Google? Wikipedia? 2007
Yes, I did. I’m pretty sick of Wikipedia and Google. Don’t get me wrong, they are both great websites. They wouldn’t be as popular as they were if they didn’t offer a lot of value, but frankly, I think it’s time to move on. Why is that? I’ll explain…
First of all, Google… how they decide what ranks on their first page (and all their other pages) is based on how their robots crawl each website. If I’m typing in a search term, a robot, not a human, is giving me a ton of information. All good if it worked, and it does most of the time, but I often run into the problem of googling something and getting —– results. Because of how much Google has developed over the last few years, I’ve always come to the conclusion that “if I can’t find it on Google, I can’t find it anywhere.” You might think that sounds ridiculous, but think about how many times you googled something, couldn’t find it, and just gave up. If you say you’ve never done this, I’m calling you a liar.
Wikipedia is next… it solves the problem of robots giving you information because everything is edited by humans. You can literally search for almost any topic you want and chances are there is a Wikipedia page on it. The problem? Accuracy and ease of use. ANYONE can edit a Wikipedia age. You, me, your next door neighbor, the bum down the street who yells and shakes his fists at oncoming traffic… literally ANYONE. This kills your credibility a bit. Remember when Morgan Freeman was in a car accident? For a few hours after this happened, his Wikipedia page said that he was dead. Well, he’s still alive last time I checked. Now, to give Wikipedia credit, they often quickly remove false information, but you still can’t believe everything you’re reading on Wikipedia due to the fact that anyone and everyone can edit articles. Which is a shame because Wikipedia’s purpose is to be the ultimate online encyclopedia.
Then what do I do?
I use other websites. Yes, believe it or not, there are other websites besides Google and Wikipedia. Websites that provide information on a multitude of topics, but are not produced by “robots” and cannot be edited by everyone.
First up is my personal favorite… finding Dulcinea. I think it’s pretty new (I only started using it for about 5 months), but there are a variety of reasons why I love this website. First, there are the web guides. Think of this as the “Wikipedia” aspect of your website. It is literally like an online library that offers information on almost everything you ever wanted to know. It is human made and only FindingDulcinea experts can edit the site. It has become my new Wikipedia. Next you have the Beyond Headlines section. In a nutshell, this section lists the top stories of the day AND includes sources from other websites that talk about the same story. The last section I use (although I think there are more on the web) is Netcetera. This is the “offbeat” section of the website. Include information such as “this date in history” or “today’s birthdays” (mainly people who have passed away). Think of the brilliance of this website…
* Information about everything you always wanted to know? Check
* Top new news of the day? Check
* Funny, humorous, quirky and offbeat content that is a change of pace from the norm? Check
* Controlled by humans? Check
* Only experts can create the content? Check
In second place is DMOZ. This can be seen as a more organized Google. DMOZ allows you to search millions and millions of websites by thousands of different categories. It makes searching for something so much easier. For me this has solved the problem of Google not finding exactly what I’m looking for. Best of all this is controlled by humans. Only humans can decide which websites to include and where it goes. Excellent.
Finally..About.com. If you are a regular Internet user like me, I am sure that you have come across this website more than once. This is similar to finding Dulcinea in terms of providing information on just about every topic imaginable. They have some of the most interesting and unique content on the internet. If I feel like taking a break from finding Dulcinea, I’ll go to About.com to find what I’m looking for.
I dare you to go to these three websites and tell me that they don’t compete with Google and Wikipedia in terms of providing information. I dare you.
* finding Dulcinea [http://www.findingdulcinea.com/?utm_source=ez&utm_medium=pv&utm_campaign=homepage]
* DMOZ
*About.com