Major Search Engines
www.Google.com
Google is a search
engine that makes heavy use of link popularity as a primary way to rank
web sites.
This can be
especially helpful in finding good sites in response to general searches
such as "cars" and "travel," because users across the web have in
essence voted for good sites by linking to them. The system works so
well that Google has gained wide-spread praise for its high relevancy.
Google also has a huge index of the web and provides some results to
Yahoo and Netscape Search.
Yahoo
Yahoo is the web's most
popular search service and has a well-deserved reputation for helping
people find information easily. The secret to Yahoo's success is human
beings.
It is the largest human-compiled guide to the web, employing about 150
editors in an effort to categorize the web. Yahoo has over 1 million
sites listed. Yahoo also supplements its results with those from Google
(Google took over from Inktomi in July 2000). If a search fails to find
a match within Yahoo's own listings, then matches from Google are
displayed. Google matches also appear after all Yahoo matches have first
been shown. Yahoo is the oldest major web site directory, having
launched in late 1994.
Microsoft Network (MSN)
Microsoft's MSN Search
service is a LookSmart-powered directory of web sites, with secondary
results that come from AltaVista. RealNames and Direct Hit data is also
made available. MSN Search also offers a unique way for Internet
Explorer 5 users to save past searches.
Alta Vista
AltaVista is
consistently one of the largest search engines on the web, in terms of
pages indexed. Its comprehensive coverage and wide range of power
searching commands makes it a particular favorite among researchers. It
also offers a number of features designed to appeal to basic users, such
as "Ask AltaVista" results, which come from Ask Jeeves (see below), and
directory listings from LookSmart. AltaVista opened in December 1995. It
was owned by Digital, then run by Compaq (which purchased Digital in
1998), then spun off into a separate company which is now controlled by
CMGI.
Ask Jeeves
Ask Jeeves is
a human-powered search service that aims to direct you to the exact page
that answers your question. If it fails to find a match within its own
database, then it will provide matching web pages from various search
engines. The service went into beta in mid-April 1997 and opened fully
on
June 1, 1997.
Results from Ask Jeeves also appear within AltaVista.
AOL Search
AOL Search
allows its members to search across the web and AOL's own content from
one place. The "external" version, listed above, does not list AOL
content. The main listings for categories and web sites come from the
Open Directory. Inktomi also provides crawler-based results, as backup
to the directory information. Before the launch of AOL Search in October
1999, the AOL search service was Excite-powered AOL NetFind.
Lycos
Lycos started
out as a search engine, depending on listings that came from spidering
the web. In April 1999, it shifted to a directory model similar to
Yahoo. Its main listings come from the Open Directory project, and then
secondary results come from spidering the web. Lycos also feature
another directory of web sites called Lycos Community Guides. Sites are
automatically listed in these guides using technology from WiseWire, a
company Lycos acquired in early 1998. Lycos is one of the oldest search
services, around since May 1994. It began as a project at
Carnegie Mellon
University. The name Lycos comes from the Latin for "wolf spider." In
October 1998, Lycos acquired the competing HotBot search service, which
continues to run separately.
HotBot
HotBot is a favorite
among researchers due to its many power searching features. In most
cases, HotBot's first page of results comes from the Direct Hit service
(see above), and then secondary results come from the Inktomi search
engine, which is also used by other services. It gets its directory
information from the Open Directory project (see below). HotBot was
launched in May 1996 as Wired Digital's entry into the search engine
market. Lycos purchased Wired Digital in October 1998 and continues to
run HotBot as a separate search service.
Excite
Excite is one of the
most popular search services on the web. It offers a medium-sized index
and integrates non-web material such as company information and sports
scores into its results, when appropriate. Excite was launched in late
1995. It grew quickly in prominence and consumed two of its competitors,
Magellan in July 1996, and WebCrawler in November 1996. These continue
to run as separate services.
Netscape's Netcenter
Netscape
Search's results come primarily from the Open Directory and Netscape's
own "Smart Browsing" database, which does an excellent job of listing
"official" web sites. Secondary results come from Google. At the
Netscape Netcenter portal site, other search engines are also featured.
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 Netscape in
November 1998, and the company pledged that anyone would be able to use
information from the directory through an open license arrangement.
Netscape itself was the first licensee. Lycos and AOL Search also make
heavy use of Open Directory data, while AltaVista and HotBot prominently
feature Open Directory categories within their results pages.
LookSmart
LookSmart is a
human-compiled directory of web sites. In addition to being a
stand-alone service, LookSmart provides directory results to MSN Search,
Excite and many other partners. Inktomi provides LookSmart with search
results when a search fails to find a match from among LookSmart's
reviews. LookSmart launched independently in October 1996, was backed by
Reader's Digest for about a year, and then company executives bought
back control of the service.
WebCrawler
WebCrawler has the smallest index of any major search engine on the web --
think of it as Excite Lite. The small index means WebCrawler is not the
place to go when seeking obscure or unusual material. However, some
people may feel that by having indexed fewer pages, WebCrawler provides
less overwhelming results in response to general searches. WebCrawler
opened to the public on
April 20, 1994.
It was started as a research project at the University of Washington.
America Online purchased it in March 1995 and was the online service's
preferred search engine until Nov. 1996. That was when Excite, a
WebCrawler competitor, acquired the service. Excite continues to run
WebCrawler as an independent search engine.
FAST Search
Formerly
called All The Web, FAST Search aims to index the entire web. It was the
first search engine to break the 200 million web page index milestone
and consistently has one of the largest indexes of the web. The
Norwegian company behind FAST Search also powers some of the results
that appear at Lycos (see below). FAST Search launched in May 1999.
Direct Hit
Direct Hit measures
what people click on in the search results presented at its own site and
at its partner sites, such as HotBot. Sites that get clicked on more
than others rise higher in Direct Hit's rankings. Thus, the service dubs
itself a "popularity engine." Aside from running its own web site,
Direct Hit provides the main results which appear at HotBot (see below)
and is available as an option to searchers at MSN Search. Direct Hit is
owned by Ask Jeeves (above).
Go/Infoseek
Go is a portal site
produced by Infoseek and Disney. It offers portal features such as
personalization and free e-mail, plus the search capabilities of the
former Infoseek search service, which has now been folded into Go.
Searchers will find that Go consistently provides quality results in
response to many general and broad searches, thanks to its ESP search
algorithm. It also has an impressive human-compiled directory of web
sites. Go was officially launched in January 1999. It is not related to
GoTo, below. The former Infoseek service launched in early 1995.
GoTo.com
Unlike the other major
search engines, GoTo sells its main listings. Companies can pay money to
be placed higher in the search results, which GoTo feels improves
relevancy. Non-paid results come from Inktomi. GoTo was launched in 1997
and it incorporated the former University of Colorado-based World Wide
Web Worm. In February 1998, it shifted to its current pay-for-placement
model and soon after replaced the WWW Worm with Inktomi for its non-paid
listings. GoTo is not related to Go (Infoseek).
Go2net.com
One of the
oldest meta search services, MetaCrawler began in July 1995 at the
University of
Washington. MetaCrawler was purchased by go2net, an online content
provider, in Feb. 97. The commercial backing has helped improve the
responsiveness of the service. MetaCrawler now powers searches at the
Go2Net portal site.
IWon
Backed by US television
network CBS, iWon has a directory of web sites generated automatically
by Inktomi, which also provides its more traditional crawler-based
results. iWon gives away daily, weekly and monthly prizes in a marketing
model unique among the major services. It was launched in the fall of
1999.
NBCi
( Formerly Snap )
NBC Internet
(Formerly Snap) is a human-compiled directory of web sites, supplemented
by search results from Inktomi. Like LookSmart, it aims to challenge
Yahoo as the champion of categorizing the web. Snap was launched in late
1997 and is backed by Cnet and NBC.
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