Try Something New

I've been forcing myself to try search engines other than Google, and the process makes it clear that getting all your search results from one place is no smarter than getting all your news from one source.

The recent outbreak of search competition, and lots of talk and activity concerning vertical search engines (shopping, business, etc.) suggests that lots of people would benefit from more diversity in their search diets - but kicking the Google habit can be tough. After all, the names Teoma, Kartoo, or Dogpile don't spring to mind very quickly do they? How are average netizens ever going to sample all the new flavors?

Perhaps SEO's, Bloggers, and other would-be influencials can use these cool little buttons (and the button-maker) to spare a few pixels in their gutters to recommend some new search options that they particularly like to their loyal followings. Beyond the community service, this can give the new and lessor-known engines more of a chance, and an even slightly spreading of market share will help nearly everyone. (So you have to do it without a PPC fee.)

When I see the same name in lots of blogrolls I give it a try. Maybe it will work for search engines too.

PS: The above are just a few samples. Someone with more skill might want to pick better colors, or design ready-to-use buttons for more engines.

Posted by Craig Danuloff at March 29, 2004 3:05 PM