# Search Engines/Directories



## Greg (Apr 22, 2004)

Just curious as to which search engines members here use most. In addition to the poll, please include various search keywords or phrases you would use if searching for a site like AlpineZone.com. Please indicate them exactly as you would use them in the search engines, including abbreviations if applicable. Thanks!


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## Max (Apr 22, 2004)

I use Google for absoulutely everything.  For something similar to AlpineZone?  I'd probably type in "hiking backpacking forum"  "hiking backpacking bbs"  "new england hiking forum"...something similar.  I don't know a lot of the tricks, shortcuts, other bells and whistles to web searching.  I mainly rely on the "poke-around-until-I-find-it" method!  

Max


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## Stephen (Apr 22, 2004)

Google.

"white mountains hiking 48"
AZ has a hit 13 items down, for the wrong reason (timestamp has 48 in it).

"white mountains hiking"
AZ is hit #53.

-Stephen


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## Joshua B (Apr 22, 2004)

Google always does the trick. But I didn't have to search for this site. I found out about it when you were promoting it at Snowjournal.


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## Greg (Apr 22, 2004)

Joshua B said:
			
		

> But I didn't have to search for this site.


But if you were interested in finding a site that has the info found here, what search terms would you use?


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## ChileMass (Apr 22, 2004)

Google almost exclusively.  Once in a while I will use Altavista, especially to translate from another language, and once in a while Yahoo search.  

As I recall I found AZ from VFTT, but I could be wrong.  

If I were searching, I'd probably start with "skiing hikng boards", or "skiing hiking websites".  I'm interested to know who else is out there, not only in the NE region, but elsewhere becasue they may already have coverage of our backyard....


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## MichaelJ (Apr 22, 2004)

Google.

I would search things like:

hike backpack "new england" "white mountains" discussion


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## SilentCal (Apr 22, 2004)

I use Google all the time,  but like Max,  I usually take the long way to find anything.   If I remember correctly,  I stumbled across this site from a reference on the AMC boards.    "White Mountains NH"   but make sure that you don't confuse yourself with the White Mountains that are out west.   Northeast Hiking and Skiing.   Type in Flags on the 48 and you go right there.


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## skijay (Apr 22, 2004)

I Yahoo! 100% of the time.  The search criteria I would have used to find Alpine Zone is:  *ski forum new england*  It just happens that AZ is the first match.


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## pepsi (Apr 22, 2004)

I use Google most of the time now but I don't think it existed when I found this place. I probably used Yahoo then and when I typed in "hiking new england" a few minutes ago AZ came up number 2.


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## MtnMagic (Apr 22, 2004)

Google. If I was looking for sites for hiking I would enter "Hiking White Mountains NH, or Hiking NH."


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## skiguide (Apr 22, 2004)

oh for the love of god, people!  Repeat after me, Google is NOT GOD! 

the NEW Yahoo! search technology is on par with google, and just as relevant, i hope more people catch on to this.

don't get me wrong, i love google, i make a living off knowing how it works, but it can show some glaring holes at times, and the public is just obsessed with it because it's such a huge part of pop culture now. "just google it"!  

 but the general public has no idea how many people on the webmaster side of things are out there gaming the system, and how google might change drastically if/when they do ever go public. of course, Yahoo has similiar issues. 

greg.. little hint: wordtracker.com


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## Joshua B (Apr 22, 2004)

Welcome back skiguide. What is "gaming the system"? And what do you mean by glaring holes?


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## Stephen (Apr 22, 2004)

Joshua B said:
			
		

> Welcome back skiguide. What is "gaming the system"? And what do you mean by glaring holes?



Google gives hidden preference to paid advertisers.

-Stephen


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## skiguide (Apr 22, 2004)

Stephen said:
			
		

> Google gives hidden preference to paid advertisers.
> 
> -Stephen



THAT is absolutely NOT true &  not what I meant.  

It's incredibly easy to artificially inflate your site through on & off the page criteria (not abiding by google's own rules for webmasters/SEO's, ie, spamming) in order to achieve top 30 rankings for particular keywords.   

not that I would ever do something like that 


(for the record, i wouldn't & i don't use unethical search engine marketing tactics  Good content such as this site & others like it should rule out over automatically generated sites & pages!


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## skiguide (Apr 22, 2004)

Joshua B said:
			
		

> Welcome back skiguide. What is "gaming the system"? And what do you mean by glaring holes?



BTW, i didn't know i was gone... just quieter than normal.    well, i guess i was gone a lot during march/early april. I was in Telluride & Park City for 10 days, NYC & Orlando for another 10 days of search engine marketing conferences, and then in Alabama & Texas for 6.  

I'm here for awhile, and we have our first car races coming up May 1 & 2 in Epping, NH (this one TBD If the track is allowed to open) & Seekonk, MA. here's my car: 
http://www.ismasupers.com/Roster Pages/01-Osmeloski.htm


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## NH_Mtn_Hiker (Apr 22, 2004)

Why settle for one search engine?  Take your pick.
http://www.datavor.com/


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## skican (Apr 23, 2004)

I have used Yahoo for as long as I can remember. Don't know why, I just like it. I don't find Google as friendly. So...I found this site that way and this site has taken me everywhere. Enough to keep me busy here at work.  :lol:


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## Stephen (Apr 23, 2004)

skican said:
			
		

> Pray for Snow



I hereby nominate skican for the optimist of the year award. :lol:

-Stephen


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## skiguide (Apr 23, 2004)

skiguide said:
			
		

> how google might change drastically if/when they do ever go public.



hmm... i knew it was getting close.  Strong rumors today regarding google announcing IPO next week:
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=internetNews&storyID=4920518&section=news 

any stock junkies here?


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## skican (Apr 23, 2004)

I heard that the daffodils were getting bombarded by snow in Denver this morning. I think my prayers were answered. 

How many more months til next ski season. I CAN"T WAIT.


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## smitty77 (Apr 27, 2004)

I used to use Alta Vista, Lycos, Netscape search (I think) and Yahoo back before Google was around, and now I just use Google.  As for search terms, I would use:
Hiking New Hampshire
Hiking New England
Backpacking New Hampshire
White Mountains New Hampshire

I don't remember how I found this site.  Either through David Metsky's or Mohammed's, or VFTT.  I was browsing the internet for hiking sites way back in 95 in college and at the time there were only a couple for the Northeast.  One of them was hosted under Lexicomm.com that had a few pictures and some hiking trip reports but no message board.  Was that you Greg or Darren over at VFTT?  Does anyone else remember that site?


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## Greg (Apr 27, 2004)

smitty77 said:
			
		

> One of them was hosted under Lexicomm.com that had a few pictures and some hiking trip reports but no message board.  Was that you Greg or Darren over at VFTT?  Does anyone else remember that site?


Lexicomm was the old VFTT. AlpineZone wasn't born until 1998.


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## jjmcgo (Apr 27, 2004)

It's like Hitler's really dumb brother runs Google. For a long time when you typed "Jews" into Google, you'd get a top listing of a vitriolic anti-Semitic site. Some Jewish groups complained and were told that if they could get 50,000 names on a protest complaint, Google would change it. Say what? Anyone with good character would have done it immediately.
OK, so now it has been changed. Know what comes up No. 1 now?
Jews for Jesus.
So, I use anything but Google and ask that whenever possible, you do too.
They use No. American addresses but the servers are probably in Paraguay.
Sieg Heil, Google.


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## Joshua B (Apr 27, 2004)

Hmmm, I doubt it was personal. I doubt a Hitler-esque character personally programmed  which sites came up on a search for Jews.


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## NH_Mtn_Hiker (Apr 28, 2004)

jjmcgo said:
			
		

> It's like Hitler's really dumb brother runs Google. For a long time when you typed "Jews" into Google, you'd get a top listing of a vitriolic anti-Semitic site. Some Jewish groups complained and were told that if they could get 50,000 names on a protest complaint, Google would change it. Say what? Anyone with good character would have done it immediately.
> OK, so now it has been changed. Know what comes up No. 1 now?
> Jews for Jesus.
> So, I use anything but Google and ask that whenever possible, you do too.
> ...



Results of Datavor.com search "Jews"
MSN---Encarta, Jews
Lycos---Dating Sexy Jewish Singles in your City
Netscape---Dating Sexy Jewish Singles in your City
NBCI---JDate.com
About---Dating Sexy Jewish Singles in your City
Searchfeed---Metrodate.com
Altavista---JDate.com
Google---Jews for Jesus
Hotbot---Dating Sexy Jewish Singles in your City
Bay 9---
Mamma---Jews for Judaism
Metacrawler---JDate.com
GoClick---Metrodate.com
Dotzup---JDate.com
Overture---JDate.com
Looksmart---JDate.com
Go2Net---JDate.com
Directhit (Teoma)---Judaism 101
AOL(still sucks)---Dating Sexy Jewish Singles in your City
Dogpile---JDate.com
Search---Dating Sexy Jewish Singles in your City
7Search---Best Jew Directory on the web
Ah-ha (Enhance)---Look for Jews at E-bay  (Now there's a winner :roll: )
Findwhat---Jewish Prophecy
Northernlight---
Pageseeker---The Jewish Week
Kanoodle---Metrodate.com
411Web---JDate.com
Yahoo---JDate.com

I was bored


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## Stephen (Apr 29, 2004)

Mtn_Chipmunk said:
			
		

> I was bored



But you made a very good point... when you use a very broad topic, like "Jews" or "Anglicans" (you get an orthodox advocacy group, as opposed to the mainstream Anglican church) you can easily be misled by "freaked" results. Be sure to be more specific, "Jews and firearms" for example.  :roll: 

-Stephen


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## Greg (Sep 16, 2005)

Greg said:
			
		

> In addition to the poll, please include various search keywords or phrases you would use if searching for a site like AlpineZone.com. Please indicate them exactly as you would use them in the search engines, including abbreviations if applicable. Thanks!


Bump. I'd like to see some more examples of keyphrases you would use if searching for a site like this one...


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## ctenidae (Sep 16, 2005)

I Google- mostly because the front page is very simple, and it does just fine. I used to use Dogpile back in the day, but Google seems to beat the pants off everyone 99.9% of the time.

I've never gone looking specifically for a forum, and didn't find this one that way. Instead, I search on keywords related to a particular thing, whether anitem, article, product, whatever. I probably found AZ while looking for info on a ski area. I can't imagine there's a single ski (or snowboard)-related keyword in existence that isn't on this sight somewhere.


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## bvibert (Sep 16, 2005)

I always use Google, I've found it to be the best.

As far as search terms... My wife found this site and gave me the link, but I think I found it once before that.  I probably started with something like *ski forum* (doesn't find AZ in the first few pages) or *skiing forum* (has AZ on page 2 and its sister, coskiing.com on page 1).  If I refine the search to *ski forum northeast* or *ski forum new england* then it returns AZ first.


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## hammer (Sep 16, 2005)

I tend to make use of the "Search web for" feature in Firefox, which does a Google search on the highlighted text.  Nice feature...


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## ski_resort_observer (Sep 16, 2005)

I use Dogpile and Hotsheet. Dogpile includes Google in it searches and I like Hotsheet for the way they have their directory on the home page set up.

I still use Google because in the www world they are god.  :lol:


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