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I have been updating my collections of search engines - adding in new ones that I've previously blogged about and removing ones that no longer exist. It's of course not a complete listing - some I simply have ignored as I really don't rate them, others I just don't know about! However, the majority of them are ones that I think are worth looking at in different subject areas. There's more to search than Google. If you have time, please take a look, and consider trying out some new ones. You can access them all via my 'Which Search Engine When' page and pull down menus, but here's an overview.

"I've been reading snippets of Eli Pariser's book, The Filter Bubble: What the Internet Is Hiding From You. He leads off the book with a discussion of the effect of Google's "personalization" feature on the ranking of search results. This feature uses 54 signals (what browser version you're using, your prior searches, geographic location, and so on) to customize search results for each user. Pariser was concerned about this and tested it by asking two friends to run the same search at the same time and comparing the results. He found that the results were disturbingly different, and concluded that search engines are "increasingly biased to share our own views. More and more, your computer monitor is a kind of one-way mirror, reflecting your own interests while algorithmic observers watch what you click.""

"A quiet revolution has taken place in recent months, as Google, Microsoft, Facebook, and other internet gatekeepers have revised their search algorithms in an attempt to bring users more personalized information. This subtle shift has enormous implications for students, researchers, and society at large, experts say. When web surfers use Google or Bing to look for information about, say, the national debt, the search results they now see at the top of the page might differ from those of their neighbor. That's because all the major search engines have revamped their formulas to include social media data as key indicators of a website's importance."

"Google has made it possible for us to have instant information gratification. Just start typing the first letters of your search word and the site intuits your question and offers you the smartest choice of answers. Seems simple enough. But as quick and facile as the process is, there are ways to be even more efficient, more search-savvy. And it's our responsibility to teach kids how to find and research information, how to judge its veracity, and when it's time to ask for a grownup's help. I spoke to Daniel Russell, Google's "search anthropologist" in charge of Search Quality and User Happiness (yes, really), who brought to light some important tips you may not have known."

If you use Google to search you need to check this out

"Today's students have grown up in the digital age, and are generally accustomed to having questions answered at the click of a button-but that doesn't mean they all know how to conduct meaningful, thorough research. Studies show that while a majority of students turn to search engines when conducting research, most of them are behind the times when it comes to utilizing keywords or smart search methods to retrieve the best possible results. Three in four college students monitored were deemed incapable of conducting a "reasonably well-executed" Google search, and for many educators, the concern is that while students do have a great deal of data at their disposal, most of them don't know the best way to access it. "

The RSS search engine will help you discover RSS feeds on the web around your favorite topics.

"Using Google Search is making us believe we are more knowledgeable and intelligent than we actually are. That's not necessarily an easy idea to swallow, but sometimes the truth hurts. The harsh reality is that although search engines enable us to find out all sorts of information in a very short period of time, this is not a marker of our intelligence. We are not the only primates who have learned to use tools to our advantage."

This series from Mashable has a number of posts looking at the world of search and how it is/will develop.

"IconArchive is a professional tag based icon search engine with more than 330,000 icons for web developers, end users and graphic artists. Also it is an inspiration source for new design ideas and a place to enjoy beautiful icons. You can collect, organize & share your favorite icons here with ease. If you want to customize your desktop, you can download icons for all operating systems, Win, Mac & Linux. Website or Software developers with demand for custom icon design could search for professional icon artists here. This may result in freelance jobs and/or design help for projects of any size. On our icon artists page you can select artists offering custom icon design."

"You may have heard of Wolfram Alpha, which is a "computational knowledge engine." That makes it sound a bit scary, but it's a great tool once you can wrap your head around it. Apple's Siri uses Wolfram Alpha for 25% of its searches. You can leverage that magic and put Wolfram Alpha to work for you - the empty search box on its homepage holds endless possibilities."

Teachers and students can use Gooru to search for rich collections of multimedia resources, digital textbooks, videos, games and quizzes created by educators in the Gooru community. Gooru is free (of cost and ads) and developed by a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization whose mission is to honor the human right to education. Search for the best multimedia resources on the web. Customize your favorite resources, collections and quizzes. Study from collections of resources created by teachers. Interact with the Gooru community of teachers and students. Practice with enhanced quizzes that provide instant feedback. Share your knowledge about topics you are passionate about.

"The day when your hat can extrapolate your mood from your brain activity and make a spa appointment on your behalf may not be far away. The next big thing in the digital world won't be a better way for you to find something. If a confluence of capabilities now on the horizon bears fruit, the next big thing is that information will find you. Welcome to contextual search, a world where devices from your phone to your appliances will join forces in the background to make your life easier automatically."

"One of the hardest parts about doing academic research on the Internet is figuring out where to start! A search engine or subject portal is usually the first thing to try, but which are the most useful for your research need? Fill in the short form below, and we'll point you in the right direction. For every question, you can check any number of boxes (or none)."

Teachers and students can use Gooru to search for rich collections of multimedia resources, digital textbooks, videos, games and quizzes created by educators in the Gooru community. Gooru is free (of cost and ads) and developed by a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization whose mission is to honor the human right to education.

"Search engines such as Google and popular cloud computing services may have been "sued out of existence" if they started in Australia, while consumers who make remixes or mash-ups of copyright songs and videos are also breaching the law. These are just some of the glaring issues with the Copyright Act that have been raised today by the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) and copyright experts. The ALRC has released a new issues paper for its inquiry into whether Australia's copyright laws have kept up with the digital age."

"I bought Minecraft for my 7 year old son and asked him if he needed help with it. "No, I just looked it up on YouTube." We all know that YouTube is a great source for tutorial videos. Did you know that YouTube is the #2 search engine? Students are very likely to look up information on YouTube, it has become part of their culture. Here are 5 things you can do with YouTube:"

Mashpedia is an online encyclopedia comprised of "LiveDocs", which are dynamic web documents displaying blocks of content related to the given topic, retrieved from multiple sources across the Internet in real-time. For every queried topic, Mashpedia loads information and rich media from Newspapers, Magazines, Blogs, Books, Wikipedia, Youtube, Twitter, Facebook and further online resources.

"My opinion was (and still is) that the internet is ultimately expanding the possibilities of innovation for the coming generations. It is a catalyst for open communication and will provide us with mental framework that will propel the geniuses of our time forward with more vigor than ever before. The person I was talking to did not agree with my somewhat sunny view of the internet. She said that the invention was making people dependent on it as an extension of their brains, and leaving little room for new ideas or improvisation. In fairness, there is ample evidence for both conclusions in current events and our daily lives. So here's the dish on the estimated effects of Google, a favorite gateway for internet users worldwide."

"The business of finding facts has been an important gear in the workings of human knowledge, and the technology has just been upgraded from rubber band to nuclear reactor. No wonder there's some confusion about Google's exact role in that-along with increasing fear about its power and its intentions."