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http://ask.com
Ask Jeeves is a human-powered search
service that aims to direct you to the
exact page that answers your question.
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http://aolsearch.aol.com/
AOL Search
allows its members to search across
the web and AOL's own content from one
place. The "external" version,
listed above, does not list AOL content.
The main listings for categories and
web sites come from the Open Directory
. Inktomi also provides crawler-based
results, as backup to the directory
information. |
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http://www.altavista.com
AltaVista
is one of the oldest crawler-based search
engines on the web. It has a large index
of web pages and a wide range of power
searching commands. It also offers news
search, shopping search and multimedia
search. AltaVista opened in December
1995. It was owned by Digital, then
run by Compaq (whichpurchased Digital
in 1998), then spun off into a separate
company which is now controlled by CMGI.
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http://www.google.com
Google is
a top choice for web searchers. It offers
the largest collection of web pages
of any crawler-based search engine.
Google makes heavy use of link analysis
as a primary way to rank these pages.
This can be especially helpful in finding
good sites in response to general searches
such as "cars" and "travel,"
because users across the web have in
essence voted for good sites by linking
to them. The system works so well that
Google has gained wide-spread praise
for its high relevancy. Google provides
web page search results to a variety
of partners, including Yahoo and Netscape
Search . Google also provides the ability
to search for images, through Usenet
discussions and its own version of the
Open Directory . |
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http://www.yahoo.com
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 well
over 1 million sites listed. Yahoo
also supplements its results with
those from Google (beginning in July
2000, when Google takes over from
Inktomi). 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. |
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http://directory.netscape.com
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. |
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http://search.msn.com
Microsoft's MSN Search service is a
LookSmart-powered directory of web sites,
with secondary results that come from
Inktomi. RealNames and Direct Hit data
is also made available. |
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http://infoseek.go.com
Go is the
former portal site that grew out of
the old Infoseek search engine. Owned
by Disney, the company abandoned further
development of Go in March 2001. Search
is still available at Go; however, the
results are simply paid listings provided
by Overture . The original Infoseek
service launched in early 1995 and was
transformed into Go in January 1999.
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http://www.lycos.com
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 the FAST Search engine. Some
Direct Hit results are also used. In
October 1998, Lycos acquired the competing
HotBot search service, which continues
to be run separately. |
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http://hotbot.com
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 Direct Hit service
, and then secondary results come from
the Inktomi search engine, which is
also used by other services. It gets
its directory information from the Open
Directory project . 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. |
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http://goto.com
Overture (GoTo) Overture is the oldest
and most important paid placement search
engine, because it distributes its listings
to a wide-range of major search engines,
including AltaVista, AOL Search, Lycos,
HotBot and Netscape Search (see the
Major Search Engines page). Non-paid
results at the Overture site itself
come from Inktomi. Overture launched
as "GoTo" in 1997 and incorporated
the former University of Colorado-based
World Wide Web Worm. In February 1998,
it shifted to its pay-for-placement
model. The company changed its name
from GoTo to Overture in October 2001.
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http://www.directhit.com
Direct Hit measures what people click
on in the search results presented at
its own site and at its partner sites,
such as HotBot. Sites that get clicked
on more than others rise higher in Direct
Hit's rankings. Thus, the service dubs
itself a "popularity engine."
Aside from running its own web site,
Direct Hit provides the main results
which appear at HotBot and is available
as an option to searchers at MSN Search.
Direct Hit is owned by Ask Jeeves (above).
Some Direct Hit information appears
at Ask Jeeves. |
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http://www.metacrawler.com/
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http://excite.com
Excite offers a medium-sized crawler-based
web page index, as well as access to
human-powered directory results from
LookSmart. 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. Magellan was discontinued
in April 2001. WebCrawler continues
to operate as a separate service, but
it provides the same results at the
Excite.com site itself. |
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http://webcrawler.com
One of the oldest meta search services,
MetaCrawler began in July 1995 at the
University of Washington. MetaCrawler
was purchased by Go2Net, an online content
provider, in Feb. 97. The commercial
backing has helped improve the responsiveness
of the service. MetaCrawler now also
powers searches at the Go2Net portal
site. |
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http://dogpile.com
Popular metasearch site that sends a
search to a customizable list of search
engines, directories and specialty search
sites, then displays results from each
search engine individually. Owned by
Go2Net, which also owns MetaCrawler.
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http://www.looksmart.com
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. |
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http://www.northernlight.com/
Northern Light is another favorite search
engine among researchers. It features
a large index of the web, along with
the ability to cluster documents by
topic. Northern Light also has a set
of "special collection" documents
that are not readily accessible to search
engine spiders. There are documents
from thousands of sources, including
newswires, magazines and databases.
Searching these documents is free, but
there is a charge of up to $4 to view
them. There is no charge to view documents
on the public web -- only for those
within the special collection. Northern
Light opened to general use in August
1997. |
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The
Open Directory Project
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http://dmoz.org
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. Netscape-owner AOL also
uses Open Directory information, as
does Google and Lycos. |
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http://www.iwon.com/
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. |
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