Sunday, 12 March 2006

In search of a search engine

I have a history of championing the underdog. Or, more accurately, boycotting market leaders, out of sheer stubbornness.

For example, I avoided Microsoft products for a long time. In truth, it wasn't difficult in 1991, when I was using WordPerfect (versions 5.1/6.0), Lotus 1-2-3 and dBase III+ (with Clipper). As the WWW took off, I again sidestepped the Microsoft product as a point of principle, moving from Netscape Navigator to the more W3C-friendly Opera browser. Of course, the irony is that, since 1992, I've been using various flavours of Microsoft Windows, when I should really have embraced Linux.

My latest ploy, as a fully paid-up Microsoft Office-user (the shame!), is to avoid Google. Actually, I have always been an AltaVista user, so I rarely feel the urge to "Google". But I used to occasionally use an "ancient world" specialist search engine called Argos. Sadly, when I tried to access it last week, I found that it had long since ceased to function.


Click to see bigger version of this image

Withdrawal of service notice for the Argos ancient world search engine


So I am now on the look-out for a suitable alternative. Any suggestions will be gratefully received.

3 comments:

  1. There's bad news, and some good news, and then more bad news...

    Bad news: I can't suggest an '"ancient world" specialist search engine', sorry.

    Good news: I can suggest an online alternative to MS Word - Writely

    More Bad News: Writely has just been bought by Google!

    :-)

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  2. Blast! Google seem intent on taking over where Bill Gates left off. I hear they are moving into traditional Amazon/e-Bay territory. So much for "It's best to do one thing really, really well".

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  3. ... and guess who owns Blogger.

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