The Day after Tomorrow
Just to recap: on Monday we challenged you to hold off on using any of the five major search engines all day Tuesday, and instead, try one of the many alternative search engines out there. So Tuesday was dubbed the “Day without Google.” (Editor’s note: In this context ‘Google’ refers to all five of the major search engines; Google, Yahoo!, MSN, Ask, and AOL).
Yesterday, Wednesday , we asked everyone to post a comment sharing their experiences from Tuesday. So today is The Day after Tomorrow, where I’d like to summarize your comments to see what we learned from our little experiment. It went like this:
Group #1
Group #1 is easy to describe - they refused to participate! I call this the “I’d rather fight than switch” group. (Who is old enough to remember those ads?)
David Berkowitz made this pithy remark, “I might as well take it as a vacation day. The top 5 are the top 5 for a reason.” Sal writes, “One of the other search engines will have to offer me something I can’t get with Google. I’m an experienced user, I find what I’m looking for. I’m familiar with the interface. Why would I change? If one of the other search engines are good, I’ll hear about it from someone.”
These are the hard-core Googlers, and there are millions of them! The Alts certainly have their work cut out for them as they try to lure this group away from Google!
Let’s contrast that group with Group #2.
Matthew said, “I’m gonna try this…I hope I survive!”
Ramenos writes, “OK, I will try.”
Chee; “This sounds like something interesting. I’m gonna try this.”
Alan said, “Hi, Why not?”
Nick; “Great idea, by the way! Planning on doing it and talking to the other ‘tech’ people I know to do it too!”
I think if I was at an ASE party, these folks would be the ones having the most fun!
Group #3 can be summed up in one word:
Honesty. You just have to admire the candor of these folks.
Michael writes at 9:53 am, “Bah, I blew it.”
The Muso admits that, “yeah, I lasted about two hours…unfortunately the subconscious got me too. I didn’t even realise what I was doing until it was too late.”
Steve had a similar experience, “(I) find (that I) just hit the search without even really thinking about it.”
Richard MacManus, my role model and mentor, also succumbed to the Siren’s Song.
I think all of us can sympathize with someone reaching for that well-worn “G” key without even thinking about it. Google hasn’t just become a verb, it’s become a synapse! For these poor souls, Google is not just ‘the environment,’ it’s an addiction, a habit so ingrained that they could form the Googlers Anonymous Group (GAG).
Step One “We admitted we were powerless over Google–that our lives had become unmanageable.”
Group #4 moved right along:
Catherine reports, “I tried out Quintura , and really liked it.”
Nick says, “I used Clusty for my day. Very impressed.” (Sal, did you catch that?)
Outer writes, “Perfect, I did it..I used the Quintura extension for Firefox…”
Alan tried KartOO , josebrwn tried Zuula and Quintura and WiseNut .
On Read/WriteWeb. Josh tried Lexxe , and you can read about his experience here .
Clearly Quintura was the most popular, probably because Quintura and KartOO just tied for Search Engine(s) of the Month. But just to be safe, Quintura CEO Yakov Sadchikov posted his own comment!
Finally, there is Group #5 - the wise (guys).
Mickey laments, “But what will happen with my AdSense ads? I will not get a dime this day!”
Chris chimes in, “I also find it funny that…you are using a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet to maintain the data.”
For the record, Chris, I sent that data to Richard from my Google Docs account - so there!
Seriously, if MSN and Google announced tomorrow that they were going to offer everything but search, I’d be fine with that.
In conclusion, I think that AltSearchEngine readers, by and large, were willing to accept the challenge and try an alternative search engine for one day. I’m certain that the alts that they chose are grateful for the chance to show off their wares, and that’s what this blog is all about. And for everyone who did not get a chance to participate, here’s a list of 100 to get you started!
