Also consider becoming a Search Engine Watch member, to access detailed information about the various major search engines work.
Top Choices :
Search engines are all excellent choices to start when seeking information.
Yahoo :
Launched in 1994, Yahoo is the Internet's oldest "directory", a place where human editors organize web sites into categories. But in October 2002, Yahoo made a giant shift to crawler-based listings for its main achievements. Those come from G
oogle until February 2004. Now, Yahoo uses its own search technology. Read more in this latest study from our SearchDay newsletter, which also gives some information on the filing date.
In addition to good search results, you can use the tabs above the search box on the Yahoo home page to search for images, Yellow Page ads or excellent use Yahoo search engine shopping. Or visit the Yahoo Search home that gives even more specialized search capabilities.
As Google, Yahoo sells bonds to pay for placing advertising appearing on its website and distributed to others. Yahoo purchased Overture in October 2003.
The overture was called Go to the end of 2001. More information is available on the paid listings search engines. Overture purchased AllTheWeb (see below) in March 2003 and acquired AltaVista (see below) in April 2003. Now Yahoo owns these, got from its acquisition of Overture.
Technology AltaVista and AllTheWeb was combined with that of Inktomi, a crawler based search engine that emerged from UC Berkeley and then launched their own company in 1996 to the current Yahoo crawler. Yahoo purchased Inktomi in March 2003.
Ask.com :
In 1999 bought Ask Direct Hit, which had developed the first "click popularity" search technology. Then in 2001, Ask acquired Teoma's unique index and technology relevant to your search. Teoma was based on the popular clustering concept theme.
Today, Ask depends based tracking technology to deliver results to its users. These results come from the Teoma algorithm, now known as Expert Rank.
Search Engine Watch members have access to the How Ask Works page of the website, which gives a thorough coverage of how Ask gather listings.
Bots are other good options to consider when searching online.
Google :
Google also is known for the wide range of functions it offers, such as cached links that let you "resurrect" dead pages or see older versions of recently changed. It offers excellent spell checking, easy access to dictionary definitions, integration of stock quotes, street maps, phone numbers and more. The Google Toolbar has also won popular support for the easy access it provides to Google and its features directly from the browser Internet Explorer.
Google was originally a project at
Google allows you to find more websites, however. Use top search box on the Google homepage, you can easily search for images on the web, discussions that are taking place on Usenet newsgroups, locate news information or perform product searches.
AllTheWeb.com :
Powered by Yahoo, you may find AllTheWeb a lighter, more customizable and pleasant "pure search" experience than it receives in Yahoo itself. There is a focus on Web search, but news, picture, video, MP3 and FTP search are also offered.
AllTheWeb.com was previously owned by a company called FAST and used as a showcase for Web search company. That is why sometimes you can hear AllTheWeb.com sometimes referred to as fast or Fast Search. However, the search engine was purchased by search provider Overture (see below) in late April 2003, then become property of Yahoo when Yahoo bought Overture. You no longer have a connection with FAST.
Search AOL :
AOL Search provides users with editorial listings that come Google's crawler-based index. Indeed, the same search on Google and AOL Search, comes with very similar matches. Firstly because you are an AOL user. The "internal" version of AOL Search provides links to content that is only available in the AOL online service. In this way, you can search AOL and the entire Web at the same time. "External" version lacks these links. Why not use AOL Search? If you like Google, many of the features of Google as "cached" pages are not offered by AOL Search.
Search Engine Watch members have access to the page How search AOL, which provides a thorough coverage of how AOL Search operates and why it may be subtle differences between it and Google.
HotBot :
HotBot provides easy access to the web crawler based on three main search engines: Yahoo, Google and Teoma. Unlike a meta search engine, you can not confuse the results of these crawlers together. But it is a quick and easy web search different "opinions" in one place.
HotBot for "choosing a search engine" interface was introduced in December 2002. However, HotBot has a long history as a search brand before this date.
HotBot debuted in May 1996, which won a large fanbase among seriously searching for quality and comprehensiveness of its crawler-based results, which were provided by Inktomi, at the time. He also drew attention of users with experience and technical equipment, especially for unusual colors and interface continues to sport today.
Other options :
The sites below are "important" in the sense that either continues to receive large volumes of traffic or which has gained a reputation in the past that still makes some people feel are important. For various reasons below are not among our most frequent search options.
AltaVista :
AltaVista opened in December 1995 and for several years was the "Google" of its time in terms of providing relevant results and a loyal group of users who loved the service.
Today, AltaVista, once again focusing on the search. The results come from Yahoo, and here the search box allows you to go beyond Web search to find images, MP3s, Video, human category listings and news results. If you want a lighter feel than Yahoo but still have Yahoo's results, AltaVista is worth considering.
AltaVista was originally owned by Digital, then taken over by Compaq, when that company purchased Digital in 1998. AltaVista was later hived off into a private company controlled by CMGI. Overture to buy the search engine in April 2003, later became part of Yahoo when Yahoo bought Overture.
Gigablast :
Compared with Google, Yahoo or Teoma, AltaVista has a very small index on the Internet. However, the service is constantly gaining new and interesting features. Y'know, if you want to try something experimental, but reliable. Read more about Gigablast in this recent interview from our SearchDay newsletter.
Live Search :
Live Search (formerly Windows Live Search) is the name of the Web search engine from Microsoft, which is the successor to MSN Search, designed to compete with industry leaders Google and Yahoo. The search engine offers some innovative features like the ability to see more search results on the same web page (instead of having to click through search results pages later) and the ability to adjust the amount of information displayed for each search result (ie just the title, brief summary or a longer summary). It also allows users to save searches and see them updated automatically on Live.com.
The service was previously powered by LookSmart results and been given top marks for having its own team of editors, who oversees the most popular searches being made to hand-pick sites believed to be the most relevant. The system worked well.
LookSmart :
LookSmart is primarily a human-compiled directory of websites. It brings together their lists in two ways. Commercial sites pay to be listed in its commercial categories, serving in the same way as an electronic "Yellow Pages". Directory of zeal, however, the publishers of volunteers on the property of LookSmart also catalog sites into non-commercial categories for free. Although heat is a separate website, your lists are integrated into LookSmart's results.
LookSmart launched independently in October 1996, was backed by Reader's Digest for about a year, company executives bought back control of the service.
LookSmart also bought the WiseNut crawler-based search engine in April 2002. WiseNut offered through LookSmart sheets through its web above the search box. Unlike its competitors, the WiseNut crawler has often been out of date, sometimes for months at a time.
Lycos :
Lycos is one of the oldest search engines on the Internet, launched in 1994. It ceased crawling the web for their own listings in April 1999 and instead provide access to human-powered results from LookSmart for popular queries and crawler-based results from Yahoo for others.
"Fast Forward" lets you see search results in one side of the screen and the actual pages listed in another. Relevant categories of information collected from people-Open Directory in the bottom of the search results page.
Lycos is owned by Terra Lycos, a company formed with Lycos and Terra Networks merged in October 2000. Terra Lycos also owns the HotBot search engine described above.
Netscape Search :
Owned by AOL Time Warner, Netscape Search uses Google for its main listings, just not AOL's other major search site, AOL Search. So why use Netscape Search rather than Google? In contrast to AOL Search, there's no 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 the results. Netscape also has a completely different look than Google. If you like any of these reasons, then try Netscape Search. Otherwise you probably better off just searching Google.
Open Directory :
Open Directory uses volunteer editors to catalog the web. Formerly known as NewHoo, launched in June 1998. It was bought 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.
However, in analyzing the valuable information compiled by the Open Directory, consider using the version offered by Google, Google Directory. In this case, algorithms using the search relevant keywords on Google and sophisticated analysis makes use links to promote a better good of the human database to the top. Also, when they will see the sites by category, listed in PageRank order, which means that the most popular sites based on analyzing links from the network are listed first.
