web search engines

web search engines

.Definition

A web search engine is a software system that is designed to search for information on the World Wide Web. The search results are generally presented in a line of results often referred to as search engine results pages (SERPs). The information may be a mix of webpages, images, and other types of files.

Ten Web Search Engines

Top choices

·         Google search

·         Yahoo search

·         Ask search

Strongly Consider

·         All the web search

·         AOL search

·         Hot bot search

Other Choices

·         AltaVistasearch

·         Gigablast search

·         Live search

·         Look smart search

·         Google searchwww.google.com

Google search engine is a powerful tool. Without search engines like Google, it would be practically impossible to find the information you need when you browse the web. Like all search engines, Google uses a special algorithm to generate search results. While Google shares general facts about its algorithm, the specifics are a company secret. This helps Google remain competitive with other search engines on the web and reduces the chance of someone finding out how to abuse the system.

Google was originally a Stanford University project by students Larry Page and Sergey Brain called Back Rub. By 1998, the name had been changed to Google, and the project jumped off campus and became the private company Google. It remains privately held today.

·         Yahoo search 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 crawler based listings for its main results. These came from Google until February 2004. Now, Yahoo uses its own search technology. Learn more in this recent review from our Search Day newsletter, which also provides some updated submission details.

·          Ask search www.ask.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.

·         All the web search www.alltheweb.com

AllTheWeb.com was previously 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. However, the search engine was purchased by search provider Overture (see below) in late April 2003, and then later become Yahoo's property when Yahoo bought Overture. It no longer has a connection with FAST.

·         AOL Search www.aol.com

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.

·         HotBotwww.hotbot.com

HotBot provides easy access to the web's three major crawler based search engines: Yahoo, Google and Teoma. Unlike a meta search engine, it cannot blend the results from all of these crawlers together. Nevertheless, it's a fast, easy way to get different web search "opinions" in one place.

HotBot debuted in May 1996, it gained a strong following among serious searchers for the quality and comprehensiveness of its crawler based results, which were provided by Inktomi, at the time. It also caught the attention of experienced web users and techies, especially for the unusual colors and interface it continues to sport today.

·         Alta vista searchwww.altavista.com

AltaVista 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.

Today, AltaVista is once again focused on search. Results come from Yahoo, and tabs above the search box let you go beyond web search to find images, MP3/Audio, Video, human category listings and news results. If you want a lighter feel than Yahoo but to still have Yahoo's results, AltaVista is worth considering.

·         Gigablast www.gigablast.com

Compared to Google, Yahoo or even Teoma, Gigablast has a tiny index of the web. However, the service is constantly gaining new and interesting features. Give it a whirl, if you want to try something experimental yet dependable. Read more about Gigablast in this recent interview from our SearchDay newsletter.

·         Live search www.live.com

Live Search (formerly Windows Live Search) is the name of Microsoft's web search engine, successor to MSN Search, designed to compete with the industry leaders Google and Yahoo. The search engine offers some innovative features, such as the ability to view additional search results on the same web page (instead of needing to click through to subsequent search result pages) and the ability to adjust the amount of information displayed for each search result (i.e. just the title, a short summary, or a longer summary). It also allows the user to save searches and see them updated automatically on Live.com.

·         Look smart search www.looksmart.com

Look Smart is primarily a human compiled directory of web sites. It 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 Look Smart owned Zeal directory also catalog sites into noncommercial categories for free. Though Zeal is a separate web site, its listings are integrated into Look Smart's results.

Look Smart 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.