Inspired by the political mural painted on the side of a rural school in Cuba (see ill.) I am intrigued by questions like "Who decides what the message should be?" "For whom?" and "For what purpose?" (Actually, those questions were already asked by Jacques Derrida, a French intellectual, quite some time ago--not original with me!).But, in looking at the suggestions for Thing 7, I am compelled to ask "Who prioritized the Google search lists?" "For whom?" and "For what purpose?" Relying on another's editing is still is a form of mind control, call it whatever you like.
Now to the details...
"Chrome": handy, but indicates further consolidation of marketing potentials
"Custom Search": good tool for students, a time-saver, ok for use in class
"Image Search": students already know about this one...interesting, but only for those who know how to sort...
"Maps Search": a no-brainer, addictive, and has useful commentaries
"Blog Search": Who prioritizes them? Rather commercial and not useful without a specific purpose. Our students generally do not have the reading skills to sort though this site in an intelligent fashion
"Ask": mildly amusing, nada mas, cutesy
"Kartoo": fun, but random, very French--prefer Cooliris!
"Yahoo": ...is for yahoos
"Gigablast": What do you expect from that name?
"Viewzi": Multiple perspectives, a real "platform" for launching a meaningful search
"Search Me": Well...ok, if you insist!
Enough is enough!
Would rather not explore things named "Dogpile" and "SurfWax"--my life is too short!
Will talk about the Comparison Charts later...
Hasta pronto!
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2 comments:
"Who prioritizes the google search list" -- I think you are referring to the results? Such an important question and something I repeat to my students over and over again ... that just because "it" is at the top does not necessarily mean that it is the best information. That's why I like talking about the "deep" or "invisible" web -- they've got to learn how to find the information they actually want and need, not just how to find the first couple of hits.
Anne Marie,
I enjoyed your comments on the different search engine.
Just curious...which one do you use the most?
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