Searching For .........

Use a search engine other than google? Are you quite mad?  

But seriously folks (adjusts tie, runs hand through hair) surely google is the one to use? I used to use Webcrawler, Web Spider and...well, others that are lost in the mists of time. Maybe it was the hint towards the ever unpopular arachnid family that put people off them rather than their search abilities?

 I can’t remember when google became so ubiquitous but now they’re in a position where they will sue to stop people using ‘google’ to mean ‘websearch’ as that would erode their copyright. Since they added images, translate, maps and all that other terrifying stuff – which it feels like you are getting for free – they have become even more of a one stop shop despite the creeping erosion of ‘Don’t Be Evil’.

I get prompted to use Bing but it feels wrong somehow. And usually kicks up the wrong result. Well, it did when I started to use it and may have changed but there’s something I just don’t like about it. Like a valet who is as good as all the others but for some reason you can’t put your finger on you take against him, eventually having him sacked, deprived of his room and driven from the estate to perish in the gutter.

Bing it? Never sound as good as Google it.

Ask Jeeves I won’t use on a point of Wodehousian principle.

As I share my name with an ex-Chelsea association football player, I am safely buried from the casual internet stalker. At least one of my aliases comes up though.

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I have just seen the first stage of our new Institutional Repository and like it. It should become an Inspirational Repository, that would be a sign of success for me.

Google Milk

Remember the Milk? A chum of mine has this on his iPhone. He’s a very busy stand up comedian (which is rather like being a long distance truck driver from what I can make out) and on the way back from somewhere once he was driving so I used it to go through his in box and check his calendar, etc. It seemed useful but not a killer app.

Maybe because I don’t think I’d keep it up to date enough for it to be useful. If it linked to Outlook as well it may be more attractive but then it would be work based only.

I have become something of a convert to Google Docs though. I love the way several people can use the same document and edit it and you don’t have to keep an eye on version type to make sure you have the right one. IT brought up the issue of ‘what are you putting on there? / what’s the security?’ but nothing is hyper sensitive, it’s just a good tool.  Far more useful than another at our disposal.

I’m not sure if it is a feature of GoD but I sometimes have trouble highlighting text and it appears to run rather slow at times. That may be related to the constant saving that the system does though as well as our link to it. A very small niggle in terms of the overall usability of the system.