Week 4-#9

I don’t like Google. I don’t like that they are the end-all, be-all search engine. I’d like it if there weren’t a monopoly. I’d like it if there were a number of efficient search engines to choose from, each with it’s own plusses and minuses. I’d like it if Google wasn’t some all reaching, big brother, tracking our searches, knowing all about us. Regardless of what I like, they are.
For example, we are all blogging on a subsidiary of Google. Many of my collegues use Google docs, or their conversion calculators, or maps, or their ever-effective search engine. They have altered our English language. Don’t believe me? Google it!
I worked hard to do what I could to manipulate the Google system. I think my results speak for themselves, as I turned from a third page nobody to the number 1 (my name here) in the Google universe. I think it helps my students, if not my ego.
The reason they are so successful above all others is: they work. Others are unwieldly, send you too much product information, or seemingly don’t know what you are looking for. Using the rss search sites, I searched a favorite topic of mine: Joe Montana. A friend of mine claims I try to work his name into any conversation over 20 min. It is surprising then to see that this is his first mention in this blog.

With the other search engines, this is what I got:

MSU students win Goldwater awards

QB Garcia is signed as backup to Russell

A Tok man apologized to the man whose teeth he kicked out a year and a half ago

Along with a bunch of Hanana Montana, a bears joke, an update on Nate Montana at notre Dame and where Nick Montana might go to school.

From Google, at least every rss hit had Joe Montana in it, not the state, not the pop star, and only the last one mentioned one of his sons. I hate to admit it, but if you want to be the champ, you have to beat the champ, and I still find Google a better source for rss feeds than these.