Five sites beyond Google

"I’d never argue that Google is always the fastest, most effective way to find facts, seek advice, take actions, or simply satisfy your curiosity about the world around you. Actually, there are more viable Google alternatives than ever. For the most part, they don’t compete by trying to out-Google Google at basic Web searching. Instead, they do useful things that Google doesn’t."

Harry McCracken shares some brief thoughts about Bing, Siri, Twitter, Aardvark and Wolfram/Alpha.