Search Engines Today
Without a doubt, Google is the most popular search engine today. Recently, though, some of its competitors have gone beyond the simplicity of Google's interface and are taking a fresh approach to searching.
For example, a search feature that some of the engines are now providing is the ability to "cluster" search results within subject-specific areas. Ask.com, which is based on the technology developed by the Teoma search engine, is one such engine. Ask.com uses Teoma's keyword-based algorithms to surface lists of terms or concepts related to the initial search. The engine infers the related terms from the results of the original query. Therefore, when a user enters a search, the search results are displayed on the left side of the screen, and on the right side, a list of narrower terms and broader terms. The user can then click on one of the suggested terms to execute a refined search with more precise results. Another useful feature offered by Ask.com is its "binoculars site preview." This feature provides users with a thumbnail image of web pages from the search results. Before going to the actual site, users can preview it. This feature saves users time and energy.
A couple of the newer, smaller engines also use clustering techniques to guide users to better search queries and search results. Gigablast, developed by Matt Wells from the earlier Infoseek engine, provides users with "Gigabits" of information after a query is entered. Gigabits are related topics on which users can search to refine their searches.
Exalead, a recent French entry into search engine wars, offers a similar service; it provides "related terms" and "related categories." In addition, like Ask.com, Exalead provides thumbnail images of web pages from the results list.
The Major Search Engines
- claims largest
- first with popularity ranking for relevance
- famous clean look
- ads never mixed in results
Yahoo! Search
- claims largest
- uses Inktomi, Yahoo! directory, and Overture (paid results)
- directory now subordinate to search
Ask.com
- claims best results
- good search features using Teoma technology
- renewed search emphasis
- quality search results
- natural language searching
MSN Search
- promises to revolutionize search
- Microsoft's response to Google's/Yahoo!'s success
- plans to "re-invent" search, outdo Google
Basic Web Search Skills
- Search techniques
- Use quotation marks (" ") to search words as phrases
- Use a plus sign (+) or quotation marks to search stop words
- Use the minus sign (-) to exclude a word or phrase in quotes
- Basic Boolean
- OR must be capitalized if used as a Boolean operator
- AND is the assumed default between words, no need to type AND
- Advanced Boolean
- Use AND NOT to exclude a word or phrase in quotes
- Use NEAR to search terms within 16 words of each other
- Use parentheses to group terms joined by OR NEAR