Searching for Tutorials
I’m a committed Google search user. I like Google’s easy interface, it’s intuitive shortcuts, and it’s uncannily accurate search results. Other general search engines just don’t seem to measure up.
However, Google and it’s lesser counterparts search the entire web–or at least as much of the web as can be indexed on a regular basis. That’s a lot of information to sift through. Sometimes it’s more effective to search a subset of the web with a tool that is targeted toward the specific results you want. Google Scholar is a good example–it searches only journals, peer-reviewed papers, theses, abstracts, and related academic topics. Another example, cited elsewhere on this blog, is Everyzing, a search engine that uses advanced algorithms to search for online videos by content and not just titles or text descriptions.
That’s why I was (initially) very excited to find TuToogle, a search engine that claims to index over 100,000 online tutorials on a variety of subjects. The site’s goal is an admirable one–a one-stop portal for finding out how to do things. A quick check of the site’s search capabilities was promising–it quickly found tutorials for PowerPoint, Excel, AutoCad, and a few others that I tried.
Disappointment began to set in when I searched for tutorials for Inspiration, an outlining, brainstorming, and concept-mapping tool that I use in my classes. TuToogle found nothing at all other than a couple of unrelated PhotoShop tutorials. Searching Google with “inspiration tutorial” immediately returned dozens of relevant sites. Further, TuToogle’s on-screen display of returned hits is dismal. TuToogle provides meager descriptions of the site along with the site’s title, and the hits are randomly mixed in with ads from Google. There does not seem to be any kind of prioritization of hits, either–another area in which Google excels. And–unforgivable for a new search tool–some of the hits were dead links.
TuToogle is–at least at present–a very disappointing iteration of a potentially very useful tool. For now, use Google.
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2 Responses to “Searching for Tutorials”
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Have you looked at Google Co-op search engines? These can be set up by anyone and the person who builds them decides which sites will be searched when producing the results list.
There may be other tutorials search engines using that technology. They are easy to set up.
I have built a couple of these, one for mind mapping generally and another for concept mapping. They are at http://www.mind-mapping.org/article_main.php
The mind mapping one is the most developed for now, and I’ve had input from many people in the mind mapping field as to which sites to include. I’ll be adding to the concept mapping one’s source sites soon (any suggestions welcome), but it does have some authority sites. There’s a link that shows the sites drawn on in each case.
A search on tutorials inspiration shows most of the results being on Inspiration’s own site (not surprising given the search terms), but I guess you’ll have looked there already.
Regards
Vic
http://www.mind-mapping.org
The master list of mind mapping &
information management software
Regarding Vic Gee’s comments: I have not looked at Google Co-op, but based on your excellent mind-mapping and concept-mapping engines, I’ll certainly be doing so ASAP.
Vic has produced a very valuable resource for educators. Concept-mapping applications (aka graphical organizers, mind maps) are powerful tools for educators. Take a look at Vic’s site if you are not familiar with these tools.