Walt Mossberg likes Ask.com, says John Battelle.
Here's the first test I use to decide whether a search engine (that is relevancy based like Google, Yahoo, MSN, or Ask) deserves praise over Google: put in my last name and see if it ranks that properly. Why does that matter? Cause I have thousands of inbound links.
Ask does not measure up in this test (it still has my old blog at top of the page) and I can't find my new blog anywhere on the first page of Ask.com. Google almost gets it right (my old blog is #1, but my new blog is #2).
"You're an egotistical bahstahard," I can hear some of you saying.
Believe it or not, but this test seems to match other relevancy tests I've done. Try it yourself and see how you come out.
But, even worse, if a search engine can't get my name correct (there aren't many Scobles publishing on the Web) how can you expect it to get your searches correct?
By the way, I've been doing this ego search for more than seven years and this is the first time that Google has lost this battle and that MSN has won it.
Is MSN's relevancy getting better? Yes. Is Google vulnerable? Well, I won't go that far, but my ego search is one of the reasons I've been a Google advocate for so long (it was dramatically better than AltaVista and Yahoo in this search in the late 1990s).
But, Walt, this doesn't portend good things for Ask.com. To be included in the top three you've gotta be as good as Google. Ask isn't even in the same neighborhood yet.
A search for a Microsoft employee on a Microsoft search engine gives better results than a different engine…. News at 11!
Nice one Scoble.
A search for a Microsoft employee on a Microsoft search engine gives better results than a different engine…. News at 11!
Nice one Scoble.
Alfred: Google has most of the search engine usage. Yes, when you’re #3 you BETTER be obsessed with what the competition is doing in order to find a way to give our customers a better example.
Jon: it’s not just my result. I just wanted people to start on their own path of self discovery.
Alfred: Google has most of the search engine usage. Yes, when you’re #3 you BETTER be obsessed with what the competition is doing in order to find a way to give our customers a better example.
Jon: it’s not just my result. I just wanted people to start on their own path of self discovery.
It seems that Google has been slipping lately and the ego test is not the only indicator. I remember when Yahoo was on the top of its game and then it was slowly corrupted by advertisers. Google is slowly being taken over in the same way. I have not used ASK.com since the early days of the internet, but here lately I have been using it and MSN more. I am getting slightly better relevancy, but I still use Google. The untold shame is that since Microsoft.com switched search engines for their site(now they use the MSN search technology)I have been forced to use Google to find the same pages I used to find with the search engine that was originally used for Microsoft.com. As someone newly into the tech field this has frustrated me to no end. The good news is that with IE7, at least I can stack multiple providers and search five search engines at once and tab between results and find hopefully within one of them the results I am looking for. Test this for relevancy between MSN and Google. Search for “using exchange server with share point services” and watch what both search engines pull up. One will give you an ad for using them together and the other will give you a technet article. Hmmm, which one is better?
It seems that Google has been slipping lately and the ego test is not the only indicator. I remember when Yahoo was on the top of its game and then it was slowly corrupted by advertisers. Google is slowly being taken over in the same way. I have not used ASK.com since the early days of the internet, but here lately I have been using it and MSN more. I am getting slightly better relevancy, but I still use Google. The untold shame is that since Microsoft.com switched search engines for their site(now they use the MSN search technology)I have been forced to use Google to find the same pages I used to find with the search engine that was originally used for Microsoft.com. As someone newly into the tech field this has frustrated me to no end. The good news is that with IE7, at least I can stack multiple providers and search five search engines at once and tab between results and find hopefully within one of them the results I am looking for. Test this for relevancy between MSN and Google. Search for “using exchange server with share point services” and watch what both search engines pull up. One will give you an ad for using them together and the other will give you a technet article. Hmmm, which one is better?
Robert,
According to Scott Johnson you’ve been doing ego searches for ever and a day.
He mentions your name coming up on Feedster logs searching for your own name.
http://www.venturevoice.com/2006/04/scott_johnson_of_ookles.html
As for searching on MSN or Google. I always get what I want from Google, so I wouldn’t even consider looking elsewhere. When it starts failing, I’ll consider something else.
Robert,
According to Scott Johnson you’ve been doing ego searches for ever and a day.
He mentions your name coming up on Feedster logs searching for your own name.
http://www.venturevoice.com/2006/04/scott_johnson_of_ookles.html
As for searching on MSN or Google. I always get what I want from Google, so I wouldn’t even consider looking elsewhere. When it starts failing, I’ll consider something else.
I’m not exactly the biggest fan of Mr. Scoble, but I have to admit that I frequently check my name in Feedster and Technorati too.
I also check-in with my Google Analytics almost daily. Which is neat because I’ve discovered a surprising number of my blog visitors are from the UK.
I’m not exactly the biggest fan of Mr. Scoble, but I have to admit that I frequently check my name in Feedster and Technorati too.
I also check-in with my Google Analytics almost daily. Which is neat because I’ve discovered a surprising number of my blog visitors are from the UK.
Does that mean that you will be using MSN from now on?
Does that mean that you will be using MSN from now on?
MSN satisfies my ego search much better than Google, as well.
MSN satisfies my ego search much better than Google, as well.
antwerp: no. Every search I do hits both MSN and Google (I have a special tool that was created for us to do that). So far I can’t say that MSN is good enough to use. It’s getting close, though, it sure has gotten better in the past six months. It used to be that Google won every search I did. Now MSN is winning about 30% of them. The ego search is an important one, though, to me cause it’s the one search I do every few months just to see what comes up and this is the first time MSN has won that particular search.
Interesting times ahead for the search industry!
antwerp: no. Every search I do hits both MSN and Google (I have a special tool that was created for us to do that). So far I can’t say that MSN is good enough to use. It’s getting close, though, it sure has gotten better in the past six months. It used to be that Google won every search I did. Now MSN is winning about 30% of them. The ego search is an important one, though, to me cause it’s the one search I do every few months just to see what comes up and this is the first time MSN has won that particular search.
Interesting times ahead for the search industry!
I love this site. Good work…
I love this site. Good work…