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'Search Engine for Fun' Delivers Mixed Results

Goby great for finding activities in cities, not so hot on small towns

By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff

Posted Oct 21, 2009 8:56 AM CDT

(Newser) – A search engine for stuff to do is a great concept but Goby has plenty of kinks that still need to be worked out before it can be the go-to site for people with time to kill, writes Katherine Boehret. Users type in the "What, Where and When" of things they'd like to do or see and the site delivers hundreds of options gleaned from trawling its hundreds of chosen Internet sources, Boehret writes in the Wall Street Journal.

"With very little effort I found things in Washington, DC, that I've never heard of in the 7-plus years I've lived here," she writes, but the results dived in quality when she tried searching for options in smaller towns. The site has only been up for a few weeks, and its makers say results will improve as more people use it and bugs are worked out. One thing that would make it incredibly useful, Boehret notes, is a mobile app.

A sample page of results from Goby.
A sample page of results from Goby.   (Goby)
Goby tries to be simple enough so that you can get some ideas and start doing the things you want to do rather than wasting hours in front of the computer, writes Mossberg.
Goby "tries to be simple enough so that you can get some ideas and start doing the things you want to do rather than wasting hours in front of the computer," writes Mossberg.   (Goby)
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If you get lucky with Goby, you'll find activities that let you do as its name says: Go, be and enjoy your surrounding area. But the site's results need to be much more accurate for me to start relying on it full time. - Katherine Boehret

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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 7 comments
diltsduo
Oct 21, 2009 10:19 AM CDT
lol. you sound just like me. first things i would type in just to see what it says!
plstyle
Oct 21, 2009 9:31 AM CDT
hmmm... entering "do drugs" turns up two locations that cost from 4,500-12,000 (all the coke you can get your nose in)? When I enter "buy guns" nothing is suggested... Damn it!
plstyle
Oct 21, 2009 9:19 AM CDT
Forget Goby, go Yelp. Yelp.com

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