User blog comment:Ralok/The Search Changes/@comment-4674838-20120512054422/@comment-4674838-20120513210326

I disagree, it's fair game to compare anything on the internet to anything else on the internet. I will compare forums with wikis when I want to. I'll compare facebook with google when I want to. I'll compare youtube with http://dictionary.reference.com/ when I want to. Perhaps such comparisons may not always be as fruitful as comparing say Wikipedia to Wikia, but in this case, the comparison yields useful information.

What do all internet sites have in common? 1) They exist for the purpose of their users and 2) Generally, they're all accessed by the same interface (PCs, laptops, mobile phones) that people become accustomed to.

When talking about a generic internet feature such as "search" which is very broad in scope, valuable data can be obtained when drawing comparisons between any and all internet sites that have some form of search. For example, a very valid argument could be made that search should behave similarly from one website to the next, so as to not confuse people.