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India Seos >> Articles
>> Search Engine Optimization and
Information >> List of Top Search Engines List of Top Search Engines
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AltaVista is consistently one of the
largest search engines on the web, in terms of pages indexed.
Its comprehensive coverage and wide range of power searching
commands makes it a particular favorite among researchers.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.
Receives search results from dmoz directory and overture search
engine.
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Ask Jeeves is a human-powered search
service that aims to direct you to the exact page that answers
your question. If it fails to find a match within its own
database, then it will provide matching web pages from various
search engines.
Receives search results from google and teoma search engines.
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The main listings
for categories and web sites come from the Open Directory.
Before the launch of AOL Search in October 1999, the AOL search
service was Excite-powered AOL NetFind.
Recieves search results from google search engine and dmoz
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Excite is one of the popular search
services on the web. It offers a medium-sized index and integrates
non-web material such as company information and sports scores
into its results, when appropriate. 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. These continue to run as separate services.
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Formerly called All The Web, FAST Search
aims to index the entire web. It was the first search engine
to break the 200 million web page index milestone and consistently
has one of the largest indexes of the web. FAST Search launched
in May 1999.
Supplies search results for alltheweb search engine and lycos
search enigne.
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INFOSEEK.COM
Go is a portal site produced by Infoseek
and Disney. It offers portal features such as personalization
and free e-mail, plus the search capabilities of the former
Infoseek search service, which has now been folded into
Go. Searchers will find that Go consistently provides quality
results in response to many general and broad searches,
thanks to its ESP search algorithm. It also has an impressive
human-compiled directory of web sites. Go officially launched
in January 1999. It is not related to GoTo, below. The former
Infoseek service launched in early 1995.
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Google is a now the largest search
engine in the web, They are the leading provider of results
and a recent stats they serve 85% search results, They make
heavy use of link popularity as a primary way to rank web
sites. Google also has a huge index of the web and provides
some results to Yahoo and Netscape Search.
Supplies search results for lycos, hotbot, aol, askjeeves,
teoma, netscape, iwon and yahoo search engines. It receives
search results from dmoz directory.
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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 Inktomi search
engine, which is also used by other services. It gets its
directory information from the Open Directory project (see
below). 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.
Receives search results from inktomi
search engine, google search engine and from dmoz directory.
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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.
Receives search from google search
engine and from dmoz directory.
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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.
Receives search results from inktomi
search engine and supplies search results to msn search
engine.
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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 spidering the web.
Lycos also feature another directory of web sites called
Lycos Community Guides. Sites are automatically listed in
these guides using technology from WiseWire, a company Lycos
acquired in early 1998. Lycos is one of the oldest search
services, around since May 1994. It began as a project at
Carnegie Mellon University. The name Lycos comes from the
Latin for "wolf spider." In October 1998, Lycos
acquired the competing HotBot search service, which continues
to be run separately.
Receives search results from fast,
google search engines and from dmoz directory.
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Microsoft's MSN Search service is
a LookSmart-powered directory of web sites, with secondary
results that come from AltaVista. RealNames and Direct Hit
data is also made available. MSN Search also offers a unique
way for Internet Explorer 5 users to save past searches.
Receives search results from inktomi,
overture and looksmart search engines.
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Netscape Search's 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.
Receives search results from google
search engine and from dmoz directory.
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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. Lycos and AOL Search also make heavy use of Open
Directory data, while AltaVista and HotBot prominently feature
Open Directory categories within their results pages.
Supplies search results to lycos,
hotbot, aol, google, teoma, netscape, iwon, altavista search
engines.
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WebCrawler has the smallest index
of any major search engine on the web -- think of it as
Excite Lite. The small index means WebCrawler is not the
place to go when seeking obscure or unusual material. However,
some people may feel that by having indexed fewer pages,
WebCrawler provides less overwhelming results in response
to general searches. WebCrawler opened to the public on
April 20, 1994. It was started as a research project at
the University of Washington. America Online purchased it
in March 1995 and was the online service's preferred search
engine until Nov. 1996. That was when Excite, a WebCrawler
competitor, acquired the service. Excite continues to run
WebCrawler as an independent search engine.
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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 over 1 million sites listed. Yahoo also
supplements its results with those from Google (Google took
over from Inktomi in july 2000). 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.
Receives search results from google
and overture search engines.
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