| Name of Search Engine |
Google |
Dogpile |
| What is the URL? |
http://www.google.com |
http://www.dogpile.com |
| What is it used for? |
Google is a general search engine used for searching primarily by entering search terms. It also provides a directory for searching, local and world news headlines, on-line catalog shopping, web images, street maps and travel information. Also has a search by number function, phonebook look-up. |
Used as a general search engine. Also used for news, images, audio, on-line shopping. |
| How easy or difficult is it to figure out how to
search? |
Easy, straightforward search screen. For a basic query search, enter descriptive terms and hit enter key. |
Easy, self explanatory search screen. Enter search terms and hit "go fetch". |
| How do you navigate through it? |
Navigating the site is very easy, by entering in search terms and then simply by clicking on the links of interest. |
Navigate the site by typing in search words and clicking on links or the "hits" of interest. |
| How many Web sites are covered? |
Has the largest catalog of web pages. |
Dogpile uses metasearch technology that searches the Internets top search engines including Google, Yahoo, Ask Jeeves, Findwhat, About, Teoma, Looksmart. They claim the best results from the best search engines. |
| What are some searching tips? |
In a basic query search, Google searches all web pages that contain all the words in the query. Refine the search by adding or removing search terms. Do not need to use "and". Google omits common words. Use + sign in front of a common word if essential to search. Use Quotes for a phrase. Not case sensitive. Stemming technology searches variations of words.Multi language search. Has a filter feature that can be turned on or off. Advanced search tips: to increase accuracy of search can add operators to fine tune keywords. Google supports several advanced operators such as ",-, +. |
Advanced search: can search for words or exact phrases.Boolean search operators,and, or, and not, can be used from advanced search screen. Dogpile offers easy, concise directions on the use of Boolean terminology. Can search in multiple languages. Adult filter. Search automatically corrects misspelled words. To narrow a search to certain dates, use the term after to find results after a certain date. Usebefore before a certain date or fill out both fields to get results between two dates. |
| Can you change the default search logic? |
Yes. Can use operators ", -, +. |
Yes. Can use Boolean operators and, or, and not. |
| Can you change the way in which results are displayed?
|
The default setting is 10 results per page. This can be increased by increments of 10 |
The results displayed can be by relevance or by the search engine queried. Can bold the search terms. Also can open search result links in a new window. Page opens in a new browser window, leaving all other desktop windows open. |
| How many results did you receive? |
Did a search on RI General Assembly and received over 400,000 hits. |
Same search in Dogpile retrieved a more manageable list. Results by search engine were 43 "hits". Viewed by relevance showed 67 "hits". |
| How current are the results? |
Results were relevant and the most relevant were listed first. |
Results were relevant. |
| What proportion of the results were relevant?
|
Top 3 "hits" were most relevant |
Top five "hits" were most relevant. |
| Was the amount of detail displayed with the results
adequate? |
Detail displayed was a brief description of web site, cached pages, similiar pages and the URL. |
Detail displayed included a brief description of the site, and the URL. |
| Was the order in which the results were displayed
evident and/or logical? |
Yes. The top results were the most logical. |
Yes. The top ressults were the most logical. |
| What are the strengths/weaknesses? |
Google strengths would include that its interface is clean and simple. Results load almost instantly. Pop-ups are not allowed. A weakness would be a search that results in over 400,000 "hits". |
A strength would be that it supports Boolean search logic which promotes a more sophisticated search. Also it "fetches" results from many search engines, not just one. No pop ups. A weakness to me is the dog motif. |
| How often is it updated? |
Database of webpages and index updated once a month. |
Not revealed. |
| What is the e-mail address to submit questions?
|
There is a long list of corporate addresses if you really need to contact them, such as 'comments@google.com' or 'suggestions@google.com'. They do not make it easy to find these addresses on their site, and you really need to do some looking. |
Information@dogpile.com |
| On a scale of 1 to 10 (1=poor, 10=superior), rate
each search engine. |
Ten |
Nine |
| Briefly describe why you rated each as you did. |
It's fast, accurate and easy to use. |
It seems to function as any other run of the mill search engine. Again, I do not need a dog motif. Probably would appeal to the younger ages. |