Search Tools Tailored to You

Two new tools aim to make your web searches more valuable—and while both succeed, differences in how Google’s SearchWiki and Surf Canyon operate will make the difference for users, Katherine Boehret writes in the Wall Street Journal. SearchWiki acts as a function of a Google account: While logged in, it allows users to change the order results appear in and add notes on the link.

Your notes and rankings will reappear whenever you perform the same search (and are logged in to Google). Surf Canyon requires no such homework, rearranging search results as you click through to give you more relevant links. It also works with several major search engines (SearchWiki only works with Google), but doesn’t remember your results, and must be separately downloaded and installed. (More Google stories.)