Bing? Google? WolframAlpha? How do you search?

What’s your favorite search engine?

Microsoft’s improvements to its search tool, now named Bing, have many people asking if Google is the only way to google.

In recent weeks, I’ve been trying side-by-side searches in Google, Bing, Yahoo, Ask, and another new search engine/database called WolframAlpha. Each has advantages and disadvantages, and I encourage you try more than one of these (and possibly some of the others out there) for the kinds of searches that you commonly do.

There are also new search “mash-up” sites that make it easier to compare various choices.  Addictomatic.com may be the most extreme search mash-up, aggregating search results from 15-20 sources. Most search mash-ups just compare two search engines.  Bookmark some of these or add them to the search toolbar in your browser to make the comparisons easier as you search during the next few weeks.  Try www.bing-vs-google.com to see how Microsoft’s new contender compares to the defending champ.  My favorite, however, is www.Goofram.com which puts web results from Google alongside those from WolframAlpha’s “computational knowledge engine.”

WolframAlpha is particularly good at math, science, and statistical searches (the sorts of things I may have looked up in an almanac in bygone years), and is worth showing to the math & science teachers in your school. (For a more detailed demo, if you have a few minutes to watch, check out http://www.wolframalpha.com/screencast/introducingwolframalpha.html) Its database and query algorithms still have many gaps, however, so using Goofram as my default search tool allows me to see WolframAlpha’s results (if any) right next those from a more traditional search engine.

Next time you search, try one of these new options.  Evaluate and decide which ones you like best.  Then, plan a lesson or two to help your students discern the pros and cons of each and how to distinguish between ads and actual search results on the various options.

What do you think?  What’s your favorite way to search?  What other good options have I overlooked?  Tell us about it.