EVALUATION OF INTERNET SEARCH ENGINES
Introduction
The following listings are my summary impressions of several Internet search engines. <u comments concern both their ease of use and their relative effectiveness. In order to make my comparison, I chose to see how each of these Engines handed the search item learning styles. (This item, by the way, is the topic of my PCB Graduate School Independent Design Project.) The search engines reviewed below include: Yahoo (with Alta Vista), Excite, Lycos, Magellan, and WebCrawler. I also give brief mention to InfoLink, HotBot and MetaCrawler.
I used various routes to approach these different search engines. At different times I employed Internet Explorer, Netscape, AOL web search, and ATT World NetSearch. I also worked with both Mac and Windows systems. Interestingly, each of these many avenues produced somewhat differing results, even when I was using the same search engine. Some of my highway hopping was due to locale--whether I was at home, the library, or at PCB’s computer lab. Other times, I was forced to reroute because of traffic issues. I have tried AOL at hours when I should be in bed and still been faced with a busy signal. Such is the result of time zones and flat fees!
Although I was at times frustrated with the process, overall I learned a lot from each site I visited. It is interesting that the results of any search engine research are directly related to the topic being studied. If I had chosen a different search topic, my impression would have also differed. So below stands my evaluation of these search engines in light of the topic I was pursuing: learning styles theory and practice.
The Different Search Engines
YAHOO (with ALTA VISTA)
Because the default search engine at PCB (through Microsoft Internet Explorer) is Yahoo, it was one of the first I tried in my search engine evaluation process. In some ways, Yahoo was a disappointment. While Yahoo boasts a K-12 Education Conferences, only fourteen matches for learning styles surfaced. Of these four dealt with business and three with distance learning. In reality, only three sites had any direct bearing on what I was seeking. So, for me Yahoo was not destined to be the search engine of choice.
Whereas Yahoo had too few matches, Alta Vista had too many--361,130 to be exact. I found little opportunity in this second search engine for narrowing and honing my search, although I tried various means. Still, there was some order to the arrangement of matches--the first few pages of matching having the most to do with my topic of interest. Even so, interspersed among these relevant sites were frequent commercial/advertising ones. The net result was the Alta Vista, while a significant improvement over Yahoo, left something to be desired.
In the past I have been favorably impressed with Excite as a search engine. This time, however, I was not as helped. For one thing, Excite claimed 1167732 matches to learning styles. Again, the search needed some honing. Yet, because Excite organizes its entries by percentage of the term matched, the situation was not as unyielding as first appeared. Still, I found that after a relatively short progression through even the high percentage sites, the focus had turned to learning and styles but not to learning styles. There is quite a great difference in the two! After all, one can style hair and learn about any number of topics! In comparing Excite and Alta Vista, both engines seemed spotty: some site matches were excellent; others totally irrelevant. Last year I found Excite my best site when I was studying baseball salary caps. Perhaps if my topic had been sport-related, rather than education-related, if I would have liked Excite more satisfying.
Although one of the writers noted in our class’s Internet tutorial (Seiter in "NetSmart") did not like Lycos, judging it often outdated, I probably found my best information on learning styles by using this search engine. First, Lycos was easy to hone so that the search to include all the words; so the information surfacing by a search of learning styles proved largely relevant. Still its initial 13024 matches were daunting. But, as I both honed the search and followed the % match indication under each site, I was able to focus my attention on the first 30 matches. These were excellent and yielded some vital information. In addition, I liked the way Lycos sites reproduced the http address both in the initial site listings and when I printed up information from a specific site. So by in large I found this search engine a very satisfying one.
At first I avoided using this search engine, as all my previous dealings with it had led me to assess it as business-oriented, and, therefore, I doubted its relevance to an educational topic. In reality, however, I was pleased with what I found when I used this engine. Because I was able to hone the search to all the words, and because business is very interested in learning styles as they relate to organizational climate, I was able to uncover some new and relevant sites. Moreover, the number of sites was not so large as to prohibit examining each of them. Again, because this search engine arranges its matches according to the percentage of match, it was easy to work through the relevant sites. In the future, I will return to Magellan, because its different slant on the Web’s offerings opens up new research vistas to me.
One of the first search engines I used extensively was WebCrawler (since way back in 1995--why does that seem so long ago?!). As a member of AOL, I find it the search engine most readily available. Even though I’ve been wowed by all the other offerings, I still find WebCrawler has some good points. One, because AOL draws many members from parent and school groups, WebCrawler has a correspondingly strong educational emphasis. This meant searching with WebCrawler produced some strong sites on learning styles. Too, WebCrawler is another search engine that records the http address when it prints from a site, and I have mentioned elsewhere how much I appreciate that user-friendly feature. Finally, WebCrawler does not seem to find the myriad of site matches so common to some of the other search engines. In other words, its very selectivity saves the researcher from having to cull through a harrowing volume of information. While I now prefer Lycos, Magellan, and Excite to WebCrawler, I know I will continue returning to WebCrawler as an old and familiar friend.
I was first introduced to this search engine through my using of MetaCrawler. The search engine does what its name implies: it finds hot pieces of information, the "newer news." Since learning styles research, while certainly on-going, is not necessarily new, a HotBot search offered me less than five sites to choose from. The only really new information came in a chat format; someone had posted a learning styles question, and various responses had also been recorded. I can see that HotBot could be a useful search engine for some types of research, but it is not where I will look as I pursue my study of learning styles.
My InfoSeek (accessed in this case through Netscape Navigator) research results paralleled those I achieved with HotBot. Again the information was current, but not plentiful. Again there was some back and forth chat-type writing/inquiries on learning styles, but no new information for the more informed reader. InfoSeek does, however, hold definite potential as a search engine.
I think this could serve as a principal search engine for someone studying a very current topic. Even for myself, I could imagine using it to pose a question and to see the responses proffered. I have not used InfoSeek Ultra, since my results from InfoSeek were so mixed, but Charles Seiter’s article "NetSmart" certainly recommended that engine (http://macworld.com/cgi-bin/pages.pl/ pages/december.96/Column.2893.html). Again, with InfoSeek the following principle has been illustrated: choosing the best search engine depends to a large measure on what type of information one is seeking.
Multiple searchers (such as MetaCrawler), these compilations of several different search engines, seem great ideas. I was thrilled when I was introduced to MetaCrawler during our MTE767 class. What a blessing to have the best of nine search engines at once! I still am very happy to have this engine bookmarked as one of my "favorites."
Yet, there are some drawbacks to implementing only a multiple search engine. The chief of these is that all the choosing out, culling, rejecting of sources has been done by someone else. When I asked for a nine-engine search on learning styles, the results including less than twenty sites. Certainly, this was quite a distillation of the thousands of sites I had been alerted to when I used those individual search engines. Also, I felt that I might have included some sites that were conspicuously absent. Therefore, my praise of MetaCrawler has been tempered. It has a very important place to be sure, but the individual search engines also have their own value. For myself, I will continue to use MetaCrawler often, maybe even begin studying a topic here, but I also will continue to implement other search engines whose results though less defined can lead to some fairly productive rabbit trails.
Conclusion
Examining the concept of learning styles as it appeared in the sites listed by various search engines was an interesting and profitable process. With each different search engine I have tried, I invariably found some new sites and/or perspectives which guided me in my pursuit of my knowledge about learning styles. It was also profitable for several reasons. First, I now know a little more about search engines, including when and how to use various ones. If I want current information, I will turn first to Infoseek or HotBots, and perhaps Excite. If I desire good general information, I will go to Lycos. For general information with a business slant, I will turn to Magellan. For a helpful overview of a subject, I will pursue it through MetaCrawler. Like an old friend, WebCrawler will remain as part of my search engine repertoire. Finally, with some caution and when I can hone my research, I will seek out Yahoo and the related search engine of Alta Vista.
For me, Internet search engines are essential to Web use. They provide a means to navigate both the information superhighway and its back roads as well. A committed researcher, I am thrilled to have discovered a whole new library (called the WWW), that awaits my exploration. I am also glad that with this library comes the key to open the door and make that exploration both profitable and fun!
About the Author: Karen J. Ristuccia is a graduate student at Philadelphia College of Bible Graduate School in Langhorne, Pennsylvania. She directs a homeschool cell in Princeton, NJ. Her email is: mristuccia@aol.com