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Major Search Engines
Google has a well-deserved
reputation as the top choice for those searching the web. The crawler-based
service provides both comprehensive coverage of the web along with great relevancy.
It's highly recommended as a first stop in your hunt for whatever you are looking
for. Google provides the option to find more than web pages, however. Using
"tabs" on the top of the search box on the Google home page, you can
easily seek out images from across the web, discussions that are taking place
on Usenet newsgroups, scan through human-compiled information provided from
the Open Directory (see below) or locate news information Also offered, though
not through tabs, is catalog searching and product searching. Main Results from
Own Crawler, paid results from Google. Directory Listings from Open Directory.
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Yahoo Yahoo originated
in 1994 in a campus trailer at Stanford University by two Electrical Engineering
Ph.D. candidates "as a way to keep track of their personal interests on
the Internet". Yahoo! is the Internet's oldest Directory. Began charging
for a commercial listing in 11/01. Primary Results from Yahoo Search!. Category
results from own Editors using Directory Links. Sponsored links by Overture. More Search Engine
Info
AllTheWeb An excellent crawler-based
search engine, All The Web provides both comprehensive coverage of the web and
outstanding relevancy. If you tried Google and didn't find it, All The Web should
probably be next on your list. Indeed, it's a first stop search engine, for
some. In addition to web page results, AllTheWeb.com provides the ability to
search for news stories, pictures, video clips, MP3s and FTP files. Until recently,
AllTheWeb.com was owned by a company called FAST and used as a showcase for
that company's web search technology. That's why you sometimes may sometimes
hear AllTheWeb.com also referred to as FAST or FAST Search. However, the search
engine was purchased by search provider Overture in late April 2003. It no longer
has a connection with FAST. AlltheWeb is soon to be powered by Yahoo! Sponsored
links by Overture. More Search Engine
Info
AOL Anywhere AOL Search
provides users with editorial listings from Google's crawler-based index. Indeed,
the same search on Google and AOL Search will come up with very similar matches.
So, why would you use AOL Search? Primarily because you are an AOL user. The
"internal" version of AOL Search provides links to content only available
within the AOL online service. In this way, you can search AOL and the entire
web at the same time. The "external" version lacks these links. Why
wouldn't you use AOL Search? If you like Google, many of Google's features such
as "cached" pages are not offered by AOL Search. Listings from Google.
Directory listings from The Open Directory Project. Paid listings by Google.
White Page listings by Infospace. More
Search Engine Info
Lycos is one of the
oldest search engines on the web, launched in 1994. It ceased crawling the web
for its own listings in April 1999 and instead uses crawler-based results provided
by AllTheWeb. "Fast Forward" lets you see search results in one side
of your screen and the actual pages listed in another. Relevant categories of
human-compiled information from the Open Directory appear at the bottom of the
search results page. At the top of the page, Lycos will suggest other searches
related to your original topic right under the search box. Perhaps you might
even like the look and feel better! Whatever the reason, under the hood, Lycos
provides all the same relevancy and comprehensiveness you'll find at AllTheWeb.com.
Listings from Fast & from the Lycos Network. Directory listings from The
Open Directory Project. Sponsored Sites from Overture. More
Search Engine Info
HotBot is owned
by Lycos. Launched 5/96. Paid Listing via Lycos InSite Program. This service
will include your site in both the Fast and Inktomi databases.HotBot provides
easy access to the web's four major crawler-based search engines: AllTheWeb.com/FAST,
Google, Inktomi and Teoma, all of which are described elsewhere on this page.
Unlike a meta search engine, it cannot blend the results from all of these crawlers
together. Nevertheless, it's a fast, easy way to get different web search "opinions"
in one place. The "4-in-1" option at HotBot was introduced in December
2002. However, HotBot has a long history as a search brand before this date.
HotBot debuted in May 1996, it gained a strong following among serious searchers
for the quality and comprehensiveness of its crawler-based results, which were
provided by Inktomi, at the time. It also caught the attention of experienced
web users and techies, especially for the unusual colors and interface it continues
to sport today. Results from Fast, Google, Inktomi & Teoma. Sponsored links
by Lycos. More Search
Engine Info
Excite closed down
on 12/01 and was acquired by Infospace. Powered by Yahoo. Paid listings from
Overture, Find What & Sprinks. Directory Listings from The Open Directory
Project, About & Looksmart. More
Search Engine Info
AltaVista is the
oldest crawler-based search engine on the web. It opened in December 1995 and
for several years was the "Google" of its day, in terms of providing
relevant results and having a loyal group of users that loved the service. Improvements
have been made, but crawlers such as Google and AllTheWeb provide more comprehensive
results. Because of this, AltaVista is probably a third-choice crawler, one
to try if you haven't found what you are looking for at one of its competitors.
AltaVista does remains strong is in terms of some of the specialty searching
it offers. It provides a good image search service, and you can look for video
and audio clips, as well. It also has an outstanding news search service. Directory
Listings from The Open Directory Project. Paid Links sold by Overture. More Search Engine
Info
Microsoft's MSN Search
has its own team of editors that monitor the most popular searches being performed
and then hand-picks sites that are believed to be the most relevant. After performing
a search, "Popular Topics" shown below the search box on the results
page are also suggestions built largely by editors to guide you into making
a more refined search. When appropriate, search results may also feature links
to encyclopedia content from Microsoft Encarta or news headlines, at the top
of the page. Main Results from Own Editors, then Yahoo. Sponsored links by Overture.
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The Open Directory The
Open Directory uses volunteer editors to catalog the web. Formerly known as
NewHoo, it was launched in June 1998. It was acquired by AOL Time Warner-owned
Netscape in November 1998, and the company pledged that anyone would be able
to use information from the directory through an open license arrangement. While
you can search at the Open Directory site itself, this is not recommended. The
site has no "backup" results that kick in should there not be a match
in the human-compiled database. In addition, the ranking of sites during keyword
searching is poor, while alphabetical ordering is used when you choose to "browse"
categories by topic. Instead, to scan the valuable information compiled by the
Open Directory, consider using the version offered by Google, the Google Directory. More Search Engine
Info
Ask Jeeves at one
point had about 100 editors who monitored search logs. They then went out onto
the web and located what seemed to be the best sites to match the most popular
queries. Today, Ask Jeeves instead depends on crawler-based technology to provide
results to its users. These results come from the Teoma search engine that it
owns. Ask Jeeves also owns the Direct Hit service, but results from Direct Hit
are no longer offered to the public directly through the Direct Hit site. "Ask"
links from own Editors. Paid Listings by Google. Crawler-based results from
Ask Jeeves-owned Teoma. Directory listings from the Open Directory Project.
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Netscape Search Owned
by AOL Time Warner, Netscape Search uses Google for its main listings, just
as does AOL's other major search site, AOL Search. So why use Netscape Search
rather than Google? Unlike with AOL Search, there's no compelling reason to
consider it. The main difference between Netscape Search and Google is that
Netscape Search will list some of Netscape's own content at the top of its results.
Netscape also has a completely different look and feel than Google. If you like
either of these reasons, then try Netscape Search. Otherwise, you're probably
better off just searching at Google. Listings from Google. Directory listings
from The Open Directory Project. Sponsored search Results from Google AdWords. More Search Engine
Info
LookSmart LookSmart
is a human-compiled directory of web sites. The company does operate its own
web site, but this really isn't intended for the public to use. Instead, similar
to Inktomi, LookSmart provides its results to other search engines that need
listings. LookSmart gathers its listings in two ways. Commercial sites pay to
be listed in its commercial categories, making the service very much like an
electronic "Yellow Pages." However, volunteer editors at the LookSmart-owned
Zeal directory also catalog sites into non-commercial categories for free. Though
Zeal is a separate web site, its listings are integrated into LookSmart's results.
Main Results from Own Editors. Secondary results from Zeal. More Search Engine
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Teoma is a crawler-based search
engine owned by Ask Jeeves. It has a smaller index of the web than its rival
crawler-competitors Google, AllTheWeb.com, Inktomi and AltaVista. However, being
large doesn't make much of a difference when it comes to popular queries, and
Teoma's won praise for its relevancy since it appeared in 2000. Some people
also like its "Refine" feature, which offers suggested topics to explore
after you do a search. The "Resources" section of results is also
unique, pointing users to page that specifically serve as link resources about
various topics. Teoma was purchased by Ask Jeeves in September 2001 and also
provides some results to that web site. Main Results from own Database. Sponsored
links from Google. More Search Engine
Info
Inktomi Among the major search
engines, Inktomi is the second-oldest crawler. It briefly operated as an experimental
search engine at UC Berkeley. However, the creators then formed their own company
in 1996 with the same name and gained their first customer, HotBot, in the middle
of that year. The company then pursued a strategy of "powering" other
search engines, rather than running its own branded service for the public.
Today, Inktomi continues to crawl the web. The company had been left behind
by rivals Google and AllTheWeb.com in terms of comprehensiveness, but changes
made in the summer of 2002 made it much more competitive. It was purchased by
Yahoo in March 2003. More Search Engine
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Backed by US television network CBS,
iWon was Launched 10/99. iWon gives away daily, weekly and monthly prizes
in a marketing model unique among the major services. It launched in Fall 1999.
Main Results from Google. Featured listings from Overture. More Search Engine
Info
Overture Formerly
called GoTo until late 2001, Overture is an extremely popular paid placement
search engine that provides ads to many of the search engines listed above.
While Overture has traditionally been a paid listings provider, the company
is expanding into offering crawler-based editorial results. Powered by Yahoo.
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