Engines


Oh the saga of search engines.

 Maybe, it's because I don't think like this.


It is really frustrating to spend so much time utilizing  search engines, when they are not as effective as they could be.  Tuesday, I spent about 4 hours searching several databases for all the information I could possibly find on several families.  Feeling very confident that I had located all of the records in that database, I moved on to the next family member.

I threw all my "search engine knowledge" in to each individual search.  For each search, I used wild cards, exact matches, and close matches.  I used locations and exact locations.  I used every possible way that I am aware of to search these databases, and when finished I felt confident that I had found every possible record in each database.

Until I changed search engines...

 
After one hour of re-researching only two names in one database, I  found another family to add to my database including two census records, and for the second individual, I found 2 more census records, a birth record, and a death record.  This is the same database that I used at home, the difference, the search engine.

Imagine how much time I could save IF I could get the same results by using just ONE complete/comprehensive search engine! How much am I missing in each database, because of the inaccuracy of the search engine?  (I am not even talking about the inaccuracy of transcribers or other factors.)

I believe this is where genealogists get frustrated with technology.  If the information in the database is there, we HAVE to be able to access it.  It should be easier and faster than looking at films and in historic records.  We NEED to have good, dependable search engines, otherwise its similar to going to a repository and looking through records without your glasses--your sure to miss some valuable information and important documents.

I sincerely hope that the RootsTech conference that I attended this past February 2011,  helps technology people see that we really need to fix this problem.  Not only is it frustrating, it is a liability because researchers begin to not trust databases, second guess what is and isn't available, and really aren't sure of their searches.

Finally, yes I am whining, even though I KNOW that it is much easier with computers, databases, and the internet for all of this work.  I KNOW that technology is transforming research and it is launching families further into history because of what is more readily available.  However, just think of how much more we could accomplish if search engines were more family history friendly!!! 


P.S.  Just when I believe I am ready to toss a few more dollars into this hobby and purchase more subscriptions for family history research,  I am reminded that I would be paying for the incompetent/unreliable search engine.  So listen up, commercial subscription web sites--step-it-up.  I would not pay for a car that runs some of the time, so why would I pay for a search engine that only finds some of the records?



hmmmmmmmmmmmmm!

(Thank you goosle and yahoo images!)

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