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SEARCH ENGINE SHOWDOWN

Once you get connected to the Internet, you need to know how to find the World Wide Web sites that interest you. You may find, as many people do, that it's fun just to wander—or surf—from site to site, going wherever the links take you. But if you want to find something specific and find it as soon as possible, you need to use a search engine. Below you’ll find comparisons of the following three different search engines.

But first let's find out how search engines actually work!

Finding the needle in the haystack

A search engine is a service that indexes, organizes, and often rates and reviews Web sites. It helps you find the one needle you're looking for in the Internet haystack. Different search engines work in different ways:

  • Some rely on people to maintain a catalog of Web sites or pages.
  • Some use software to identify key information on sites across the Internet.
  • Some combine both types of service.

So when you search their "holdings," you're bound to get different results.


Here's a introduction to some of the major search engines:
  • Yahoo! Launched in 1994, Yahoo is the web's oldest "directory," a place where human editors organize web sites into categories. However, in October 2002, Yahoo made a giant shift to using Google's crawler-based listings for its main results.

    If Yahoo is now powered by Google, then why bother using it? For one thing, you might find that the way Yahoo "enhances" Google's listings with information from its own directory may make search results more readable. See the Yahoo Renews With Google, Changes Results article from Search Engine Watch for more about this.

    In addition, Yahoo's search results pages still show "Directory Category Matches." When offered, these will take you to a list of web sites that have been reviewed and approved by a human editor.

    It's also possible to do a pure search of just the human-compiled Yahoo Directory, which is how the old or "classic" Yahoo used to work. To do this, search from the Yahoo Directory home page, as opposed to the regular Yahoo.com home page. Then you'll get both Directory Category Matches and "Directory Site Matches," which are the top web site matches drawn from all categories of the Yahoo Directory.

    Sites pay a fee to be included in the Yahoo Directory's commercial listings, though they must meet editor approval before being accepted. Non-commercial content is accepted for free.

    Consider Yahoo any time you think you might be well served by having a list of human-reviewed web sites. It's also a good choice for popular queries, since the category listings it provides may help you narrow in and refine your query. Doing a pure Yahoo Directory search also provides an unique human view of the web.

  • Google Twice-voted "Most Outstanding Search Engine" by Search Engine Watch readers, Google has a well-deserved reputation as the top choice for those searching the web. The crawler-based service provides both comprehensive coverage of the web along with great relevancy. It's highly recommended as a first stop in your hunt for whatever you are looking for.

    Google provides the option to find more than web pages, however. Using "tabs" on the top of the search box on the Google home page, you can easily seek out images from across the web, discussions that are taking place on Usenet newsgroups or scan through human-compiled information provided from the Open Directory (see below). Also offered, though not through tabs, is catalog searching and news searching.

    Google is also know for the wide range of features it offers, such as cached links that let you "resurrect" dead pages or see older versions of recently changed ones. It offers excellent spell checking, easy access to dictionary definitions, integration of stock quotes, street maps, telephone numbers and more. See Google's help page for an entire rundown on some of these features. The Google Toolbar has also won a popular following for the easy access it provides to Google and its features directly from the Internet Explorer browser.

    In addition to Google's unpaid editorial results, the company also operates its own advertising programs. The cost-per-click AdWords program places ads on Google as well as some of Google's partners. Similarly, Google is also a provider of unpaid editorial results to some other search engines. For a list of major partnerships, see the Search Providers Chart.

    Google was originally a Stanford University project by students Larry Page and Sergey Brin called BackRub. By 1998, the name had been changed to Google, and the project jumped off campus and became the private company Google. It remains privately held today.

  • Hotbot When HotBot debuted in May 1996, it gained a strong following among serious searchers for the quality and comprehensiveness of its crawler-based results, which were provided by Inktomi, at the time. It also caught the attention of experienced web users and techies, especially for the unusual colors and interface it continues to sport today.

    HotBot gained some notoriety when it switched over to using Direct Hit's "clickthrough" results for its main listings in 1999 (see the Using Direct Hit Popularity Results page for more about this). Direct Hit was then one of the "hot" search engines that had recently appeared. Unfortunately, the quality of Direct Hit's results couldn't match those of another "hot" player that had debuted at the same time, Google. HotBot's popularity began to drop.

    Even worse, HotBot also suffered by being owned by Lycos (now Terra Lycos). Lycos had acquired HotBot when it purchased Wired Digital in October 1998. Lycos failed to make search a priority on its flagship Lycos site as well as HotBot through much of 1999 and 2000, as it focused instead on adding "portal" features. The company refocused on search in late 2001, making significant improvements to the Lycos site (described above). HotBot's chance at redemption is supposed to come in late 2002. Watch out for it!

    Here are two guidelines for picking a search engine:
  • If you're looking for a broad, common topic, such as how to buy a personal computer, use a search engine that tends to give you fewer results of higher quality (usually the type that relies on people to catalog sites), such as Yahoo!
  • If you're looking for a rare topic, such as 19th-century Hungarian authors, use a site that may be less discriminating but yields more results (usually the type compiled by a software program), such as Excite.

q q Seek and Find! Now I'll show you how to perform a search.

  1. What information are you looking for? I am trying to find information about Generation Y
  2. Do you already know a great deal about the subject or do you need to find out lots of details? Nope, all I know is that I'm included in this generation.
  3. What is your query? generation Y and popculture and trends
  4. What search terms will you use? generation Yand cultures
  5. Which search engines did you choose and why? Google because I use it most, Yahoo because its a larger database and I know about its history, and Hotbot because I'd like to see if gives good results.
  6. Is there a particular feature that would help your search? I think the advanced features of Yahoo and Google will be good to use.
  7. Of the three search engines used, which gave you the most satisfactory result? Why? Google returned many pages but I found that some were not relevant, however, using that advanced search helped with filter some of that culter. Yahoo and Google returned similar pages. I was surprized that I enjoyed Hotbot as much as I did. I was able to find some very useful resources.
  8. Which features of the search engines did you use? Boolean, Promixity, Advanced Features
  9. Compare the features of your chosen engines and describe any difficulties you had with your search. Like like Google because the interface design is simple, I felt somewhat lost with Yahoo, but I'm not use to it. I was actually impressed with Hotbot's design and layout. With Google and Hotbot you can choose to search images, and Hotbot has an option for Mp3s.
  10. Did you find the information you were looking for? I did
  11. If you had problems, what did you do to try and overcome these difficulties? With problems I tryed to narrow my search by using different combinations of keywords to filter results as well as using the advanced search features.
Number of Hits?
Number of Relevant Hits?
Did you find what you were looking for?
1,710,000
first two pages
YES
1,720,000
scattered throughout
YES
Doesn't tell you!?
first two pages
YES