A Wine Search Engine?

Are you looking for that perfect bottle of vino to accompany your next dinner? I recently stumbled upon an actual search engine for wine. You can search by year, type of wine or location of winery. Scroll through the website ratings to find a vintage wine to make your holiday party sizzle.

http://www.snooth.com/

What are the Hottest Searches?

Have your wondered what the most popular searches for the day are? Google launched “Trends” to give you a summary of the hottest trends in searches. Yahoo puts the top searches on their homepage.

http://www.yahoo.com/
http://www.google.com/trends

Google Chrome, the Next Giant?

As you may know, the first web browser Netscape invented by Marc Andreessen was retired last year. However in its wake, there has been a recent boom of new web browsers including Firefox, Opera and now Chrome by Google. This new browser is the synthesis of the best features from Internet Explorer, Mozilla and Opera. Google has generated a strong web browser that is bound to only get better.

Chrome Main Features:

• Main Address Bar – Pullls up most the popular sites as you type.
• New Tab Page – Opens a new tab to see the most visited page. This is a feature straight from Opera and Cuil. Every time you open a new tab, you will see a three column visual layout of your most visited sites and see a search history of recently visted tabs.
• Application shortcuts – Use Google web apps without opening your browser.
• Dynamic Tabs – Drag tabs out of the browser to create new windows, gather multiple tabs into one window or arrange your tabs however you want.
• Crash Control – You can see memory use per tab. Each tab is run independently in the browser, so if one crashes it won’t take the whole browser down. This has been an issue with Firefox.
• Incognito Mode – Your personal information will not be saved by Google. Ask has a feature like this.
• Safe Browsing – Lets you know visually if the website has bad intent.
• Instant Bookmarks – Click star in address bar to access your favorites from any page.
• Import Settings – Move favorites from other browsers with one click.
• Simpler Downloads – Progress meter built in browser so you can drag and move onto desktop to launch when completed.

Download Google Chrome
http://www.google.com/chrome

What do you think? Will Google now take over the world of web browsing?

Job Search Engine? Indeed!

The other day I hosted a learning event over at the Cleveland Institute of Art entitled How to Improve Your Online Search Results. During the presentation led by Todd Packer, I realized how many different search engines really are out there. Thus, I started a list of search engines on Leading Hands.

A new one that a friend just forwarded me was Indeed, which is a search for you job seekers. There are two simple fields you are prompted to fill out on the homepage: “what” type of job you are looking for and “where” are you looking. The results seem to be organized in the typical list format (aka Google), with a big blue link at the top of each discovery with the description listed below it.

Do you like Indeed? Is it better than CareerBoard?
http://www.indeed.com/

Yureekah

Keeping the search engine theme going this week, I recently came across one called Yureekah. This is the first search engine that addresses competitive analysis of online advertising. Do a search on Yureekah for breakfast cereal and you’ll see the banner ads of Kellogg’s and General Mills. The engine’s most distinct feature is that it can identify regional advertising. This is extremely helpful if companies are only in a few markets.

Do tools like Yureekah give too much power to marketers? Are consumers being targeted like a laser beam that our privacy is being invaded?

Is Yureekah a valuable tool or a just a flash in a pan?
http://yureekah.com/

Scour

Have you heard about Scour? It is a next generation search engine with Google/Yahoo/MSN results and user comments all on one page. Best of all you get paid for using it by earning points with every search, comment and vote. The points can be redeemed for Visa gift cards. It’s like earning credit card or airline points just for searching! The downside of the engine is that it has to go out to a few search engines, thus it does take a bit to get the results back.

A friend of mine used it and got his gift card the other day. Thanks to David Bardwell for the tip on the service.

Have you tried this search engine? What do you think of it?
http://scour.com/

Is It Cuil Enough?

Over the last few days, the buzz has been about a new search engine called Cuil. The general feedback on this new competitor to Google is that the look and feel is great, but the results are poor. Mediahatch mentioned that it’s mediocre and the layout is confusing. I tend to agree with the majority that the layout is OK, but the search results don’t compare to Google.

What do you think of Cuil?

http://www.cuil.com/

Search For Good

Want to make a difference in world, but wondering what you could do? Why not try making an Internet search? I stumbled upon a couple of websites that will donate a portion of their profits from your search to a charity of your choice.

Good Search will donate a penny from every search to a charity of your choice. Search Kindly claims they will give 100% of their advertising revenue for charitable purposes. These websites are no way at all as easy to use as Google, but their heart is in the right place.

http://www.goodsearch.com/
http://searchkindly.org/

MSN Gasoline Meter

If you are feeling the gas crunch, this is a pretty sweet tool. Just enter your zip code in the site below, and it tells you which gas stations have the cheapest prices (and the highest) on gasoline in your zip code area. It’s updated every evening.

http://autos.msn.com/everyday/gasstations.aspx?zip=&src=Netx

ChaCha

ChaCha is a mobile search engine. The website will ask you for a question, search for your answer, and then send it to your mobile phone. If you do a Google a search on your mobile phone, you do not have time to search through a million results. ChaCha saves you time by delivering an accurate message for your unique cellphone.

https://chacha.com/