In choosing which search tool (Google or Federated) is the best, student opinion is equally divided. In short, student preference for Google is due to familiarity and ease of use, and student preference for Federated is due to more scholarly results, and citations provided. Additionally, some other search tools of possible merit have been omitted from the research of student preferences surveyed.

Certainly both tools have their advantages and disadvantages. Perhaps combining the best features of both into one tool might be worthwhile. A feature that I would like to see added would be the ability to “vote down” a search result which is deceptive or fraudulent. At present, a researcher might click on a Google result, only to find that the page which loads has nothing to do with the subject desired. But the site has gained the “click” or hit on the page, and while the researcher may be angry that her time was wasted, there is nothing that she can do to remove the click and vote the site down in the search engine results. A similar situation is found where the click results in the loading of a page which offers the results only if paid for, usually at an exorbitant price. Again, the researcher’s time has been wasted, and the “payware” site has its click. I would like to see Google having a little pop-up window which would say, “Was this site helpful? Yes or No.” The researcher could then vote “no” on the fraudulent or payware site, and vote its search engine ranking down, until it no longer appears high in search engine rankings to waste the the time of busy researchers.