Compare & Contrast Essay

OUTLINE 

I.   Intro – Talk about search engines, and introduce Google's and Yahoo's.

II.  Body

     A)Yahoo & Google (Appearance)

     B)Yahoo & Google (Functionality)

     C)Yahoo & Google (Accuracy)

III.Conclusion – Paraphrasing, talk about which one's best for what.

Compare & Contrast Essay

The Internet is a growing source of information that is becoming a standard in research. The places in which to look for information seem to be limitless, and the search engines that make it easy to find it come and go with as much frequency as that of teenage trends; one day they are the most popular, and the next one they have disappeared. However, two search engines have become prevalent in the fight to come out on top; Google and Yahoo. Following we will be comparing and contrasting both search engines according to their appearance, their functionality, and finally their accuracy.

Overall both companies offer the same main feature; a field that enables you to search for information from the World Wide Web. There are, however, some significant differences within both websites. Yahoo´s user interface seems to always be plagued with information. Although its search field is placed on top of the page, the rest of the content distracts away from its main purpose, which should focus on the search engine. Google on the other hand provides a very clean and friendly interface. The features that make up the website are focused on its search field, which is aligned right at the middle of the web page, and there is no additional text or images to take attention away from its engine. So while Yahoo offers more features on its website they can be very distracting, and while Google focuses on its main objective, it does not offer much more than a search field. In the end it all depends on the purpose at hand and the user´s preference.

As far as functionality both companies offer many features that range from researching, to offering news from all over the world, to providing email services among other things. Yahoo's many links within their main website are supposed to make it easier to find these features but, because of the vast amount of information being displayed at once, it instead becomes a confusing and sometimes tedious task. Google goes to the other extreme as it is often hard to find the features they offer, features that not many people know even exist, and this is due to the simplistic approach they took at building their website. There are even many more features you cannot gain access to until you type in the full web address for it, or ironically enough, until you search for it using their search engine. Either way, it takes the user time to familiarize with one or the other, to then decide which company´s features are best suited for the needs at hand.

Regardless of the number of elements they may have, in the end they are both search engines sharing the same purpose, and so it all comes down to how good a job they do. After typing up “compare and contrast essays” to research information for this composition, Yahoo´s search results gave me a list of websites offering free sample compare and contrast essays already written, as well as a whole bunch of advertisements for companies specialized on writing professional essays at a certain cost. Clicking on these links proved them to be hooks, nothing but false advertisements aimed at getting people to buy their service, as well as to purchase other products absolutely unrelated to the topic at hand. Whereas typing in the same term on Google's search engine turned up many links about what a compare and contrast essay was, about its structure, and many tutorials on how to write one correctly. Clicking on these links confirmed that the information provided by Google's search results was real and quite helpful, but most importantly; it was accurate.

Knowing where to look for information is of utmost importance and could mark the difference between a failing grade and an outstanding one. As far as features and accessibility, Yahoo's interface offers a more appealing look to its website, but even these features are of no help when the user's main purpose is to find accurate documentation. When it comes down to looking for trustworthy resources, it is pretty clear that Google's search engine is far superior than Yahoo's, and this in turn places it out on top. The Internet is nowadays the preferred way of researching. When we use it, however, we must keep in mind that if we are to be practical we must also be precise. Thus if we use a tool in which we depend on crucially, we have to make sure it is reliable and save us the problems that could arise thereafter, because as the saying goes “it’s better to be safe than sorry”.