Why the web is often woeful

Pete writes “BBC technology commentator Bill Thompson asks why we settle for less when it comes to web searching http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4131793.stm

“Unless I am looking for a straightforward piece of factual information – yesterday Max wanted to know what the five tastes were and could only remember sweet, salt, sour and bitter – I always search on two or three sites.

And I am making a lot more use of specific searches on places like Wikipedia and subscription database services.

But it has proven harder than I expected it would be to stop going straight to Google when I need to find something out, and I think it is time to admit defeat.

Google is, as sites like Searchenginewatch have been saying for some time, the best search engine.

The trouble is, it is still not very good.””