The search query I will use is DREAMCAST ISOS. When searching with other search engines this is all I needed to type in, so no additional terms will be needed. These are files that can be used to burn dreamcast games instead of having to buy them from the store. There are many different sites and links on the internet the problem is finding them. So, for this I will use different search engines to determine which one gives me the most helpful information to my search. I have currently use msn.com to find this information, and it does pretty good, but to contrast this I will use two other search engines yahoo.com, and ask.com. No particular reason why I am using these specific search engines, I just heard from other people that they were pretty good. This information will probably only be useful to you if you have a dreamcast, and could help you make a couple of dollar by selling the burned games, which is ILLEGAL (shh)!

The first search engine I used was msn.com. I had been using this search engine even before this project, and I thought it did pretty good. After typing in the DREAMCAST ISOS query and beginning the search the first couple of his found were not exactly what I was looking for. The sites were more for game emulation, which is close to isos, but not it. One of the site found was a guide to burning isos but not the isos's themselves or a site that would lead me to the dreamcast isos. Many of the top sites were out of date and had dead links on them which were reall no help. The 10th site down took me to top66 a site that had many different links to site with dreamcast isos. This is what I was looking for, eventhough it was about the 10th site down. The next few links were also sites that would lead me to more information, so after the 10th site I found what I was looking for.

The sencond engine I used was ask.com. I had previously seen many commercial about this site on TV as well as there being links on various other pager on the internet. It seems to be a very popular site. I keyed in the same query as before,DREAMCAST ISOS. This search came up with even less than than msn. The first few sites were again emulation sites, which like before I am not looking for. The next few were links to forums? They were questions basically asking the same questions that I was which was no help. Then again the 10th site down I found top66. The sites after the top66 were just as usless as the first 9. So this search engine only gave me one link to what I was looking for.

The final and by far the best site i used was yahoo.com. Again I heard about this site from friends and saw commercials about it on TV. I used the same query as before DREAMCAST ISOS. The first site on the list was top66. Then after that all the other links led directly to websites with isos. The first emulation site was number instead of number 1 like the others. This website didn't give me links to things I wasnt looking for, there were no pop ups...it was perfect. This is exactly what I was looking for. This was by far the best site.

BEST SITE (In Order)	Worst Features	Best Features	Rating (1-10)
Yahoo	Not very fancy	GREAT INFO	9
MSN	Advertisements	Many other search options	7
Ask Jeeves	unnecessary information on screen	Clean Cut, other search options	4

In conclusion, the best site was yahoo. DREAMCAST ISOS, are not a common search but there are sites on the internet that have them or links to them. Many search engines would turn up like MSN or Ask Jeeves. Ask Jeeves seemed to me more like an educational search engine more than one that would give links to games. MSN seemed like it could go either way, but also more geared toward educational information. Yahoo seemed like it could come up with results for just about anything, because like I said before DREAMCAST ISOS are very hard to find. Also I think Ask Jeeves is the baby of the bunch, and Yahoo is the oldest. This could have had a lot to do with the results found, but I doubt it. Anyway, if there is something that you are searching for on the internet, (especially DREAMCAST ISOS), and need to find some helpful information chances are that YAHOO.COM has it!



Questions or Comments?

Roland C. Draughn III
March 20, 2002