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Exploring the Search Engine
The vast majority of internet users will use a search engine occasionally, if not frequently. Search engines are routinely included in browsers, no matter if you use Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari, Opera, or Netscape, with the intent of saving the user time.
It may seem odd to talk about saving time on the internet. Thinking back to 15 years ago, the internet was just starting to burst into mainstream America. The speed and reach of the internet was mind-boggling at that time. Now we’ve come so far with the technology that we actually find ourselves wanting better and faster results.
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As is true with nearly all technology, the internet has evolved to be something much different than it was 5, 10, and certainly 15 years ago. But have internet users evolved in the way they use the internet? We know that humans are creatures of habit. Most of us like to do what we’re familiar with, see who we already know and get along with, and go places we already know we like. I think it’s fair to say that the same can be applied to our internet habits.
New programs, applications, and websites are constantly being created and marketed to users. The ones that get a lot of media attention have a good chance of getting users to at least test them out, even if it’s just on a trial basis.
However, there are other sites on the internet that have been around but aren’t getting the attention they deserve. Let’s go back to search engines. Most people are familiar with the “Big Three” of engines - Yahoo, MSN, and Google. If you’ve paid attention to web trends over the years, you know that each has had their heyday, with Google probably receiving the most attention in recent years.
This is a good illustration of the fact that what is popular one year on the web may be at the bottom of the líst the next year. Does anyone remember when Webcrawler.com or Excite.com were touted as the destination search engine? It’s all a part of the natural evolution and progression of search engines.
Another evolution of the search engine is the creation of the meta search engine. Meta search engines are similar, in that you type in a term or phrase to be searched. The meta search engine then gathers results from several different search engines, compiles them, and presents them in its own search results page.
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The results from a meta search engine will vary, depending on which other engines the meta engine is pulling from. Dogpile.com, for instance, pulls results from Google, Yahoo!, MSN, Ask.com, About.com, MIVA.com, LookSmart.com, and others. This quickly accomplishes what would take a user much more time to open all those browser windows and type in the same search term over and over again.
However, Dogpile does receive criticism for its compiled search results page. The sponsored results are mixed in with the “real” results, which can be confusing if you’re not paying attention. It’s also hard to believe that the search results are in any particular order of relevance when broken up with those sponsored results.
Another search engine, Widow.com, uses a tried and tested algorithm to compile its results and then order them in relevance, without sponsored results. When doing a side-by-side comparison of the five top search engines (Yahoo, MSN, Google, AOL, and Fastsearch), you’ll see that Widow.com comes up with not only the most highly ranked results, but some very useful links that the other engines didn’t pull.
To illustrate my point, I looked at how the different search engines handle a specific search word. If we take a term that has been in the news a lot lately, “foreclosure”, and type that in to different search engines, we’ll see different results.
Not surprisingly, Fastsearch had no results on “foreclosure.” Though it is one of the top search engines, its focus is on business and information technology. So it’s really not going to be relevant for anything beyond those topics.
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All of the other search engines (five of them!) had one or more sponsored results at the top of the page. Dogpile.com, as I previously warned you, had the most sponsored ads - an astounding 10 sponsored ads on the first results page. Plus, they’re all mixed in with the other results, with just a note at the bottom to let you know it’s an ad or otherwise paid for result.
The only search engine that returned no sponsored results or ads was Widow.com. It sorted through the results, performed its algorithm magic, and produced variety and depth in its results page. Better yet, Widow has a nifty search term bar on the left hand side that allows you to pull up search results for related terms. Talk about saving time and energy!
Of course, the main reason search engines were developed was because the internet is so expansive. No human can search the entire web on their own, hoping to stumble upon the answers and information they’re seeking. Search engines are tools to help users find pertinent information in a timely manner.
Taking a traditional approach to search engines is fine if you have the time, the motivation, and the desire. Sometimes the best drives are the ones where you only have a vague destination, right? So I suppose the same can be true of using one of the top five engines we’ve mentioned.
But sometimes, thinking outside of the box, can not only inspire new ways of thinking, but can help push you or your research in a different, better direction. The most efficient way to do that is to utilize a meta search engine. Try stepping outside of your usual search strategies and see for yourself why it “is” sometimes greener on the other side of the fence. There’s a whole wide world (web) to discover and explore!
By Trey Pennewell (c) 2008 the Phantom Writers
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85 Responses to “Exploring the Search Engine”
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Actually, I gave a search on widow.com - you made me curious, and it’s true it did not display sponsoring results, but I was unhappy by the advertising which appears in the left side and which promises top 10 rankings in Google, Yahoo and MSN. I noticed that appears only on web search, but anyways…
Thanks for posting, it was interesting. I wasn’t thinking that could be search engines which do not display ads - until now.
I think mixing up Ads with relevant results should reduce the credibility of a search engine. When you type a key phrase then the best results are one naturally picked up by search engine. Additionally those are closet to search query. On the other hand Advertiser’s usually use “broad” technique so might not be very close to expectation of surfer and ends with a negative impact.
I will go check out this Widow search tool but to be honest Google is the only search engine that I use and this goes for over 60% of all internet users.
The Widow search engine use a totally different algo… searching for meta description as appose to what algo Google uses.
Yeah I agree with Paul. When everyone starts using another search engine only then will I consider moving.
there’s a reason goole is at the top of the game…they’re just great. every time i use another search engine, i end up going back to google.
There are so many SE out there now but the main one i still use i s google. but cuil SE is coming along pretty nicely. although im not a fan of their page layout the results that show up are fairly good. I think this is because they base their search on popularity and not keywords. Since a lot of my own personal sites that I did seo on shows up top 5 on google doesn’t even show up on cuil.
It truly is amazing how dependent the world has become on the internet in so short a time. It’s almost hard to imagine the world without it nowadays.
It’s not easy to have a search engine that will provide you with relevant results. Just look at Cuil.com. Its a big pile of nothing, but 30 million dollars were invested in it. They got some publicity for the first few days and gathered some people who used their engine. But when those people couldn’t find what they needed, they switched back to their old engines.
It’s a matter of habit and the Google is leading the race. He gives us what we need, more then 70% of all searches are done on the bog G.
You’re right.. trying to squeeze out something new is always exciting.. but well from ppc and seo perspective you always have to be ready for the consequences…
Great read! It’s weird how new the internet is and yet it is still being improved upon almost daily!
There is no way in my region to use another search engine than google because others search engines gives not relevant results at all… so
This is a well thought out argument. Thanks.
Google is still my favorite too. Yah, cuil is new and it is giving a good results, I still prefer google for its effective tool to make my work more efficient. I do know that cuil is just starting and there comes a time that it will become the one of the most competitive search engine.
I will try Widow search engine. But for now i have been using Google and almost everyone is comfortable with google. Among other search engines Google is on the top as there are less chance of getting errors while searching for something important. As an seo one should try new options but also should be ready to take consequences in stride.
I think google continuous research will keep them on the top for a long long time.
You have done a lot of research, your articles was very helpfull in my thesis on search engines, i am thankful.
I will go check out this Widow search tool…anyway thanks for sharing…keep posting
I like the cleanliness of information provided in Mahalo. Still a long way for them, but I can see where it goes, especially for newcomers.
Google is good for finding texts but if you have to find images than Yahoo is best!!
I think Google web search will keep being the first.
Anyway thanks for the article and keep up the good work.
I think Google still needs work, it is the best tool for internet marketing at the moment though. Widow looks good as well, I just had to test it out.
am not a big fan of what dogpile does. it undermines the credibility of their search results, when sponsored results get mixed in. and the thing is, am currently quite happy using google, and its search page is rather minimal, so it’s zippy. another search engine will have to offer something extra before i’ll consider over my default…
great post I’ve been using google, got to try microsoft can wait for new post!!!!!
I have tried the Cuil and I still found that the Google Search is a slightly better than it…
Thus, I will stick with the Google Search…
I don’t think that their is one search engine out there that isn’t gameable. Between google, msn and yahoo google is definitely the hardest.
I think thats it, Google is a great SE and we can explore it and experiment things on it… Yahoo is not as better as Google..
I had actually never heard of Opera, or Netscape - I’ll have to take a look into that. Thanks for sharing!
Yeah !!! you are right..Actually every user need to operate Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari, Opera, or Netscape, with the intent of saving the user time.This is not new..I will try Widow search engine. But for now i have been using Google and almost everyone is comfortable with Google.It’s a safe zone………..
I wouldn’t be able to function online without Google. Dogpile tries to cram the results of the best search engines into one, yet I still find that Google gives superior results and find Dogpile useless.
Google is gr8 for finding texts but if you have to find images than Yahoo rocks!!
Google is in my opinion the best search engine. I prefer to make this my homepage. Yahoo and msn I do not get as good results.
For marketing purposes i and use some firefox seo addons as these really are great for showing pagerank.
Marc
Google is used by 80% of the internet users, probably because it’s so simple and it’s engine is so good. I only try some other engines when the phrase is very strange and I cannot find anything interesting in google. Cuil engine totally sux in other languages and I dont think that anyone can now compete with google.
it would be hard to improve on google but hey why not
Yup.. I think that google is ahead a lot. But they are used to grow so there is big question how they will be prepared for stabilization of their business. And of course… Microsoft is preparing new Explorer 8 with integrated services from live.com so it can shake the market too.
I used google often, Every time I used It I got great result, 70% of my traffic is coming from google, For me Goolge is the best SE..
Good article, however i find google as the best search engine ever!
Nomatter what i search for, it seems like it is always there on google, ready for me to read it :P.
Google surely gave me the best informations so far, i used yahoo once i believe but that is nothing compared to google.
I like Google just the way it is. It was very helpful having them change their tool to checking search volume to showing the numbers.
I just read an article today on Snopes about the way in which Google employees are treated. They go above and beyond to attract and keep the brightest in the industry. Because of that, I think it will be difficult to top Google.
Most of the people go for Google search engine and this search engine has the biggest market share. People don’t rely on any other search engine because Google search engine results are best and reliable.
nice article
I hear you, I have stopped using Dogpile exactly for this reasons, too many sneaky sponsored links.
It’s amazing how quickly the internet has evolved. I remember when we first got the internet at my house & I had no idea it would be where it is today.
Allot of webmasters do forget to validate for w3c I know its not a must but you must use tags like etc… good.
Google is still tops with me. I remember what search was like before they came along — I couldn’t find anything useful searching on the internet.
Nice to have you back! I totally agree that even though there are main sites that are great for searching, there are always other things to try and ways to discover. There is a new site called Cuil that is getting a bad rap because of how they display their search results. I think Cuil is a new, fresh idea and that it just needs time to improve.
I think we all use Google because it is the most popular; but just like anything that’s new, Cuil will probably improve in time and be very competitive with Google. Thanks for the post, very informative.
What do you think about Google’s Chrome?
The problem is that Google is so much the number 1 search engine that anything looking different from what we’re used to will most likely put us off as were feel comfortable with what we know. Ill certainly give Widow.com a try though.
Thanks for this information you mentioned here, It’s very useful. You’ve done great work. Cheers
I feel that no matter what the competition - the simplicity and speed of google will always win over other SE’s. Google does well to let the viewer know when ad’s are being paid for. So I don’t mind them all that much.
-Jolene
Following up on David’s comment, I’ve heard (from fellow co-workers) that Google Chrome is great, especially since it’s in beta stage. It’s clean, fast, and novel. The only downside, from the same sources, is that there aren’t many plug-ins (add-ons?) at this time, so if you’re a casual Web searcher, it’s great…if you like to do “advanced” things, it’s probably best to wait until it’s out of beta.
Though more or less everybody agrees that Google is the search engine most use, I think there’s still a long way to go before any search engine can give the results people are searching for. What I mean is that when I search for precise information on a topic the top results thrown up rarely satisfy my needs. I suspect web sites reach the top of the results due to a number of factors but not purely based on the best relevant content.
Hi,
Search Engines is the world’s latest invention,it helps to all people in different ways.There has good contest among Google,MSN,Yahoo,but still we all follow the on and only Google.Is it true that Google is the leader of Search Engines??
Regards
Gopal
@Davids - It’s OK but it’s not perfect. There are also several privacy problems with Google recording every keystroke in it’s address bar. It is fast though.
Google themselves have said they are only 90-95% done with search. They have not perfected it yet. As they are 10 years old I can see them progressing at 9% a year so they should have perfected it by 2010! Hardly likely. With the exponential growth of the internet more and more complex search programs will be needed to make all the information easily available to people searching for it.
John
Thanks for sharing. I´m in love with this site!!!! yeahhh
Nearly each week look in I here and read with large interest the interesting and always well written contributions. Today I would like to leave gladly to a greeting from Thuringia in Germany!
Thank you for the awesome post. I’ve learned a lot for drooping by here.
Response to iPod Touch (John)…yeah, the privacy issues are something else I heard about. Someone also told me an issue regarding “.exe” files, as in they aren’t flagged at all, which could be harmful if viruses were to get through. Heard anything about that?
About Google, I have just one trouble…Its searches are not filtered…..Always require 15 minutes for getting the perfect result.
Am looking for engines giving the best filtered results…
I anticipate bond up Ads with accordant after-effects should abate the believability of a seek engine. When you blazon a key byword again the best after-effects are one by itself best up by seek engine. Additionally those are closet to seek query. On the added duke Advertiser’s usually use “broad” address so ability not be actual abutting to apprehension of surfer and ends with a abrogating impact.
there’s a reason goole is at the top of the game…they’re just great. every time i use another search engine, i end up going back to google.
I think there should be no debate on google, i feel google is number one and will reamain for long long time. They keep on adding new features every other day.
I was addicted to the internet in college with about 6 other people in the entire campus. I bet those computer rooms are a lot fuller now!
I have not used many of the search engines that you have talked about. I am going to go test them out and see how I like them. Thank you for sharing the useful information.
Of course Google is always going to be the most popular pure search engine, but I think Yahoo! is more popular of a site because of their automatic integration of news and updates on their page.
Interesting blog! I will try Widow.com but I use google.com. I think the basic reason is the simplest design and simple page. Anyway, Widow.com is offering interesting tools and I will surely like to visit it.
Good writeup. It’s getting scary how Google is starting to take over the net especially with the release of Chrome.
Google is currently the best Search Engine, but they could still do some major improvement on the filtering of their results.
For me google is the best right now. But I do think that one day, maybe one day some other search engine will over take them.
I never heard of widow.com so I tried it out before leaving this comment. I found my main keyword phrase didn’t list my site, yet in Google, I was on page 3. I’ll stick with Google.
I never heard about it before..
I just use google for all my time..
thanks for this useful article..
Google is definitely tops but for how long. I find it hard to believe that someone won’t soon offer them some serious competition.
“The Internet is like alcohol in some sense. It accentuates what you would do anyway. If you want to be a loner, you can be more alone. If you want to connect, it makes it easier to connect.”
Thanks for the tips. Will try and see how it works.
Tracy Benungski - Internet business make money online
Now a days the search engine are getting too much smart to catch. Though all of us are trying to know the search engine.
Just try cuil. You’ll get totally irrelevant results!
I have tried doing some searches on Widow.com and with Mahalo, but to be honest I still think Google is the best. Yes the other websites dont have as much spammy content with the sponsors and what not but like its already been said, there is a reason Google is at the top of the world.
I just tried Cuil and the results were ok for what I searched for, but like a lot of people I’m too used to using Google to change at the moment.
Another problem I found with Cuil - I tried Cuil.co.uk to see if they had a UK version and it’s got an unrelated site on - that won’t help it if it wants to roll out versions for other countries.
I think a lot of people already mentioned it but yeah… google is still way ahead. I heard that 3 engineers from google are starting a new one. It will be interesting to see what it gives.
Yes I remember when Webcrawler.com or Excite.com were 2 of the search engines to use, so was AltaVista.com. It doesn’t take long for the flavour of the month to be yesterday’s hero on the Internet does it. Will Google go the way of its predecessors? Wh knows, all I know is that a lot of people are doing all they can to get to the top of Google’s rankings.
Yeah I agree with Paul. When everyone starts using another search engine only then will I consider moving.
Google is still the best i think, that new search engine that the ex employees og Google have started isnt suppose to be very good and Google have 3x more indexed pages
There is no doubt that search engines have changed the web and made it so much more user friendly compared to the old days.
you think google still is the best? thats very nice..
I also think that google is the best. I tried to play with cuil, yahoo and msn. but their analitical algorythms are still poor. Also 80% traffics on my pages came from google,