PGTS Journal Edition 0011
February, 2003

Search Engines - Is there enough competition?

In recent months I have seen letters and articles complaining about bias in Search Engines. One such article cited a test search (carried out in the USA) for refrigerators, which failed to find all thirteen major US brands of these consumer items. On ABC News Radio The well known broadcaster, Dr. Swann, commented that a search for "immunization" in Google returned far more (rather hysterical) anti-immunization polemic, than factual data on immunization. Also letters have been published in the Australian Press, alleging that there is a lack of competition in search engines. Most of them cite Google as the offending search engine.

Could this simply be due to the fact that there is only one search engine worth using? Is Google getting too big for their boots? Can you trust me to give a genuine objective assesment? Read more in this month's feature ... Thats SIR Google ... To You.

Also this month two more versions of Browser agent strings. One of them ordered by Name, and one which includes Percentages.