MetaGlossary provides users with access to over 2 million words, terms and so on. It works in a similar manner to the Google define: function, though I’ve found that it tends to be rather more comprehensive. Definitions for ‘search engine optimization’ resulted in 1 related phrase with Google and 15 with MetaGlossary. Google gave a total of 23 definitions while MetaGlossary gave me 85 definitions. To be fair, this wasn’t always the case, since Google did come up trumps on some terms that I searched for, such as RAC (I was looking for Royal Automobile Club) and the MetaGlossary failed to find that one at all.
It initially just shows 3 results, which I found were usually enough to give me a handle on a term, but you can expand this with the ‘more’ option. In situations where a term may have very different meanings MetaGlossary breaks this out with the use of keywords, which I found helpful. Both work with personal names as well, though neither is perfect – Google found one Danny Sullivan (Formula One driver), while MetaGlossary found both the driver and a fictional character from a soap opera. Consequently I wouldn’t want to rely on either resource to give me a good overview of an individual, but worth thinking of if you are getting stuck looking for data on a person, though my first port of call would tend to be Ask to see if they had a quick answer/biography.
MetaGlossary is certainly worth using if you need an overview of a subject, or a quick definition, and while it’s reasonably comprehensive it’s worth remembering the alternatives. As a complete aside, this is the first time that I’ve seen an animated favicon in operation, though you have to be quite quick to catch it!
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