different search engines, including images, videos, maps […]