There's more to life than Google!

Google is so popular for web searches that people don't realise there are other search engines that you can use too.
The search engines in this exercise all have some innovative features to help you get to the websites that best match your search.
Try each exercise and then decide whether you like them better than Google or not!
In the exercises below there is a link to each search engine to save you from having to type in the web address. They open into a new window.
Instead of printing out each page, print out this worksheet and write on it what you have found.
When you have finished the search you can close the window and move on to the next exercise.

Your turn!

Go to www.ask.com and search for the current weather in Hawaii. This search engine gives you tips to refine your search down the right hand side:
1. Click on the site you think has the information you need. If it does not, click on back and try another site.
2. When you have found it, add the information to the worksheet.
Go to clusty.com and search for the length of the Humber Suspension Bridge. This search engine ‘clusters’ results into categories on the left hand side – this may help you to narrow down your search.
Go to www.killerinfo.co.uk and try and find out how many points are neded to win a game of 6 card Cribbage. This also clusters results, but has a preview facility so that you can have a quick look at the website without leaving your search results.
Now try www.metacrawler.com and try and find out which horse and jockey won the 1976 Grand National horse race. This website shows results from a number of search engines including Google and Yahoo.
Finally, try the Windows Live search - www.live.com. Try and find the current current number 1 single in the Official UK Top 40 singles chart. This search site gives you some related seaches on the right hand side that might help get more accurate results.

Some websites specialise in a particular kind of search, for example shopping or holidays
In fact most websites have their own search facility to search for information just in that site, like this one!
For the next searches you will use some of these more specialist search engines that search for.
Add this information to the worksheet as well

Go to www.yell.co.uk and try and find a plumber in Hillsborough, Sheffield. write down their name and telephone number.
Go to www.kelkoo.co.uk and find the cheapest price for Hugo Boss In Motion aftershave, 90ml. Write down the shop and the price.
Go to www.dealpond.com and find the best/cheapest place to buy an iPod Nano 4GB. Click on one of the search results to compare prices from different shops. Write down the shop and the price.
Go to www.autotrader.co.uk and find the cheapest:
1. Ford Focus car
2. less than 5 years old
3. within 30 miles of your postcode (if there aren’t any try 50 or 100 miles).
4. Write down the dealer/seller, price and location.
Go to www.holidaysupermarket.com and find the cheapest:
1. Summer holiday (Jun, July or Aug) in Corfu OR
2. Winter holiday (Nov, Dec, Jan or Feb) in Tenerife
3. 1 week departing either Fri, Sat or Sun
4. Fly from Manchester
5. At least 3 star accomodation
6. Write down the holiday company/airline, resort, hotel, dates of travel and price.
Finally, open this website's welcome page and search for URL in the search box in the top right hand corner.
1. Which pages on this site contain information about URLs?
2. You can use this site's search if you want to revisit a topic, but can't remember which lesson it was from.

You should now be able to:

Use a variety of search engines to search for information on the Internet
Use specialist search engines to compare the prices of things or locate local services
Recognise and use a website's search box