Yellow Pages or the Encyclopedia?
The internet does so many things it would be a mistake to call it one thing or another.
The world wide web is a filing cabinet, a billboard, a moving listing, a newspaper, a library, a radio and tv station, a place to hang out and talk and so much more.
If you are looking for something on the internet you've got to use some common sense…the world wide web is a "new world" but not as different from the past as you might assume.
If you want information on a local plumber or pizza delivery you probably will do ok with the yellow pages (although a recommendation from someone who's judgment you respect would be even better). You know that businesses Pay to get listed and that bigger ads cost them more money. Because the businesses must pay for the yellow page listings in each separate region you can be somewhat assured that they are interested and able to help you in the categories they pay to be included in.
If you are looking for information rather than goods or services, like "how does a toilet work" or "where was pizza invented" or "how to make pizza" you would use a reference book like an encyclopedia or a cook book.
Search engines have the problem of the mixing of sites with different purposes. The low cost of putting up an ad and attempts at maximum reach by site operators also hurts the quality of information that you get.
Eat at Joes signs don't improve Joe's food.
When ad's cost very little, or there are problems enforcing sign ordinances you'll get signs and ads everywhere. That causes a few dilemma's. All signs become less noticeable. A tasteful business faces a hard choice between playing the same dirty game, or avoiding it and building a word of mouth reputation only. The signs and ads say almost nothing one way or another on the web. Some recommendations are truly from respect, and the links are well earned. While you can look and judge the placement and color and feel of the ads the search engines have a difficult time making those human judgments.
What results frequently is the search engines becoming the equivalent of junk mail advertising, mixed in with your public television magazine's restaurant guide: but you can't quickly understand or see how they were mixed.
And of course if a business has something to sell they will go through a lot more expense of getting those signs up, than say a public library.
Stakes won't help much with steaks.
This one is pretty self explanatory. Lots of people make typing or spelling errors. The search engines are making progress with things like "did you mean" and new alternatives are being experimented with in different ways (below).
"Steak" might bring nutrition sites while "steak house" shows restaurants.
You can't always anticipate what to ask, but don't be pig headed or frustrate yourself by leafing though lots of bad results. Notice other words that are connected to what you are really looking for. More words typed in that are connected to your question will give you a better set of answers. Use the first searches as experiments then try again with what you noticed.
Using a regional restaurant guide, or a " how to " B-b-que site may be a better approach than "googling" "fresh salmon restaraunts in Seattle" or "how to cook salmon on my bar-b-que".
Search engines are generally attempts to program a computer to think like a human. Why not consult what real Humans have to say instead?
Topic sites run by enthusiasts will tend to have good information. You'll need to judge which ones are the best but good habits, saving things to your favorites, and "lists of great sites" can help find those places that will answer more specific questions rather than always going to one broad "search everything" sort of place.
Click on "News" tab for steak news or "local" option (some engines) for them to focus on where you are.
The various search engines are evolving in all sorts of ways. They are developing tools to help you get better results from the early "did you mean" to suggested topic categories at Google Sugest or at a search engine named Clusty . Places like Yahoo Local and Google Map use differing tools and more reliance on paid listings to avoid false information (and make money) which might work more like the yellow pages.
Because the different engines use different systems and because promoters are always trying to find ways to trick the engines, you really help yourself out by using more than one of them. You'll find that one engine works better for some topics than others. (as you'll find that some things, like local movie listings, might be better accessed from a local newspaper site or a magazine type web page where you've come to trust the reviewers opinions.
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