|
|
|
|
A Review of Yahoo, Google, and MSN
—————————————————————————
Intended Review & Resource Audience:
The intended audience of this website is anyone who is comparing search engines, who wants to know which engine is easiest and best to use for everyday searches.
Introduction:
Search engines are a convenient, user-friendly, efficient tools used to find anything on the Internet. There are numerous search engines available and not all of them are the same; each has its own strengths and shortcomings. The following is a comparison of the characteristics, strengths, and weaknesses of three popular search engines: Google, Yahoo, and MSN. I chose these search engines because they are very well known and have a reputation for turning out the most accurate results. They all seem to have the ability and capacity to find whatever you are searching for.
Search Engine Comparison:
For each search engine, the subject of interest is Brett Favre. I already know a great deal about this subject. I was born in Wisconsin and grew up as a huge Green Bay Packer fan. Although I know a lot about Brett and his football career, I’m by far not an expert. Because he is the greatest quarterback of all time, it is impossible to know everything about his life and success. Therefore, I’m always searching for more information to learn more about him.
The following is the query used to test the accuracy and usefulness of each search engine: “How many times has Brett Favre been the NFL MVP?” The key words used to help find the answer to this query are:
I first just used "Brett Favre", and then "Brett Favre MVP". However, these did not return the results I wanted. I would have had to search further through each website that resulted. However, by using "Brett Favre MVP times" all together, the search was most successful.
The first search engine used to look up Brett Favre is Google. I used the advanced search to answer the query: GoogleAdvancedSearch. In the blank, I typed in "Brett Favre MVP times". Here are the results: GoogleResults. I was very pleased with Google. I recieved 3,260 results in .10 seconds. The page showed 10 at a time. The very first result contained the information I was looking for just in the description.
The second search engine used to look up Brett Favre is Yahoo. I used the normal and the advanced search to answer the query: YahooAdvancedSearch. In both blanks, I typed in "Brett Favre MVP times". Both search methods returned identical results: YahooResults. Yahoo was also quick and easy to use. I recieved 2,840 results, and the page showed 20 at a time.
The final search engine used is MSN. I used the normal search and the advanced search. MSNSearch. MSN reported 3,333 results and showed 15 at a times. However, for both searches, the results were not as satisfactory as the prior two:MSNResults. The main problem was that none of the results had the answer to my query in the result description. I had to search for the relevant websites.
Conclusion:
Google and Yahoo are very easy to use and accurate. I recieved my answer on the first try with both search engines without even going to a website. The only difference was that Yahoo did not return as many results as Google. On the other hand, MSN did not seem to have the range of results as the first two. It was not as easy to use, so I would probably not choose MSN as my first choice for a search engine. By the way, the answer to the query is 3 times in a row--He's incredible!!