Even Better Than Google? (wisenut.com)

Member Name: blackjane

Product:	wisenut.com
Date:	31/08/01 (611 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Quick, Reliable, Accurate, Categorisation using 'Wiseguide'

Disadvantages: Lack of UK-only search, Lack of image search facility

Welcome to the next generation of search engines - Wisenut is here, and judging by its results (the only way that such a site should be judged) it is definitely here to stay.

Anyone that uses the Internet regularly is likely to have their own favourite search engines. Personally, I started off by using one of the 'obvious' ones - Yahoo, quickly moving onto a 'multi' search engine - Dogpile, before progressing to the most accurate, most reliable, and downright lightning quick search engine of them all - Google. My current preference for Google, which has probably lasted in excess of eighteen months now, is in danger from a new kid on the block - Wisenut.

Wisenut, at www.wisenut.com, has managed to replicate much of the speed, accuracy and reliabilty of Google. In addition, a more user-friendly method of presenting results allows the user to hone information to provide a quick, methodical and most importantly an accurate search result.

As with anything of this nature, a search engine is very much a personal preference, but if you are a regular Googler (is that the correct term?) or even if you are not, a visit to Wisenut may well make the internet a easier place to navigate.

The comparisons with Google are interesting - the presentation of the home page is deliberately sparse with no banner adverts, something that Google has excelled at. The searching itself is quick and is also reliant upon accurate text matching rather than which advertiser paid the most to appear at the top of the list.

Wisenut also claims that it has access to 1,495,332,308 web pages (and counting) in comparison to Google's marginally inferior figure of 1,387,529,000. A search for 'Dooyoo' on Google gave 105,000 results in just 0.45 seconds. Interestingly, Wisenut could only find 81,182, and although a time wasn't displayed, it appeared to be just as quick as Google.

The main benefit that Wisenut has over Google
is the 'Wiseguide' function. This is a method of automatically generating categories for the results. For example, for the above search, Wisenut categorised 22 results as just 'Dooyoo', 2 as 'Dooyoo.fr', 2 as 'Making Better Decisions' etc. This may not always be of use, but there are many searches where such categorisation could come in very useful. Google merely presents a list of results in order, with the most relevant first, but this extra categorisation on Wisenut can add an important new dimension. Wisenut also lists other results from the same site eg: Wisenut found a further 24 pages from the dooyoo.co.uk web site (in addition to the homepage) and provides a handy link to view just these results. The same pages would have been spread throughout the Google results pages making it more difficult to look at each in turn.

Admittedly the advantages of Wisenut, in my opinion, are only marginal as it would be very difficult to make wholesale improvements to Google. However, Wisenut often makes it significantly easier to find what I want on the internet, and more importantly to interrogate the results even further.

The main disadvantages are that a search of uk domains only (possible on Google by using www.google.co.uk) is something I have not yet mastered on Wisenut. Also some of the other features of Google like the advanced image search (beta test only) are not available on Wisenut. Therefore I do not see Wisenut replacing Google altogether for the time being, but I do find myself going back and using it more and more.

Wisenut is certainly a search engine that I would recommend anyone to take a look at, although whether it finds its way into your surfing habits or onto your list of favorites will always be your choice at the end of the day.

{An original Dooyoo opinion
© Blackjane 2001}

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