52 Weeks to Better Genealogy - Challenge 14

Week 14: Use a different search engine for your online genealogy research. Google is quite popular, but other search engines may provide different results. Try Yahoo! Search (http://search.yahoo.com/), Bing (http://www.bing.com/), Ask.com (http://www.ask.com/), Dogpile (http://www.dogpile.com/), and even Clusty (http://clusty.com/). Pick an unusual surname and search it in different engines. Make note of the top 10 page returns for each.

This challenge most definitely IS a challenge. I am a Google lover through and through! I use Google to search, for my email, for my blog, for my reader...I think you get the picture here. However, in the true spirit of a Geneablogger I will give the others *shudder* a try. The test will be as suggested, pick an unusual surname and search for it. My Dad's family is the Baudermanns and they are few and far between in the US as well as in Germany. I will see if any of these search engines can give me something new *come on Google, don't let me down now*. I will use Baudermann as my search phrase and view the first ten pages of results from each site.

1. Yahoo: Nothing new, a lot of sites in German, my blog showed up three times as well as some of my queries on message boards.

2. Bing: No new information, Bing did return more sites in German than Yahoo did. I did like the fact that Bing's translation service put the English and German versions side by site.

3. Ask: Sadly, no new information to report. Ask did return some Historical NY Times articles, which I already had, but Yahoo and Bing did not in the first ten pages.

4. Dogpile: Dogpile is the compilation of Goole, Bing, Yahoo and Ask but only returned three pages of results, none of which were new.

5. Clusty: Clusty is a new search engine to me, I've not used this before so I'm hoping for positive results. I like the fact that related search results come back clustered together, that's a new approach. Clusty is also the first to return some of my very own tweets containing the Baudermann name. While Clusty does not appear to have any new information for me, I did spend more time with it simply because it's arrangement of the information caught my attention. I must also admit, I looked past the first ten pages of results.

I liked this challenge, as designed, I traveled off the beaten path in search of information.

Happy Birthday To ME!!

 

Looks as if I liked to climb things from the beginning. I must have been born with my desire to climb my family tree!

52 Weeks to Better Genealogy - Challenge 13

Week 13: Make an appointment with Cyndi’s List. All beginning genealogy publications include a link to Cyndi’s List because it is the ultimate guide for family history links. If you’ve never used Cyndi’s List, take the time to look around. If you’re familiar with the site, look again. Take the time to browse with detail. Don’t try to research your own family’s history, just move through the site and get a feel of all it has to offer. If you have a genealogy blog, share with your readers a new website you discovered through Cyndi’s List.

If you don't have Cyndi's List on your favorites list, you should. Where else can you find over 270,000 links to genealogy related websites in one place? Yes, some links may lead to dead ends because a site has been moved or is no longer functioning, but most links do work and you will love what you find.

Something else to keep in mind if you do run into a bad link, the site is "Cyndi's List" and it is Cyndi who takes care of things. So if a link is bad, or if you submit your link and it takes a little while to get it posted, remember that this is one person doing us all a HUGE service!

Cyndi's List will not only direct you to research data, you will also find research instruction, services and volunteers. There are links to help you with source citation, form analysis and descriptions. Don't think of the list as only a group of links to find data, there is so much more. Thanks Cyndi!