Suggest a Site for the Search Engine Torture Test
Danny Sullivan and I are planning an extensive "torture test" of the major search engines, and would like some input from SearchDay readers. Specifically, we're looking for sites that should be a no-brainer for search engines to display in the top-ten for a specific query.
What do we mean by this?
Well, for the query "cancer" we'd want to see a widely recognized authoritative agency or government sponsored medical information site.
For "lionel trains" we'd expect to see the toy manufacturer's home page. We'd also want to see an authoritative hobbyist association, and perhaps an online retailer that specializes in toy trains.
For "Kofi Annan" we'd want the Secretary-General's home page at the U.N., and perhaps current news about his activities.
The possibilities are endless. What we'd like from you is just one example of your favorite "no-brainer" web site -- a site you're utterly familiar with, and are convinced that it's the single best information source for a specific topic.
Note: we're not interested in the search terms that would be used, only the URLs of specific pages. The idea is that the page (or site) should be such an excellent information source for a query that we should be able to deduce the query simply by looking at it.
And please -- this isn't a popularity contest, so don't "vote" for your own site. We won't be publishing suggestions, just using them to help us formulate our own hands-on evaluation of the search engines.
Send your suggestions (URLs only, no search terms) to feedback@calafia.com. Important: Please put "Torture Test Suggestion" (without quotes) as the subject of your email.
Thanks! Watch for the results sometime later this month or in early October.
A Curious Google Mirror
A literal mirror of Google allows Chinese users to circumvent the country's blocking of the search engine. The New Scientist reports that the site, elgooG, which is a clone of Google with reversed letters and logos, will accept reversed queries and return actual Google results. Results are also displayed backwards, however, and can only be easily read in a mirror.
elgooG
http://www.alltooflat.com/geeky/elgoog/
Google Mirror Beats Great Firewall of China
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99992768
China's widely criticised blocking of the web's most popular search engine Google can be defeated by viewing a strange Google mirror site through a mirror, New Scientist has discovered.
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