“I think that I shall never see a billboard lovely as a tree. Indeed, unless the billboards fall, I'll never see a tree at all.” Ogden Nash

Do you use Yahoo as your search engine and would you like to help the environment? If yes then Ecocho is for you. It is a search engine that uses Yahoo’s search technology and advertising so that they can afford to plant two trees for every 1000 searches. It seems like a fine venture similar to the freerice site. Also if you are the type of person who does all their searches in the search box in upper right part of your browser they offer a plug-in so you can use the service. If you would like to green up your searches then give this one a try.

“You cannot tailor-make the situations in life, but you can tailor-make the attitudes to fit those situations”

If you were using the net when it was younger your main wants from a search engine would be faster searches and more results. The idea of more relevance and rated results was to come eventually. Today people do not just want results but they want results tailor made for who they are. So to help with this search engines with a specific audience in mind have started sprouting up. The two that I want to mention today are Yahoo’s search engine Shine and Rushmore Drive. Shine is aimed at women and Rushmore Drive is aimed at a black audience. Both seek to provide news and stories that appeal to their specifics. I find both sites do their job well however in typical Yahoo style there is an overabundance of information. A little too much for my taste where Rushmore is setup more like Google, that is to say sparse with choices waiting to be chosen. My opinion on these sites should be taken with a grain of salt because I am not the target audience for either site. I personally only look for geek oriented sites no matter the sex or race but that is just me. So if you want a website that feels made for you then give one of these a try.

“A man travels the world in search of what he needs and returns home to find it.” George Moore

I have one more small rant about Internet Explorer 7 and then I swear I am done. I have suggested before to switch browsers to something like Firefox or Opera because they are overall better. A feature that has been standard on those browsers and is now on the IE 7 is the search box at the top right hand corner. The problem is that with most searches Google or Yahoo have been the standards in that box because they are what most people use. However on IE 7 the default is Microsoft’s live Search. I personally am not happy with the results of this search engine. So how do we customize this for our personal choices? First we click on the arrow on the right hand side of the search box and choose find more providers. Then choose the search engines you want to add from the left. Every time you click one it will ask you if you want to add it. Click OK. When finished choosing go back to the search box and click on the right arrow and choose change search defaults. Once there click the preferred search engine and finally click set default. Now the search box will search where you want. If you do not like their setting give this a try.

"A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men.” Herman Melville

Sometimes I come across a piece of software or website i know I am going to use over and over but it is doubly rare that I would ever change my homepage for a new find. I have had Google as my first stop on the net (homepage) for over 6 years but Sputtr has made me change my mind. In today's version of the Internet everything is connected in some manner. If I search for someone or something I do not do just do a Google search; I look on Youtube, yahoo, Flickr, Digg, Facebook, Myspace and every other possibility. So what is the problem then? I can easily go those sites and do the search but Sputtr has made one page that has all the choices at your fingertips. All the major search tools are just a single click away. Also you are not stuck with their default choices. You can pick from a very long list and replace current ones. For an example I rarely do a Google Scholar search but I am more likely to do an About.com search. In a matter of seconds I can change it to my preferred setup. The other real benefit is that all of my favorite web tools are in front of me and I won't forget to use one. For me when tools are out of sight they are out of mind. If you are looking for choices and simplicity give this a try.

“Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever.” Napoleon Bonaparte

Not too long ago I listened to an On The Media radio broadcast about posting on the Internet. It was about a 17 year old girl who had voiced her opinion on the Iraq war. That alone does not seem to be very important. I mean we all take stands or have opinions on tons of subjects. However the difference was she posted her feelings in a comment field on a website. Years later she wanted to take that post down because when a possible employer did a search to see who she was and what she had written on the Internet using Google or Yahoo this comment came at the top of the list. She asked the site to remove her post and they said they never remove anything. Even if the site had complied it would not matter because search engines cache or store all this information in case the site disappears. So what does this tell us? When you post or add your name to a list or create a page in a social networking site like MySpace it stays out there even if you remove it. Many a teen writing now may reap the benefits or losses in the future because something said during younger days. It did occur to me that the girl could have started a blog or a site with enough information to reduce the impact of that one post. There is a flip side to this as well. The next generation emerging is not as concerned with privacy or wrongs done in other times. For them it is what they do now and not who or what they were five years ago. I know I am stereotyping here but generations do have certain major characteristics even if they are not shared by every single person.

So the main theme here is everything posted is permanent and not private so think before you post. To get the word out many Public Service Announcements have been created to get people to consider this phenomenon. I believe they are a little heavy handed but they do a nice job. Click on the video and you decide.

“If you can't answer a man's arguments, all is not lost; you can still call him vile names.” Elbert Hubbard

I am on a constant search for answers to questions for myself or students. Many times I come across Yahoo Answers. I had used Google's version of answers but it paled in comparison to Yahoo's and you had to pay for it. Alright what is it? Essentially you go to the site and ask a question. If someone knows the answer they list it. Really quite simple. Also the setup of Answers is really...well...um..cute. I really like reading the questions others have because most of the time they are pertinent to my search and I seem to stumble upon other things I wanted as well. This is a great site for newer questions. If you have a question and no one seems to have a clue try Yahoo Answers and give it a try.

“There's an alternative. There's always a third way, and it's not a combination of the other two ways. It's a different way.” David Carradine

Sometimes you check on Google and do not find the answer so you have to go to Yahoo and see if they have it. A website has stopped the inconvenience of this and has created Gahooyoogle. Essentially it searches both of the major search engines and displays both results for you on a combination page. Make sure after you do the search that you use the next page button near the top, otherwise you will have the pages out of sync. The wonderful thing is it can do any of the same searches on both engines like searching for images or news. It is a nice way to cover both bases. Give it a try.

Message for you sir!

The reason for this second post today is a bit of a warning. Many people use Yahoo Messenger to chat. Well, they have released an upgrade with all sorts of new features. It comes with a bunch of new options that should be useful, but make sure you read all the info that displays during the install. There is a part that asks to change your settings. It will change your Outlook settings and many others to be Yahoo-oriented. It is unfortunate when any company does this. While not horrible, it just means you will have to reset all of your settings that have been changed. Go ahead and use the software just be aware. Always read all the options during setup of new software.

Sometimes a THINGY is just what you need

Ok, Google is good, but sometimes I want a bunch of choices at once. You can try this list to see a lot of different ways to search. This is Dan's No Overhead Search Thingy. It lists everything from Google to Metacrawler and a bunch of other goodies. Also click at the top to choose the Consumer Thingy or the Fun Thingy. Both of them give lists of relevant options as well. Give it a try.