AltSearchEngines is asking everyone to go one day, this Tuesday (whatever your timezone may be), without using one of the major search engines; Google, Yahoo!, MSN, AOL, or Ask. This was inspired by a similar Between The Lines experiment.
AltSearchEngines editor Charles Knight wants everyone to try one of the alt search engines in his most recent Top 100 Alt Search Engines list. Then on Wednesday, leave a detailed comment on AltSearchEngines describing how it went, and share your experience with others.
There are some ground rules:
1. All day Tuesday, June 12th, donÄôt use any of the 5 major search engines.
2. Avoid Meta search engines, since most of them include the major search engines.
3. Likewise, the specialized vertical search engines may be too narrowly focused.
4. Consider changing your homepage or downloading their toolbar. You can always uninstall everything and change back on Wednesday.
5. On Wednesday, leave a detailed comment on AltSearchEngines and share your experience with the rest of us. Which alt search engine did you chose? How would you rate the experience?
This is a great idea by Charles, inspired by Larry Dignan of BTL. As Charles says, the hundreds of alternative search engines out there are working very hard to get your attention, so why not give them a chance – at least for one day.
I have to admit that I haven’t yet got out of the habit of using Google, and to be frank a big reason for that is that Google generally does the job for me. But on the other hand, there is a whole new world of next-generation search for me to explore – some of which might surprise me and deliver better search results. There’s only one way to find out! I’m going to give this experiment a go.
I wouldn’t mind getting some tips though from R/WW readers on which general alt search engines to try. I think Hakia will be my first test, but what other search engines do you recommend?
