|
|
http://ask.com
Ask Jeeves is a human-powered search service that aims to direct you to the exact page that answers your question. |
 |
 |
http://aolsearch.aol.com
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. |
|
 |
http://www.altavista.com
AltaVista is one of the oldest crawler-based search engines
on the web. It has a large index of web pages and a wide range
of power searching commands. It also offers news search, shopping
search and multimedia search. 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. |
|
 |
http://www.google.com
Google is a top choice for web searchers. It offers the largest
collection of web pages of any crawler-based search engine.
Google makes heavy use of link analysis as a primary way to
rank these pages. 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 provides web page search results to
a variety of partners, including Yahoo and Netscape Search.
Google also provides the ability to search for images, through
Usenet discussions and its own version of the Open Directory.
|
|
 |
http://www.yahoo.com
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 well over 1 million sites listed. Yahoo also supplements its results with those from Google (beginning in July 2000, when Google takes over from Inktomi). 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. |
|
 |
http://directory.netscape.com
Netscape search 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. |
|
 |
http://search.msn.com
Microsoft's MSN Search service is a LookSmart-powered directory of web sites, with secondary results that come from Inktomi. RealNames and Direct Hit data is also made available. |
|
 |
http://infoseek.go.com
Go is the former portal site that grew out of the old Infoseek
search engine. Owned by Disney, the company abandoned further
development of Go in March 2001. Search is still available
at Go; however, the results are simply paid listings provided
by Overture. The original Infoseek service launched in early
1995 and was transformed into Go in January 1999. |
|
 |
http://www.lycos.com
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 the FAST search engine. Some Direct Hit results
are also used. In October 1998, Lycos acquired the competing
HotBot search service, which continues to be run separately.
|
|
 |
http://hotbot.com
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, 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. HotBot 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. |
|
 |
http://goto.com
Overture (GoTo) is the oldest and most important paid placement
search engine, because it distributes its listings to a wide-range
of major search engines, including AltaVista, AOL Search,
Lycos, HotBot and Netscape Search (see the Major Search Engines
page). Non-paid results at the Overture site itself come from
Inktomi. Overture launched as "GoTo" in 1997 and incorporated
the former University of Colorado-based World Wide Web Worm.
In February 1998, it shifted to its pay-for-placement model.
The company changed its name from GoTo to Overture in October
2001. |
|
 |
http://www.directhit.com
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
and is available as an option to searchers at MSN Search.
Direct Hit is owned by Ask Jeeves (above). Some Direct Hit
information appears at Ask Jeeves. |
|
 |
http://www.metacrawler.com/ |
|
 |
http://excite.com
Excite offers a medium-sized crawler-based web page index, as well as access to human-powered directory results from LookSmart. 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. Magellan was discontinued in April 2001. WebCrawler continues to operate as a separate service, but it provides the same results at the Excite.com site itself. |
|
 |
http://webcrawler.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 February
1997. The commercial backing has helped improve the responsiveness
of the service. MetaCrawler now also powers searches at the
Go2Net portal site. |
|
 |
http://dogpile.com
Popular metasearch site that sends a search to a customizable list of search engines, directories and specialty search sites, then displays results from each search engine individually. Owned by Go2Net, which also owns MetaCrawler. |
|
 |
http://www.looksmart.com
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. |
|
 |
http://www.northernlight.com/
Northern Light is another favorite search engine among researchers. It features a large index of the web, along with the ability to cluster documents by topic. Northern Light also has a set of "special collection" documents that are not readily accessible to search engine spiders. There are documents from thousands of sources, including newswires, magazines and databases. Searching these documents is free, but there is a charge of up to $4 to view them. There is no charge to view documents on the public web -- only for those within the special collection. Northern Light opened to general use in August 1997. |
|
The
Open Directory Project
 |
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 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. Netscape-owner AOL also uses Open Directory information, as does Google and Lycos. |
|
 |
http://www.iwon.com/
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 launched in Fall 1999. |
|
