The
term "search engine" is often used generically to describe
both crawler-based search engines and human-powered
directories. These two types of search engines gather
their listings in radically different ways.
Crawler-Based
Search Engines
Crawler-based
search engines, such as Google, create their listings automatically. They
"crawl" or "spider" the web, then people search through
what they have found.
If
you change your web pages, crawler-based search engines
eventually find these changes, and that can affect how
you are listed. Page titles, body copy and other elements
all play a role.
Human-Powered
Directories
A
human-powered directory, such as the
Open Directory, depends on humans for its listings.
You submit a short description to the directory for
your entire site, or editors write one for sites they
review. A search looks for matches only in the descriptions
submitted.
Changing
your web pages has no effect on your listing. Things
that are useful for improving a listing with a search
engine have nothing to do with improving a listing in
a directory. The only exception is that a good site,
with good content, might be more likely to get reviewed
for free than a poor site.
"Hybrid
Search Engines" Or Mixed Results
In
the web's early days, it used to be that a search engine
either presented crawler-based results or human-powered
listings. Today, it extremely common for both types
of results to be presented. Usually, a hybrid search
engine will favor one type of listings over another.
For example, MSN Search is more
likely to present human-powered listings from LookSmart. However, it does also present crawler-based
results (as provided by Inktomi), especially for more obscure queries.
The
Parts Of A Crawler-Based Search Engine
Crawler-based
search engines have three major elements. First is the
spider, also called the crawler. The spider visits a
web page, reads it, and then follows links to other
pages within the site. This is what it means when someone
refers to a site being "spidered" or "crawled." The
spider returns to the site on a regular basis, such
as every month or two, to look for changes.
Everything
the spider finds goes into the second part of the search
engine, the index. The index, sometimes called the catalog,
is like a giant book containing a copy of every web
page that the spider finds. If a web page changes, then
this book is updated with new information.
Sometimes
it can take a while for new pages or changes that the
spider finds to be added to the index. Thus, a web page
may have been "spidered" but not yet "indexed." Until
it is indexed --added to the index -- it is not available
to those searching with the search engine.
Search
engine software is the third part of a search engine.
This is the program that sifts through the millions
of pages recorded in the index to find matches to a
search and rank them in order of what it believes is
most relevant.
Major
Search Engines: The Same, But Different
All
crawler-based search engines have the basic parts described
above, but there are differences in how these parts
are tuned. That is why the same search on different
search engines often produces different results . Information
on this page has been drawn from the help pages of each
search engine, along with knowledge gained from articles,
reviews, books, independent research, tips from others
and additional information received directly from the
various search engines.
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The
Major Search Engines and Directories
In
the search engine list below, Search Engine Watch provides
a guide to the major search engines of the web. Why
are these considered to be "major" search engines? Because
they are either well-known or well-used.
For
webmasters, the major search engines are the most important
places to be listed, because they can potentially generate
so much traffic.
For
searchers, well-known, commercially-backed search engines
generally mean more dependable results. These search
engines are more likely to be well-maintained and upgraded
when necessary, to keep pace with the growing web.
Top
Choices
The
search engines below are all excellent choices to start
with when searching for information.
Google
http://www.google.com/
Voted
three times Most Outstanding Search Engine , 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 locate news information
Also offered, though not through tabs, is catalog
searching and product searching.
Google
is also know for the wide range of features it offers,
such as cached links that let you "resurrect" dead pages
or see older versions of recently changed ones. It offers
excellent spell checking, easy access to dictionary
definitions, integration of stock quotes, street maps,
telephone numbers and more. See Google's help
page for an entire rundown on some of these features.
The Google Toolbar has also won
a popular following for the easy access it provides
to Google and its features directly from the Internet
Explorer browser.
In
addition to Google's unpaid editorial results, the company
also operates its own advertising programs. The cost-per-click
AdWords program places ads on Google as well as some
of Google's partners. Similarly, Google is also a provider
of unpaid editorial results to some other search engines.
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AllTheWeb.com
http://www.alltheweb.com/
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.
Yahoo
http://www.yahoo.com/
Launched
in 1994, Yahoo is the web's oldest "directory," a place
where human editors organize web sites into categories.
However, in October 2002, Yahoo made a giant shift to
using Google's crawler-based listings for its main results.
If
Yahoo is now powered by Google, then why bother using
it? For one thing, you might find that the way Yahoo
"enhances" Google's listings with information from its
own directory may make search results more readable.
In
addition, Yahoo's search results pages still show Categories
links. When offered, these will take you to a list of
web sites that have been reviewed and approved by a
human editor.
It's
also possible to do a pure search of just the human-compiled
Yahoo Directory, which is how the old or "classic" Yahoo
used to work. To do this, search from the Yahoo Directory home page, as opposed
to the regular Yahoo.com home page. Then you'll get
both directory category links ("Related Directory Categories")
and "Directory Results," which are the top web site
matches drawn from all categories of the Yahoo Directory.
Sites
pay a fee to be included in the Yahoo Directory's commercial
listings, though they must meet editor approval before
being accepted. Non-commercial content is accepted for
free.
Consider
Yahoo any time you think you might be well served by
having a list of human-reviewed web sites. It's also
a good choice for popular queries, since the category
listings it provides may help you narrow in and refine
your query. Doing a pure Yahoo Directory search also
provides an unique human view of the web.
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MSN
Search
http://search.msn.com/
Microsoft
is known for constantly reworking its software products
until they get them right, and MSN Search is a shining
example of the company putting that same effort into
an online product. In particular, the company has its
own team of editors that monitors 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.
Of
course, humans editors can't do everything, so MSN Search
also relies on search providers for answers to many
of its queries. Usually, it will be human-powered results
from the LookSmart directory that dominate the page.
Unlike when MSN editors are involved, these human-powered
results are not hand-picked to match a query.
Overall,
MSN Search provides a blend of human-powered directory
information and crawler coverage different from any
of the other top choices listed above. It's a high quality
resource that provides its own unique view of the web
and one worth checking.
AOL
Search
http://aolsearch.aol.com/ (internal)
http://search.aol.com/(external)
AOL
Search provides users with editorial listings that come
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.
Ask
Jeeves
http://www.askjeeves.com/
Ask
Jeeves initially gained fame in 1998 and 1999 as being
the "natural language" search engine that let you search
by asking questions and responded with what seemed to
be the right answer to everything.
In
reality, technology wasn't what made Ask Jeeves perform
so well. Behind the scenes, the company 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.
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Lycos
http://www.lycos.com/
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
"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.
Inktomi
http://www.inktomi.com/
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.
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LookSmart
http://www.looksmart.com/
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.
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.
Open
Directory
http://dmoz.org/
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. Here, keyword
searching uses Google's refined relevancy algorithms
and makes use of link analysis to better propel good
pages from the human database to the top. In addition,
when viewing sites by category, they will be listed
in PageRank order,
which means the most popular sites based on analyzing
links from across the web will be listed first.
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AltaVista
http://www.altavista.com/
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.
Sadly,
an attempt to turn AltaVista into a portal site in 1998
saw the company lose track of the importance of search.
Over time, relevancy dropped, as did the freshness of
AltaVista's listings and the crawler's coverage of the
web.
Today,
AltaVista is once again focused on search. 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.
AltaVista
was originally owned by Digital, then taken over by
Compaq, when that company purchased Digital in 1998.
AltaVista was later spun off into a private company,
controlled by CMGI.
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