I love A9 as a search engine. Yes, I started using it because I get a discount on my Amazon.com purchases by using their toolbar. It uses Google’s database so I figured why not. What I have come to love about it is the ability to receive search results from multiple sources on a single page. Typically I have it perform a regular text search but also an Web image search and a Flickr search at the same time. I’m not always looking for pictures but the image results I get can sometimes make me think about my search and/or just give me a laugh. Today I got a laugh out of a search for nerd tv. I was just looking for the site’s URL but as the first Web image result I was presented with an image of Tom Baker as the Doctor being menaced by a Cyberman (right). Why this result appeared, I’m pretty sure I’ll never figure out.
Michael Sauers is the Director of Logan Library in Logan, UT. Prior to this he was one of the founding staff and Technology Manager for Do Space in Omaha, NE. After earning his MLS in 1995 from the University at Albany's School of Information Science and Policy Michael spent his first 20 years as a librarian training other librarians in technology along with time as a public library trustee, a bookstore manager for a library friends group, a reference librarian, a technology consultant, and a bookseller. He has written dozens of articles for various journals and magazines and has published 14 books ranging from library technology, blogging, Web design, and an index to a popular horror magazine. In his spare time, he blogs at TravelinLibrarian.info, runs The Collector's Guide to Dean Koontz website at CollectingKoontz.com, takes many, many photos, and typically reads more than 100 books a year.
Unless otherwise stated, all opinions are my own and are not to be considered those of the City of Logan, UT.
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