Categories: uncategorized
Date: 13 October 2004 01:33:32
I have noticed in the last couple of weeks that Google has been putting ads into their listings. When you search the first link returned is a real one, then links 2-5 are ads, then it continues with the rest of the search results. Besides being annoying and undermining the independence and usefulness of Google as a search tool, sometimes the links are not even relevant. For instance, today I searched for makgadikgadi map and the second listing (the first ad) was for a pet store. Honestly, how can we be expected to trust a search engine that returns such obviously compromised results? (The ads change, so if you click the link you'll most likely get something different.)
Anyway, as a result of all this I decided to search for a better search engine. Ironically, I used Google to do that search. I was hoping it would provide some advertising links to its competitors, no such luck but there were a few real links that I'll follow up. After a quick glance one of the most interesting seems to be turbo10 - pros and cons here - try it out here. It uses topic clusters and some other unfamiliar tricks, but seems to work well once you get your head around it.
Back to real life: We had a barbeque with our housemates last night. It was over 30 deg here yesterday, quite nice to be hot actually, reminding us we're definitely not at the snow any more. And a bbq is the best way to finish off a hot day. And cold beer, that's important too.