[Athen] Ruminations on search engines and changes to the results of searches

[Prof Norm Coombs]

I am amazed at how efficiently search engines usually locate what I am 
looking for in the top half dozen of the results.  It is almost miraculous.
Recently, I have become aware that an entire set of search results I used 
to get seem not to be found
For example, I used to be able to do a search for something like "African 
American church" and in the results there would be personal or a 
professor's Web site informally sharing something on the topic and often 
sharing unpublished writings.  Now, the results, more often than not, will 
point to published books on the topic for purchase but not find the more 
informal information I used to enjoy.  A professor's handouts for a class 
on the topic frequently provided detailed and free information that met my 
needs without my purchasing a published book.
I find that non-commercial sources of information appear less often than 
they did 10-15 years ago.

I wonder if this is my peculiar experience or whether others are noticing 
that a set of useful, informal and free information that surely is still on 
the Web is much harder to locate???

Norm



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Norman Coombs norm.coombs at gmail.com
CEO EASI Equal Access to Software and Information
phone (949) 855-4852 (NOTE pacific time zone)
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