AltaVista is constantly one of the largest search engines on the web, in terms of pages indexed. Its comprehensive coverage as well as wide range of power searching commands makes it a particular favorite among researchers. AltaVista opened in Dec. 1995. It was owned by Digital, then run by Compaq, then spun off into a separate company which is at present controlled by CMGI.

It will receive the search results from dmoz directory and overture search engine.

Ask Jeeves is a human-powered search service that aims to direct you to the exact page that answers your query. If it fails to find a match in its own database, then it will give matching web pages from various search engines.

It will receive the search results from Google and teoma search engines.

The major listings for categories and sites come from the Open Directory. Before the launch of AOL Search in Oct. 1999, the AOL search service was Excite-powered AOL NetFind.

It will receive the search results from Google search engine and dmoz directory.

Excite is one of the most popular search services on the web and 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 and it grew quickly in prominence and consumed 2 of its competitors, Magellan in July 1996, and WebCrawler in Nov. 1996. These continue to run as separate services.

Previously called AlltheWeb, FAST Search aims to index the whole 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 was launched in May 1999.

Supplies search results for Alltheweb and lycos search engine.

Go is a portal site produced by Infoseek and Disney. It offers portal features such as personalization and free e-mail, along with the search capabilities of the former Infoseek search service, which has now been folded into Go. Searchers will find out that Go consistently provides quality results in response to lots of general and broad searches, thanks to its ESP search algorithm. It also has an impressive human-compiled directory of sites. Go officially launched in Jan. 1999. It is not related to GoTo, below. The former Infoseek service was launched in early 1995.

Google, the largest search engine in the web, they're the leading provider of results and a recent stats search engine optimization they serve 85% search results, they make heavy use of link popularity as a primary optimization way to rank sites. Google also has a huge index of the web and provides a few results to Yahoo and Netscape Search.

Google supplies the search results for lycos, hotbot, aol, askjeeves, teoma, netscape, iwon and yahoo search engines. Google receives search results from dmoz directory.

HotBot is a favorite amongst researchers due to its many power searching features. In most cases, HotBot's first page of results comes from the Inktomi, which is also used by other services. It gets its directory information from the Open Directory project (ODP). HotBot launched in May 1996 as Wired Digital's entry into the search engine market. Lycos purchased Wired Digital in Oct. 1998 and continues to run HotBot as a separate search service.

It receives search results from inktomi, google and from dmoz directory.

Backed by US television network CBS, iWon has a directory of 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 between the major services. iWon was launched in fall 1999.

It receives search from google and from dmoz directory.

LookSmart is a human-compiled directory of Web sites. Additionally to being a stand-alone service, LookSmart provides directory results to MSN Search, Excite and heaps of other partners. Inktomi provides LookSmart with search results whenever a search fails to find a match from among LookSmart's reviews. LookSmart launched independently in Oct. 1996, was backed by Reader's Digest for about a year, and then company executives bought back control of the India service.

It receives search results from inktomi and supplies search results to msn.

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 like Yahoo. The main listings for Lycos come from the Open Directory project (ODP), and then secondary results come from spidering the web. Lycos also feature one more directory of web sites called Lycos Community Guides. Sites are involuntarily listed in these guides using technology from WiseWire, a company Lycos acquired in early 1998. Lycos the oldest search services since May 1994. It began as a project at Carnegie Mellon University. The name Lycos comes from the Latin for "wolf spider." In Oct. 1998, Lycos acquired the competing HotBot search service, which continues to be run independently.

It receives search results from fast, google and from dmoz directory.

MSN 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 previous searches.

It receives search results from inktomi, overture and looksmart search engines

Netscape Search's results come mainly from the Open Directory and Netscape's own "Smart Browsing" database, which does a superb job of listing "official" sites. Secondary results come from Google. At the Netscape Netcenter portal site, other search engines are also featured.

It receives search results from google and from dmoz directory.

The Open Directory uses volunteer editors to catalog the web. Previously known as NewHoo, it was launched in June 1998. It was acquired by Netscape in Nov. 1998, and the company pledged that any person 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, whereas AltaVista and HotBot prominently feature Open Directory categories in their results pages.

It supplies search results to lycos, hotbot, aol, google, teoma, netscape, iwon, altavista search engines.

Excite Lite is the WebCrawler which has the smallest index of any major search engine on the web. The small index means WebCrawler is not the place to go when seeking obscure or unusual material. But, some people may feel that by having indexed fewer pages, WebCrawler provides less overwhelming results in reply to general searches. WebCrawler opened to the public on April 20, 1994 and 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 autonomous search engine.

Yahoo, the most popular search service and has a well-deserved reputation for helping people find information easily. The top secret to Yahoo's success is human beings. It is the largest human-compiled guide to the web optimization, employing about 150 editors in an effort to classify the web. Yahoo has over 1 million sites listed. Yahoo also supplements its results with those from Google. If a search fails to find a match in Yahoo's own listings, then matches from Google are shown. Google matches also come into view after all Yahoo matches have first been shown. Yahoo is the oldest major web site directory, which was launched in late 1994.

It receives search results from Google and overture search engines.