All Bets Are Off - 3/11/2002

Google or Ditto?
by Jon, Conval High School

Anybody who uses the Internet uses search engines. They help us find what we are looking for fast and without doing much work. Originally, search engines would only tell you about web sites that matched the keyword you typed in, but now you can search for more specific things like pictures. There are many search engines that will allow you to specify that you want to only search for pictures, all of which have a different variety of pictures. Many of the same pictures will show up on, let's say, two search engines, but many of them will be different. Now I am going to tell you my opinion on two of the most popular search engines for finding pictures: Ditto and Google Image Search. 

At first glance you would think that Ditto would have a better variety of pictures because it is a picture-only search engine and Google allows you to search for anything, but I have found that not to be true. Google doesn't just seem to have a better selection of pictures, but it does have a better selection of pictures. I spend a lot of my time on the Internet, and I am frequently searching for pictures of various subjects. I have found Google to be much better than Ditto for finding a large variety of pictures that have to do with the same subject. 

Google is also convenient because it allows you to switch back and forth between Web based, Image based, Group based and Directory based searches without loosing your original results. If you were looking for a picture of a famous person for a project and you also needed to find a biography, you can do that on Google. You can just start your search in the Image section, find a picture, then click on the tab for Web results and find a web site that has a good biography. Google is not only a great site for finding pictures, but you can also find some really great web sites there. 

I wanted to prove my theory, so I went to both sites and searched for images using the keyword: "walmart." I hit search and awaited the results. Google came up first and had over 28,000 results, and then Ditto came up with 9. I looked through many of the Google images, and they were much more related to "walmart" than the ones on Ditto. Google had great pictures of different Wal-mart stores, signs and logos, as well as many pictures of products that can be found at Wal-mart stores. Ditto had a few pictures of Wal-mart stores and a couple signs and that's about it. A few of the pictures didn't even seem to have anything to do with Wal-mart. 

I know there are probably some pictures that you could find on Ditto that you couldn't find on Google, but that is rare. I don't think I have ever found anything better on Ditto that I couldn't find on Google. Google is not only a good place to search for web sites, but it is one of the best, if not the best place to search for pictures. So the next time you are trying to find a picture on the Internet, try going to www.google.com. You won't be disappointed. 

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