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Human
Organized Directories
These search sites rely on a real person
who screens the information and places it within a directory.
Yahoo!
The most popular search service by far with 30-40 million
visitors a month. Also contains the largest human Web directory
with over 1 million sites. It works as an hierarchical subject
index, allowing you to drill down from the general to the
specific. Supplemented by Inktomi search engine. www.yahoo.com
LookSmart
LookSmart Launched in 1996 by Reader's
Digest, Looksmart is a human directory which is supplemented
by AltaVista's index. Also provides results to MSN Search,
Excite and others. www.looksmart.com
Open
Directory Organized by over 20,000
volunteer editors to catalog the web. Launched in 1998 as
NewHoo and then was acquired by Netscape. Used by Netscape,
Lycos, AOL Search, AltaVista and HotBot. www.dmoz.com
Metacrawlers
Some of which use software to poll information from a number
of other search engines and give the broadest view of information.
SavvySearch.
Offers free website submission to 17 different search engines.
www.savvysearch.com
Dogpile.
Searches a customizable list of search engines. www.dogpile.com
Meta-Software
Search Engines
Copernic
2000. You have to download their free software, but Copernic
is an excellent tool for those who want the top ten listings
from the major search engines. Can also search in other languages
and provides results from non-US search engines. Currently
our favorite research tool. www.copernic.com
Sherlock
2. Meta-software for the Mac. Included on all Mac OS9
systems. www.apple.com/sherlock
Hybrid
Search Sites
Hybrid sites use a human directory supplemented by computer
indexes in an attempt to blend the best of both.
AltaVista.
One of the largest search engines with over 250 million pages
indexed. Offers extremely complex search features, but first
you have to master it's many options. If you're serious about
Web searching, however, than mastering Alta Vista is go way
to go. www.altavista.com
AOL
Search. Contains listings from the Web and America Online
content. Most listing come from the Open Directory, with some
from Inktomi. Recently entered into a partnership with Excite,
which gives them more power and reach.
www.search.aol.com
Direct Hit. Continually refines search results based on popularity.
Highest-ranking sites are those most frequently chosen, which
theoretically produces more relevant search results. Used
on HotBot and Lycos and as an option on MSN and Looksmart.
www.directhit.com
Ask
Jeeves. First search service
to use natural-language queries. If no match is available
in it's index, other search engines are consulted.
www.askjeeves.com
GoTo.
Listings are placed in their index for a fee. Companies pay
to be placed higher in search results. Unpaid results are
provided by Inktomi.
www.goto.com
Google.
This service links popularity to ranking. The more sites that
link to a page, the higher that page will rank in searches.
Started in 1998 with over 125 million pages indexed. www.google.com
HotBot.
Claims to be very fast because of the use of parallel processing,
which distributes the load of queries and databases over multiple
servers. First page of search results comes from Direct Hit.
Secondary results provided by Inktomi and directory information
comes from Open Directory.www.hotbot.com
Go.
Web portal produced by Disney and Infoseek. Target audience
is primarily home or personal users. Offers the search capabilities
of the former Infoseek and has 50 million pages indexed. Also
includes a human directory component. www.go.com
Lycos.
Started as a computer indexed search engine. Then shifted
to a human directory in 1999. Good site for searching for
image and sound files. Main listings provided by Open Directory
and secondary results are from Direct Hit and Lycos' own index.
Over 50 million pages indexed. www.lycos.com
Snap.
Provides a human directory of Web sites, supplemented by Inktomi.
Launched in 1997 by NBC and CNET. www.snap.com
Infoseek.
Uses the Ultraseek engine
which delivers fast, flexible and reliable searching. The
site also has a subject-oriented directory and you can search
for images, which is getting more popular. Infoseek is also
allowing free searches on some of it's databases which include
email address and zip code directories to name a few. www.infoseek.com
Computer
Created Indexes
are completely automated by using
a database that relies on key words or meta data to organize
the information. The result can be a lengthy list, but if
your interested in finding everything that matches your exact
search, regardless of context, computer created indexes are
a great tool.
Excite.
One of the most popular search engines offering a midsize
index with over 125 million pages. Also a claim to be an "intelligent"
search engine because of it's concept-based indexing. www.excite.com
FAST
Search. Formal known as "All
the Web". The goal of this site is to index the entire Web.
Currently claims to have over 300 million pages. Also powers
the Lycos MP3 search service. www.alltheweb.com
Inktomi.
Started at the University
of California, Berkeley in 1996. Index contains approximately
110 million pages. Available only through partners such as
Snap, Yahoo and AOL search. www.inktomi.com
WebCrawler.
Popular on the Web because it is currently owned by AOL, and
a lot Web surfers launch from AOL. Also, provides usage statistics
on their site, so you can look for a specific URL and see
how many times and when that URL was hit. www.webcrawler.com
Northern
Light. Considered a large index with over 215 million
pages. Good search service for business related information
by industry. Also includes documents for sale from not readily
accessible sources such as magazines, journals and news wires.
www.northernlight.com
Next
month's issue:
"Best downloads on the net"
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