Problems With Search Engines
The most common way of finding data on the internet is by using a key word search engine, such as Google, MSN or Yahoo. However, this approach is at best a "hit and miss" proposition with many limitations:
- The search engine results only indicate that a word can be found within documents, but it doesn't indicate that the word was used in the proper context. The first page of a recent key word search for the word "jazz" on Google, showed links to an online magazine about jazz music, "Jazz" a PBS film by Ken Burns, as well as, the Utah Jazz basketball team. However, if you were looking for a computer product call "Jazz" from HP, you won't find it for many pages.
- Search results will frequently produce a voluminous list of documents, too large to be reviewed. A query under the word "jazz" on Google showed approximately 22,500,000 web pages using the word. Research has shown that less than 5% of the users will go beyond the third page of search results, frequently leaving countless documents with valuable data unseen.
- Many cash strapped search engines accept payment for top placement in the search results. The actual results may be just paid ads in disguise. Companies that have engaged in this practice have included Yahoo, AOL, Microsoft, Lycos and others.
- In the best case scenario, search results are given priority position as a result of an algorithm, which may be based, in part, upon the number of incoming links to the site. It is possible that a site containing the most relevant content, but lacking incoming links, may be relegated to the last page of search results and therefore never seen.
- Many web sites deploy optimization strategies to manipulate search engine results to increase the probability of being included in the top tier of search results, whether or not their site has any substantive or relevant content pertaining to the respective search words.
- Very often the search engine results are not productive because few users know precisely what they are looking for or they may not understand the interconnecting relationships between concepts and ideas within a particular subject domain, thereby further limiting their ability to search.
- Entering the wrong key words, which occasionally happens, will only produce bad results. Garbage in will always get garbage out.
- Search engines can not assess the accuracy or credibility of the online resources that are set forth in their search results. If you did a search under the key words "Elvis Presley," you will likely discover that Elvis is alive and well, which may even be bolstered by testimonials of recent sightings.
The Come Dive With Me provides an innovative solution to above problems and a new way of accessing the desired information.
