May 12, 2010; Vol. 4, Issue 5

Search.

It all comes down to search.

The tools keep improving and melding and changing. Why does it matter that you keep up with the advances? It matters because it saves you time getting the information you crave. For instance:

How can I find people on Twitter?

Of course, you can search the Find People page on Twitter. But what if you don’t know a specific person or a name? What if you want moms of triplets?

Well, brace yourself.

Tweepsearch allows you to search Twitter bios. I am not kidding.

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Is that awesome, or what?

I want to search Flickr. Is there a better way?

Yes, there is. Try Compfight.

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You get a huge page of thumbnail results. And fast. Super fast. (Did I say fast?)

And it searches text or tags.

Fast data

While it seems the buzz about Wolfram Alpha has all but evaporated, I still love the little guy.

Sure it’s all mostly data and math and facts. But who doesn’t love that stuff? And besides, there are word origins and definitions. Even occupational information. Like this about bus drivers. Did you know that 1 in 291 Americans is employed as a school bus driver? That’s about the same as the stats for barristas in the U.S. Coincidence? I think not.

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No matter how you’re searching (cough: Google), there is likely a better way for some of it. Branch out. Take a chance.

The search developers of the world will thank you.