(Aka Search Engines or SEs)
A huge range including: Google, Yahoo, Ask, Answers, Bing, Duckduckgo, Excite, LiveSearch, Exalead, Startpage, ixquick
Your browser is set to use one search engine. You can change this in the settings.
Pros and Cons
Google is easy and fast, but it can be biased and not display all relevant results
Yahoo! will often give better results.
Meta-search tools like yippy.com and dogpile.com are not very comprehensive and to be "used at your own risk".
Google uses PageRank to order search results. This emphasizes pages most heavily linked from other pages.
Is it a bad thing to record all of your searches?
On the plus side, you receive personalized ads and information relevant to your interests. Google calls it "personalizing your search"
BUT, researchers at the Uni of Bangalore have been able to track back from your searches to retrieve personal information about you.
See Google's privacy policy: "how we use information we collect".
Two SEs that don't save your searches or personal information:
Startpage.com powered by ixquick which is really ixSlow
Duckduckgo.com/privacy
Exercise: try searching for tony abbott with 4 different SEs
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