The world is full of data. It is up to us to find ways in which to manage it all. This is where the beauty of search comes in. Simply typing your query into a box returns countless search results, all of which somehow pertain to your keywords. When it comes to the Internet, search websites become our gateway to the web’s information, organizing it to a large extent and informing us which websites are likely to be useful.
Though early web searches originally operated from the seemingly sensible standpoint of an authoritative assignment of which sites best fit which queries, the introduction of Google changed the face of web search by relying on a somewhat more subjective reference model. Web searches have not changed much since, but the desire to continually evolve the web search process may never go away.
That is not to say that Google is doing a poor job, yet there is always room for improvement. Even as an established force in the web search industry, Google has inspired ongoing development around the way in which we access web content. Two major contenders are Microsoft Bing and Wolfram Alpha.
Google, Bing and Wolfram Alpha all have their benefits and pitfalls. Determining which service will be best suited to your needs is something I will discuss in this article. As I mentioned, Google has made itself a standard in web search, giving it a pretty cushy position in the search industry.
No one has been able to beat it yet, which makes Google an ubiquitous search engine that will meet the expectations you have grown accustomed to when using its service. By having such a well-established service, Google has in fact organized web content into a schema that is familiar to nearly every web user, particularly in the U.S.
This familiarity is actually a benefit, for both users and Google itself. Web browsers have spent the last decade evolving their Internet usage alongside Google’s growth, relying heavily on the search engine to present information in a particular way. That means that there is a certain amount of skill required to get the most from Google, but it is a skill that most of us have without even realizing it.
Such a relationship with the consumer base makes it difficult for other search engines to steal market share from Google, as a learning curve is required to get them accustomed to a new search engine. Google furthers this consumer familiarity by launching applications that are useful to a wide range of consumers, yet indirectly relate back to its core competency of web search.
Email, documents, desktop search and personalized profiles are just a few ways in which Google spreads its grip on consumers. Google has further pushed its products on the mobile front, forging partnerships with mobile providers and device manufactures, as well as by creating its own mobile platform. What this does is integrate its features across applications and devices, collecting data from consumers in order to improve its search engine.
On the consumer side, this omnipresence strengthens the branding of the Google name while increasing the level of comfort those consumers have with sharing so much information as it presents its services at multiple access points for users. Combining value with its own corporate objectives keeps its relationship with consumers going, as users always have easy and integrated access to anything Google-related.
However, the shared woes of performing a Google search often reminds us of the skill required to truly navigate pages of Google search results. Whether inundated with ads, sponsored links or sites that are not helpful, Google is notorious for having the potential to be on the spammy side. As a business, Google has relied on advertising in order to turn a profit, which has instituted an economy of companies that can take advantage of Google’s search algorithm. A never-ending battle, Google has had to fend off such companies, but this is sometimes in vain.
This shared, woeful experience is the crack in Google’s armor that other search engines look to take advantage of. One way in which Microsoft Bing looks to do this is by offering a multi-faceted search engine that is aesthetically pleasing and simple to navigate.
Like Google, Microsoft is a very well-established company with an even longer history of dominating many aspects of consumer- and business-driven technology. As such, Microsoft has a large following and an existing user base to which a new product can be launched. Microsoft also has a plethora of services, many of which are moving towards a more web-based approach for a similar multi-point of access for its users.
With a focus on multimedia and even a few buzzword partnerships with Twitter for the offering of real-time search data, Microsoft Bing is attempting to be the hip, updated version of what we are already used to with Google. For a given search query you will receive image and video results along with text results. Additional options, such as shopping results, are available as well.
Combining this into one page may be more appealing to many users, but the search results speak for themselves. Unfortunately, they are not saying much of anything. Google’s results are still superior to Microsoft Bing’s. Such a downfall for Microsoft is not particularly new, considering other search projects Microsoft has taken on in the past decade. Several other search engines, such as Jeeves, have attempted very similar approaches to revamping Google’s format, oftentimes with less success than Microsoft.
On the other hand, Wolfram Alpha is taking an entirely different approach to providing search results to users. Instead of merely presenting links as search results, Wolfram Alpha provides computable capabilities so that actual questions can be answered based on factual data. Instead of searching the web to see if anyone else has already answered your question, you are able to play around with data and answer it yourself.
What this particular tactic does is present a new and noteworthy way of querying a database. To this end, such a change may be the only way in which Google can be improved upon. Changing the concept around the way in which we interact with data on an individual level represents a potential next step in the evolution of web search.
It is important to note that Wolfram Alpha is not a web search engine–the data used for computational purposes comes from its own internal database. This is a major downside of Wolfram Alpha, as its database pales in comparison to what is available on the web. Yet its presence alone pushes the envelope on how we can most effectively access and utilize the information that is being shared on the web.
Needless to say, I prefer Google to Microsoft Bing or Wolfram Alpha, especially as the latter still has a ways to go in both database development and a more democratized user interface. Another reason I still prefer Google over Wolfram Alpha is the fact that many of Wolfram’s objectives are currently being addressed by Google in the form of beta features available to all its users. Google Squared, for instance, already computes web data for you, adding to the personalized profile potential behind Google as a search-oriented gateway to the worldwide web.
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