Searching for a Good Search Engine

[jaugustine]

Hi,

Wouldn't it be nice to search for something specific on the web without
being overwhelmed by a "zillion" hits? Almost all of those "hits" have
absolutely nothing to do with what you are searching for.

Unfortunately it's a "numbers game". Does a search engine that produce
more "hits" than any other search engine make it the best search engine?
Notice how many of those "hits" are to the same web site(s).

My recent experience in searching for a "93 Jeep Grand Cherokee"
"instrument cluster" "removing" video or instructions (I used quotes to
specify a 93 Jeep...) was a waste of time because I was led to a YouTube video
on a 2003 Jeep. This is one of many mis-leading places where the results were
other year Jeeps, not the year of 1993. Note: There were 1993 Jeeps among
the many "hits", but most had nothing to do with the "instrument cluster"
unless you are looking to buy one.

I tried Google, Bing, Yahoo, Altavista, WebCrawler search engines with
FRUSTRATING results.

Do you know of a quality search engine (does not have to be free (pay to
use)) that will help you find what you looking for?

Thank You in advance, John N3AOF

 

[Ed Cryer]

Hi,

Wouldn't it be nice to search for something specific on the web without
being overwhelmed by a "zillion" hits? Almost all of those "hits" have
absolutely nothing to do with what you are searching for.

Unfortunately it's a "numbers game". Does a search engine that produce
more "hits" than any other search engine make it the best search engine?
Notice how many of those "hits" are to the same web site(s).

My recent experience in searching for a "93 Jeep Grand Cherokee"
"instrument cluster" "removing" video or instructions (I used quotes to
specify a 93 Jeep...) was a waste of time because I was led to a YouTube video
on a 2003 Jeep. This is one of many mis-leading places where the results were
other year Jeeps, not the year of 1993. Note: There were 1993 Jeeps among
the many "hits", but most had nothing to do with the "instrument cluster"
unless you are looking to buy one.

I tried Google, Bing, Yahoo, Altavista, WebCrawler search engines with
FRUSTRATING results.

Do you know of a quality search engine (does not have to be free (pay to
use)) that will help you find what you looking for?

Thank You in advance, John N3AOF

http://www.google.com/insidesearch/tipstricks/all.html

I doubt you'll beat Google.

Ed

 

[Johnny]

Hi,

Wouldn't it be nice to search for something specific on the web without
being overwhelmed by a "zillion" hits? Almost all of those "hits" have
absolutely nothing to do with what you are searching for.

Unfortunately it's a "numbers game". Does a search engine that produce
more "hits" than any other search engine make it the best search engine?
Notice how many of those "hits" are to the same web site(s).

My recent experience in searching for a "93 Jeep Grand Cherokee"
"instrument cluster" "removing" video or instructions (I used quotes to
specify a 93 Jeep...) was a waste of time because I was led to a YouTube video
on a 2003 Jeep. This is one of many mis-leading places where the results were
other year Jeeps, not the year of 1993. Note: There were 1993 Jeeps among
the many "hits", but most had nothing to do with the "instrument cluster"
unless you are looking to buy one.

I tried Google, Bing, Yahoo, Altavista, WebCrawler search engines with
FRUSTRATING results.

Do you know of a quality search engine (does not have to be free (pay to
use)) that will help you find what you looking for?

Thank You in advance, John N3AOF

Try this one. At least it doesn't track you.

https://duckduckgo.com/

 

[SC Tom]

Hi,

Wouldn't it be nice to search for something specific on the web
without
being overwhelmed by a "zillion" hits? Almost all of those "hits" have
absolutely nothing to do with what you are searching for.

Unfortunately it's a "numbers game". Does a search engine that produce
more "hits" than any other search engine make it the best search engine?
Notice how many of those "hits" are to the same web site(s).

My recent experience in searching for a "93 Jeep Grand Cherokee"
"instrument cluster" "removing" video or instructions (I used quotes to
specify a 93 Jeep...) was a waste of time because I was led to a YouTube
video
on a 2003 Jeep. This is one of many mis-leading places where the results
were
other year Jeeps, not the year of 1993. Note: There were 1993 Jeeps
among
the many "hits", but most had nothing to do with the "instrument cluster"
unless you are looking to buy one.

I tried Google, Bing, Yahoo, Altavista, WebCrawler search engines with
FRUSTRATING results.

Do you know of a quality search engine (does not have to be free (pay
to
use)) that will help you find what you looking for?

Thank You in advance, John N3AOF

I haven't seen any that I could say is definitively better than the next,
but I found you a downloadable service manual for $12

http://www.rmanual.com/part_1150/rm

It may be worth it, just to have on hand for the next thing to go wrong on a
20YO vehicle.

 

[Zaphod Beeblebrox]

Try this one. At least

_they claim that_

it doesn't track you.

https://duckduckgo.com/

There, fixed that for you. ;-)

--
Zaphod

Arthur: All my life I've had this strange feeling that there's
something big and sinister going on in the world.
Slartibartfast: No, that's perfectly normal paranoia. Everyone in the
universe gets that.

 

[s|b]

http://www.google.com/insidesearch/tipstricks/all.html

I doubt you'll beat Google.

Easy: startpage.com

 

[Thip]

Easy: startpage.com

+1

 

[Jeff Layman]

Easy: startpage.com

I use Startpage, but noticed that it often missed pertinent hits.

A couple of months ago I asked Startpage to find anything on a rare
plant. It turned up one hit - in Dutch. Google turned up three hits -
the Dutch one and two in English. I then asked Startpage to repeat the
search but find only English-language hits. t reported that it
couldn't find any!

 

[s|b]

I use Startpage, but noticed that it often missed pertinent hits.

A couple of months ago I asked Startpage to find anything on a rare
plant. It turned up one hit - in Dutch. Google turned up three hits -
the Dutch one and two in English. I then asked Startpage to repeat the
search but find only English-language hits. t reported that it
couldn't find any!

That's weird since Startpage uses Google's results:

<quote>

Startpage offers you Web search results from Google in complete privacy!

When you search with Startpage, we remove all identifying information
from your query and submit it anonymously to Google ourselves. We get
the results and return them to you in total privacy.

Your IP address is never recorded, your visit is not logged, and no
tracking cookies are placed on your browser. When it comes to protecting
your privacy, Startpage runs the tightest ship on the Internet. Our
outstanding privacy policy and thoughtful engineering give you great
search results in total anonymity. Here are some of our key features:

</quote>

AFAIK Startpage does not show sponsored links. Perhaps the two English
hits were sponsored?

 

[Stan Brown]

That's weird since Startpage uses Google's results:

<quote>

Startpage offers you Web search results from Google in complete privacy!

When you search with Startpage, we remove all identifying information
from your query and submit it anonymously to Google ourselves. We get
the results and return them to you in total privacy.

And Startpage also decrapifies the links from Google. I hate that I
right-click on a results link in Google and have to spend time
removing all the crap to get the actual link in a form to send
someone.

 

[Peter Jason]

Try this one. At least it doesn't track you.

https://duckduckgo.com/

It doesn't have images though!

 

[Carl Kaufmann]

Hi,

Wouldn't it be nice to search for something specific on the web without
being overwhelmed by a "zillion" hits? Almost all of those "hits" have
absolutely nothing to do with what you are searching for.

Unfortunately it's a "numbers game". Does a search engine that produce
more "hits" than any other search engine make it the best search engine?
Notice how many of those "hits" are to the same web site(s).

My recent experience in searching for a "93 Jeep Grand Cherokee"
"instrument cluster" "removing" video or instructions (I used quotes to
specify a 93 Jeep...) was a waste of time because I was led to a YouTube video
on a 2003 Jeep. This is one of many mis-leading places where the results were
other year Jeeps, not the year of 1993. Note: There were 1993 Jeeps among
the many "hits", but most had nothing to do with the "instrument cluster"
unless you are looking to buy one.

I tried Google, Bing, Yahoo, Altavista, WebCrawler search engines with
FRUSTRATING results.

Do you know of a quality search engine (does not have to be free (pay to
use)) that will help you find what you looking for?

Thank You in advance, John N3AOF

I recommend meta-search engines. I favour Dogpile, out of habit.

HTH,
Carl

 

[Warren Post]

Try this one. At least it doesn't track you.

https://duckduckgo.com/

+1. It's been my favorite for a while now.

 

[Wildman]

+1. It's been my favorite for a while now.

Me too. Someone else mentioned startpage.com
but I just don't trust google, even with a proxy
in between.

And I'm surprised startpage is still around.
There use to be a similar search site/engine
called Scroogle [screw google]. But they
finally had to give up because google kept
doing things to block them.

 

[Jeff Layman]

That's weird since Startpage uses Google's results:

<quote>

Startpage offers you Web search results from Google in complete privacy!

When you search with Startpage, we remove all identifying information
from your query and submit it anonymously to Google ourselves. We get
the results and return them to you in total privacy.

Your IP address is never recorded, your visit is not logged, and no
tracking cookies are placed on your browser. When it comes to protecting
your privacy, Startpage runs the tightest ship on the Internet. Our
outstanding privacy policy and thoughtful engineering give you great
search results in total anonymity. Here are some of our key features:

</quote>

AFAIK Startpage does not show sponsored links. Perhaps the two English
hits were sponsored?

I doubt it.

Anyway, you can try it yourself. I just repeated the search for the
phrase "rhododendron macrocephalum" (don't include the quote marks!).
Startpage finds only the one Dutch site; Google finds that and three
other sites in English. If the Startpage search is limited to English
only, it again reports: "Your search - "rhododendron macrocephalum" -
did not match any documents.".

 

[Jim S]

+1. It's been my favorite for a while now.

Ixquick is not supposed to track either.
--
Jim S
Tyneside UK
www.jimscott.co.uk
http://geordiecamii.wordpress.com
http://geordiecam.wordpress.com/

 

[Mitch Bujard]

Wouldn't it be nice to search for something specific on the web without
being overwhelmed by a "zillion" hits? Almost all of those "hits" have
absolutely nothing to do with what you are searching for.

Unfortunately it's a "numbers game". Does a search engine that produce
more "hits" than any other search engine make it the best search engine?
Notice how many of those "hits" are to the same web site(s).

My recent experience in searching for a "93 Jeep Grand Cherokee"
"instrument cluster" "removing" video or instructions (I used quotes to
specify a 93 Jeep...) was a waste of time because I was led to a YouTube video
on a 2003 Jeep.

Too many hits is what precipitated the demise of Altavista. Who wants
15,000 pages ?

Google provides the negative option '-' where you can specify for instance :

"93 Jeep Grand Cherokee" -tube -tubes -site:youtube.com

That query would elminate the many useless tubes and the site
youtube.com from your results. Advanced search also provides ways of
eliminating outdated pages.

Finally, you may want to simply stop at a physical car parts store and
look for manuals. A few years ago, that is what I used to do. Nowadays,
we expect everything from the web. But back in 93, it was still in
infancy…

Good luck !

 

[Rob]

And Startpage also decrapifies the links from Google. I hate that I
right-click on a results link in Google and have to spend time
removing all the crap to get the actual link in a form to send
someone.

Yes, that annoys the hell out of me too and is one of the main
reasons I use Startpage.

 

[Rob]

+1. It's been my favorite for a while now.

Me too. Someone else mentioned startpage.com
but I just don't trust google, even with a proxy
in between.

And I'm surprised startpage is still around.
There use to be a similar search site/engine
called Scroogle [screw google]. But they
finally had to give up because google kept
doing things to block them.

That was more to do with them choosing a name that was too
similar, IIRC.

 

[Stan Brown]

Google provides the negative option '-' where you can specify for instance :

"93 Jeep Grand Cherokee" -tube -tubes -site:youtube.com

Does that still work? The "required" option + seems ineffective
these days.