The Daily Ping

FROM: Sammy Reed
DATE: Monday October 17, 2005 -- 12:34:40 am

The reason you don't hear anyone talk anything besides Google anymore is because "google" is used as a word that MEANS "search".
You don't hear (or read, for that matter) about anyone "lycossing" or "altavista-ing" or "yahooing". Heck, there may be people that say they "google" something even though they don't use Google search, because they think that's a neat word to use.
I myself just call it searching. I use anything BUT Google because I'm sick of "googled" this, "googling" that, and I want the world to know - through "referrer logs", or however else they may know - that I use something else than Google search. I don't "google" because I don't use Google search.
I do have Google ad-blocker, but that's it.

FROM: Sammy Reed
DATE: Monday October 17, 2005 -- 12:36:25 am

That should be "The reason you don't hear anyone talk about anything besides Google anymore..." Sorry about that,

FROM: Ryan [E-Mail]
DATE: Monday October 17, 2005 -- 12:46:16 am

Actually, there was that whole series of ads that asked people, "Do you Yahoo!?"

FROM: Paul
DATE: Monday October 17, 2005 -- 7:49:15 pm

I guess the answer is, "No."

FROM: Cat [E-Mail]
DATE: Saturday October 22, 2005 -- 11:01:07 am

I actually find Yahoo better at coming up with "official" sites, so I use them more for businesses. Their local search grinds Google to dust. I used to use Google exclusively, but now it's a combination of the two.

FROM: Merle [E-Mail]
DATE: Saturday October 22, 2005 -- 3:10:51 pm

Well, sure, nobody talks about "altavistaing". Their search engine went massively corporate about five years ago... around the time I ditched it for google.

I've read a lot about searching, and about how one should have half a dozen "frequent" search engines, since each has different strengths and scoring algorithms. You can rea d a lot of it on searchlore. And I agree with them.

That said... it's a lot of work. I find that google can find 95% of what I search for, if not more. And, having used it pretty much exclusively for four years (and I use it maybe fifty times a day?) I have a good idea of how it works and how to find what I want. It's like working on your computer instead of someone else's: the mappings are wrong, things aren't in the right place, and it's uncomfortable.

FROM: Marcus
DATE: Tuesday October 25, 2005 -- 11:32:56 pm

I tend to rely on Google as my #1 choice... beyond that though, I do toy around with MSN's search, Yahoo's search, Ask.com (kind of annoying but also kind of fun), Altavista, and even throw Dogpile's multi-search into the mix on occasion when I want to cipher through a range of searches all at once. If I'm looking for brand logos (in .eps format) I usually go to Brands of the World.com or Logotypes.ru.

I still believe Google, of the majority of search engines, is the best (and I use it most for typical searches, the others get brought in to find image searches), but I do like having the other options out there when I feel the need to get a different search perspective or see if there's a different roster of finds that they might pull up.

In as far as Googling... it's the same phenomena with "Photoshopping", using a "Kleenex", or "Xeroxing". When a namebrand becomes synonymous with the technology, it's usually because they've found a way to deliver it better than the rest, were first to the punch, or have marketed their name better than the competition. That said... I've "Mapquest'ed" for quite awhile now but I think "Googlemapping" something is becoming the next big thing.