General Gaming Article

General Gaming Article


Best Search Engine: Google, Bing, and DuckDuckGo Compared!

Posted: 17 Nov 2014 02:46 PM PST

Search ScuffleWhich search engine is the best?

The web has grown from a single website in 1997 (World Wide Web Project) to more than a billion unique host names today. Around three quarters of those are inactive sites—parked domains and the such—but that still leaves over a quarter of a million sites. If you visited 10 different websites each day, it would take you roughly 70 years to get through them all, and that's only if no more sites are added. Yeah, fat chance of that happening!

Now imagine having to crawl each website, catalog the content, and then memorize the URL of each one so that if someone asks where they can find information about Siamese cats or what to do if stung by a scorpion, you can rattle off a list of appropriate URLs. Even Rain Man would be intimidated with such an impossible task.

Not to worry, there are better ways to the surf the web. Whenever we need to look up something online, we simply type our query into a search engine and wait for the results. On a high-speed connection, you can expect thousands and even millions of results in under a second—that's pretty miraculous, when you think about it.

Google is the only search engine that's generally accepted as a verb, as in, "Hey Bob, did you ever get around to Googling the honey badger video I told you about?" However, it's not the only search engine in town. Microsoft's Bing and Gabriel Weinberg's DuckDuckGo are two of the more popular alternatives, and like Google, each wants to be your go-to search engine.

Is one better than the other? That's a great question, so we set about tackling it by comparing the three competitors. We came up with several categories that are relevant to today's search queries, and then had each of the candidates show us their stuff. Hit the jump as we separate the contenders from the pretenders!

Accuracy

Determining accuracy is arguably the single most important aspect of evaluating a search engine, so we decided to jump right into the thick of things. Unfortunately, this is also the most challenging category, as it requires a fair amount of subjective analysis. With that in mind, we tried several different queries to see if any of the search engines stood out with more relevant results to what we had in mind.

We started off easy by searching for the time in Ecuador. All three search engines came back with the correct time, though only Google gave us the result before we were finished typing, let alone had a chance to click the search button.

This was followed by a search for Rowland High School, which is actually John A. Rowland High School, though we figured dropping the "John A." at the beginning shouldn't be problematic. And it wasn't. All three found the school in question, though DuckDuckGo opted to post a Wikipedia summary and an advertising link at the top of the results, whereas both Google and Bing plopped the school's homepage URL at the top. Bing did slightly better by also including a Facebook link on the first page -- Google made us go to the second page for it.

We tried several other searches, including the copying and pasting of a line from a recent article on our website. All three sites found the correct article, though only Google highlighted the line in the summary underneath the URL. Bing and GoGoDuck both didn't include the line in the summary. Why does this matter? If you're looking up an article based on a quote that stands out for whatever reason, only Google's presentation lets you know that it's found the correct URL before clicking through.

Switching our attention to breaking news, it was pretty much a wash between all three, even with only just minimal information. On the same day that a man armed with a small knife tried breaking into the White House, we performed a simple search for "White House" and all three came back with relevant news links for the breaking story.

DuckDuckGo White House

Winner: Draw

 



 

Image and Video Search

Evaluating image and video search results is a little easier than analyzing general accuracy—either a search engine finds the media you're looking for or it doesn't. We took off the gloves and starting with a search for "Shizzle vs Razer." It's an old video this editor posted of his cat taking swipes at an electric razer. It's also an obscure video, but one that we know exists, and only Google dug it up. Clicking on Google's Videos tab also brought up a bunch of other videos with either "Shizzle" or "Shaver" in the title—DuckDuckGo and Bing found none whatsoever.

Image searches were a little more evenly matched between the three. Whether we were searching for computer parts like the GTX 980 or new wallpaper by looking up the Celtics dancers, all three came back with current and relevant images. Interestingly, only Google sprinkled in a heavy dose of performance graphs when looking up the GTX 980.

Google and Bing separate themselves from DuckDuckGo because they offer some advanced options for looking up media. Both allow you to filter image results by license, time it was posted, size, and other criteria. However, Google eeks out a victory for its "search by image" tool. See that camera icon placed at the right of the search field? You can click it to look up sites that are using an image—just plug in the image's URL or upload the actual image. This can be handy in tracking down the image's owner to request permission to use it, or to look up your own photos to see if anyone's infringing on your copyright.

Google Images

Winner: Google

Layout and Features

Once again, DuckDuckGo is the lame duck of the bunch. The search engine's primary draw is privacy, and while there are some settings you can tweak, its overall layout and feature set isn't as robust as either Google or Bing, making this category a two-combatant fight.

Google's layout is straightforward; when searching for something, you can fine-tune your results into web, shopping, images, news, videos, maps, books, flights, and apps. Bing offers a similar set of options, though not quite as many. Microsoft's search engine also falls short in the shopping category—Bing no longer has a dedicated shopping tab. Instead, product results are integrated into search, though you typically have to look up a specific model to have any luck. Google, on the other hand, makes it easy to look up an item and then sort by price.

Google also wins when it comes to looking up flight information. Both Google and Bing make it easy to search for flights, but when you click on the calendar to look at dates, only Google shows you the different prices for each day of the month. This eliminates the guessing the game of picking out a date and hoping that it returns a cheaper result than the last one you looked at.

One feature in Bing's favor—and it's a potentially big one—is Bing Rewards. It's mostly gift cards that you can earn simply by using Bing as your go-to search engine, such as $5 at Amazon or Applebees. Yes, Bing is essentially bribing you, but we're okay with that.

If earning gift cards is important to you, Bing is the only way to go. Otherwise, Google is the victor here.

Google Flights

Winner: Google


Privacy and Security

A big reason (and maybe the only reason) you might be familiar with DuckDuckGo is because it prioritizes privacy over all else. Google is big on integrating your online identity with its services, including search, and knows what you've searched for, when you searched for something, and other personal details. You'd do well to familiarize yourself with Google's privacy policy.

Bing is a little better when it comes to privacy, but you're still not anonymous—Bing holds onto IP addresses for six months and retains cookies and other cross-session identifiers for 18 months, according to the company's privacy statement. Microsoft also has sections explaining how it uses your personal information and reasons why it shares that info.

DuckDuckGo is different. It doesn't collect or share personal information, it doesn't know who you are, and there is no way for the search engine to tie your searches together, according to its privacy page. DuckDuckGo doesn't store your IP and no cookies are used by default. All this privacy comes at the expense of certain features—Google's integration with your social profile is quite good—but in terms of staying anonymous, DuckDuckGo is clearly ahead of the other two.

DuckDuckGo Privacy

Winner: DuckDuckGo

Easter Eggs

There's no denying that Google has a sense of humor and likes to have fun. The company demonstrates this time and time again, whether through its creative doodles (including interactive ones) or by dropping Easter eggs from time to time. Have you ever tried searching for "do a barrel roll" on Google? How about "askew"? Whether it's searching through Google's hacker interface or seeing what search results looked like in 1998, there are plenty of tricks and fun stuff to discover in Google.

Google Barrel Roll

Winner: Google

And the Winner Is...

If you're keeping score at home, then you already know that Google takes this contest by winning three of the five categories and notching a tie in another. By that token, Google has the best search engine of the bunch, and while it's the one we use most often, we're willing to concede there are valid arguments in favor of the other two.

For privacy advocates, DuckDuckGo is a solid search engine that lets you surf the web without leaving behind a bunch of bread crumbs for Uncle Sam or anyone else to follow. Your ISP still knows what you're up to, but at least the sites you visit are being kept at arm's length.

If you like earning free stuff, Bing is the best option for its rewards program. It's also a very good all-around search engine with accurate and fast results, it's just not as good as Google in the grand scheme of things.

AMD Rumor Points to a Faster Hawaii Graphics Card

Posted: 17 Nov 2014 01:30 PM PST

AMD RadeonAMD might not be finished with Hawaii

Ever since AMD launched its Hawaii GPU architecture, there have been rumblings that a faster version exists, perhaps locked away in the Sunnyvale chip designer's underground vault for a rainy day. If that's the case, be on the lookout for storm clouds -- word on the web is that AMD will launch a faster Hawaii part next year before it comes out with Fiji. How exactly it will be faster isn't yet known.

There are multiple paths AMD could take, from higher clock speeds to more stream processors. AMD could also make optimizations to the architecture, though none of this is confirmed, of course. Whatever the case may be, news and rumor site Fudzilla seems to feel confident that a faster card is coming.

"We have learned that AMD plans to launch another Hawaii-based product before it releases Fiji," Fudzilla said, adding that both are scheduled to arrive in the first half of 2015.

If that's the case, the likely scenario will be a faster clocked part. The folks at wccftech.com, another site that's known for digging up unannounced information, thinks the new Hawaii GPU will be part of the Radeon R9 300 series rather than the current R9 200 series. The site surmises that the recent price cuts indicate AMD wants to push out as many GCN GPUs as they can in the 200 series before bumping up to its first round of R9 300 parts.

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AMD Exec "Misspoke" Regarding DirectX 12 Not Working with Windows 7

Posted: 17 Nov 2014 12:55 PM PST

DirectX 12Maybe DirectX 12 is bound for Windows 7, after all

AMD Chief Gaming Scientist Richard Huddy made waves in the media when he said Windows 7 will not support DirectX 12. He made the comment in a matter-of-fact manner while speaking at the PDXLAN event, which was caught on video (and later pulled from YouTube). Whether or not that ends up being true remains to be seen, but as far as his comments go, AMD called them "speculative," adding that he "misspoke" on the topic.

"There have been reports based on a video of Richard Huddy of AMD making speculative comments around DirectX 12 support on versions of Windows," AMD said in a statement, according to GameSpot. "Richard Huddy does not speak for Microsoft, and he was unfortunately speculating from Microsoft's publication of key dates and milestones for Windows 7 lifecycle and mainstream support policy. Richard has no special insight into Microsoft's Windows or DirectX roadmaps. Microsoft is a key, strategic partner for AMD and we're continuously collaborating with them on DirectX 12."

No doubt AMD received an earful from Microsoft following Huddy's comments, especially since gamers haven't been all that eager about upgrading to Windows 8, which Microsoft confirmed will support DX12. Whether Huddy is privy to inside info or not, Microsoft hasn't officially said one way or another whether Windows 7 will support DX12.

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Sony's Stacked CMOS Sensor Ups the Ante in Smartphone Photography

Posted: 17 Nov 2014 12:17 PM PST

Sony AFRaising the bar for smartphone photography

Sony today announced the commercialization of its new Exmor RS IMX230, the industry's first CMOS image sensor for smartphones to boast an onboard image plane phase detection AF signal processing function for superior focus tracking of fast-moving subjects. It's rated at 21 megapixels (effective) and sports a High Dynamic Range (HDR) function to capture backgrounds and subjects clearly and vividly, even in high-contrast scenes, Sony says.

The Exmor RS uses a chip consisting of signal processing circuits, on top of which is stacked a pixel section consisting of back-illuminated pixels for an original stacked construction. This is supposed to allow for better image quality and high functionality in a compact size needed for mobile devices like smartphones.

For fast moving subjects, like those you'd encounter at a sporting event, dedicated image plane phase detection AF pixels discretely incorporated into the screen of the image sensor help capture the action -- up to 192 AF points can be used, Sony says.

The new CMOS image sensor will ship in April 2015. Sony also plans to offer the same type of technology in a 16-megapixel sensor by the end of the next fiscal year.

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Nvidia's Mightly Tesla K80 Accelerator Packs Two GPUs, 24GB of GDDR5 Memory

Posted: 17 Nov 2014 09:08 AM PST

Nvidia Tesla K80Meet the world's fastest accelerator

If there are any kids within earshot, send them off to play or cover their ears before reading any further, we wouldn't want their little ears being exposed to excited obscenities that may follow. As in, "Holy sh*t, how much RAM!?" Try 24GB of GDDR5 memory, which is how much Nvidia decided to use on its Tesla K80 dual-GPU accelerator, the new flagship offering in the Tesla family.

According to Nvidia, the Tesla K80 offers nearly double the performance and memory bandwidth of its predecessor, the Tesla K40. It also boasts ten times higher performance than today's fastest CPUs, as it was designed for the most difficult computational challenges around -- astrophysics, genomics, quantum chemistry, data analytics, and so forth.

With two GPUs on board, 24GB of GDDR5 memory, and 4,992 CUDA parallal processing cores, the Tesla K80 boasts 480GB/s of memory bandwidth, 8.74 teraflops of single-precision peak floating point performance, and up to 2.91 teraflops of double-precision peak floating point performance. For the sake of comparison, Nvidia's Maxwell-based GeForce GTX 980 offers 5 teraflops of single-precision performance.

The Tesla K80 has begun shipping to server manufactures -- no word on price.

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Facebook May Launch a Social Network for Working Professionals

Posted: 17 Nov 2014 08:35 AM PST

Facebook TieDoes the world need another LinkedIn?

The web already has a social network for professionals -- it's called LinkedIn, perhaps you've heard of it? You can bet that Mark Zuckerberg has, and apparently he's a bit envious. How so? Facebook is reportedly working in secret on a new social website called "Facebook at Work," which appropriately enough is aimed at working professionals with special tools and features for collaborating on projects.

Citing people familiar with the matter, the Financial Times says the new site will allow users to chat with colleagues, connect with other professionals, collaborate over documents, and more. Not only will it be competing with LinkedIn, but also Google Drive and Microsoft Office.

The site itself will look similar to Facebook and contain some of the same elements, like a newsfeed and groups. However, it will let users separate their personal profile from their professional one.

FT's sources say Facebook employees have been using the site for a long time now. The topic of expanding it to other companies is one that comes up fairly often, and gained momentum last year. It's now being tested with companies in preparation for a wide scale launch.

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Origin PC Turns 5 Years Old, Celebrates By Offering Genesis and Millennium Cases

Posted: 17 Nov 2014 06:50 AM PST

Origin PC CasesOwn the case without the guts

Boutique system builder Origin PC is celebrating its official 5-year anniversary since launching its online store, during which time it's released 20 products and won over 25 awards and accolades. More recently, Origin PC trotted out new cases for its Millennium mid-tower and Genesis full-tower PCs, and for a limited time, you can purchase either chassis by itself. It's the first time Origin PC has offered up cases for sale.

Both were designed and built from the ground up with an aggressive and industrial motif, though the real standout trait is the Variable Mounting feature. This allows the motherboard to be mounted in four different orientations -- standard ATX, inverted ATX, 90 degrees, or inverted 90 degrees.

You can also shove up to four graphics cards in either case. Other features include remote controlled LED lighting, dual-hinge front door design, five hot-swappable HDD bays, and Kensington locks (optional).

These case are available now for a limited time, though they don't come cheap -- the Millennium mid-tower runs $399 and the Genesis full-tower commands $449.

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Newegg Daily Deals: Corsair CSM Series 600W PSU, AMD A8-5600K, and More!

Posted: 17 Nov 2014 06:26 AM PST

Corsair CX600Mnewegg logo

Top Deal:

And the award for the most under-appreciated PC part goes to (*drum roll*)...the power supply! Hey, buying a PSU may not be as fun and interesting as a new graphics card, but it's just as important. Ever see a PSU go up in smoke? We have, which is why we we avoid no-name, generic PSUs -- it's name-brand or bust! If you're of that philosophy too, check out today's top deal for a Corsair CXM Series CX600 600W Power Supply for $35 with free shipping (normally $60 - use coupon code: [EMCWWWF22] and $20 mail-in-rebate). For not a lot of coin, you get a name-brand PSU that's 80 Plus Bronze certified, has modular cables, supports multiple GPUs, and is backed by a three-year warranty.

Other Deals:

AMD A8-5600K Trinity Quad-Core 3.6GHz (3.9GHz Turbo) Socket FM2 100W Desktop APU for $70 with free shipping (normally $90 - use coupon code: [EMCWWWF26])

G.Skill Trident X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 2133 (PC3 17000) Desktop Memory for $158 with free shipping (normally $175 - use coupon code: [EMCWWWF32])

G.Skill Sniper Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900) Desktop Memory for $141 with free shipping (normally $165 - use coupon code: [EMCWWWF28])

Corsair Carbide Series 500R Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case for $70 with free shipping (normally $100 - use coupon code: [EMCWWWF37]; additional $20 Mail-in rebate)

Walmart to Begin Selling $99 Windows 8.1 Tablet on Black Friday

Posted: 16 Nov 2014 09:21 PM PST

E Fun NextbookE Fun Nextbook will come with a 1 year Office 365 Personal subscription

Another ultra-cheap Windows 8.1 tablet is getting ready to join Microsoft's ongoing assault on Chromebooks and low-end Android tablets. The 8-inch Nextbook from E Fun will be available at Walmart stores on Black Friday 2014 for as low as $99.99, Microsoft announced in a blog post Thursday.

Where specs are concerned, the Nextbook contains the usual suspects: a twisted nematic (TN) 1280 x 800 touch display, a quad-core Intel Atom Z3735G clocked at 1.8GHz, 1GB of RAM, 16GB internal storage, WIFI 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, 0.3MP front camera, 2MP rear shooter, one mini USB port, a micro HDMI port and a microSD card slot. Also included in this price are a 1 year subscription to Office 365 Personal (includes 1TB cloud space) and, as part of a limited time offer, a 16GB microSD card.

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