Web Search Engines & Directories
Last updated: October 26, 2007
According to a 2007
report by Netcraft, 108,810,358 distinct Web sites
make up the World Wide Web. When you want to find
out more about a specific topic, service or product, you use an Internet search
engine. Today there are a number of search engines, and while they
work differently, they all use Webcrawlers (also
called bots) that are designed to index pages on the Web and
also words found on these pages. The indexing of the Web
enables is what enables users to search for keywords or combinations of words
to find information online.
Other
types of search engines are called search directories. They site index
content chosen by human editors, rather than automated
indexing done by bots. Today most search engines offer complementary
search-related products such as shopping search, news and other
services that go beyond the basic keyword search function.
The following Quick
Reference provides an overview of some of the more popular public
Web Search
Engines and Directories, including details on their history, information on how they work and tips
for using each.
Page 1 (Google,
Yahoo, Microsoft Live)
Current Page (AltaVista, Ask.com, AOL Search)
Page 3 (Business.com, Dogpile)
AltaVista
Meaning a view from above, AltaVista was developed when
scientists at Digital Equipment Corp's (DEC) Research Lab devised
a way to store every word of every HTML page on the Internet in a fast,
searchable index. Following its initial launch in 1995 AltaVista grew to
add multilingual search capabilities, multimedia search, translation &
language recognition and other search features.
In 1998, when DEC was acquired by Compaq, it also acquired the AltaVista
search engine, and in the next year AltaVista set up as a separate,
publicly traded company which partnered with MSN (replacing Inktomi) as
MSN's search service. In 1999 the majority share of AltaVista was
purchased by CMGI, INC. and AltaVista launched many new features
including Open Directory, a news database, AltaVista Shopping.com, and a
new relevancy ranking algorithm. AltaVista was also replaced by Inktomi
to power MSN Search, and in 2000 new multimedia and MP3, audio, image
and video search was launched. Later, in 2003 Overture completed its
purchase of both AltaVista and AllTheWeb and then Overture was
purchased in a cash-and-stock deal valued at $1.6 billion by Yahoo.

AltaVista Tips:
- AltaVista offers simple search and
advanced search options.
- You can use the site's preference setting to search in one of 25
languages.
- Suggestions for misspelled words are offered on results pages for
several languages.
- AltaVista supports phrase searching.
- Advanced searching lets you specify a document modification date.
- Accepts natural language questions as search queries.
Ask.com
Ask.com was first launched in 1997, but founded in 1996 in Berkeley,
Calif. by David Warthen, CTO and veteran software developer, and
Garrett Gruener. Originally Ask.com was called Ask Jeeves and was
designed to enable users to provide direct answers to questions, but also
supported keyword searching as well. From 1997 to 2000, Ask.com launched
a kids version (AJKids) and also launched several international versions
of the popular question-based search engine. In 2000, a related search
feature and an online shopping advisor channel was added to Ask Jeeves.
One of the major technology changes took place over the next two years
when Ask Jeeves acquired Teoma Technologies and then integrated the
Teoma algorithmic search technology into Ask Jeeves.
Later local search and a personal search engine, called MyStuff, was added.
Ask Jeeves also acquied Bloglines and rolled out more international
sites. In 2005, Ask Jeevesbecame a wholly owned business of IAC
Search & Media and in February 2006, Ask Jeeves was re-launched as
Ask.com. Other recently added features and technologies include Ask
mobile, Ask3D a new algorithmic content-matching and ranking
technology, Ask Mobile GPS, and the Ask.com Blog and Feed Search were
also launched. IAC Search & Media also owns Excite, iwon, evite and
several Web properties.

Ask.com Tips: Ask search technology responds to questions, phrases, or single
word searches.
When it notes a misspelled term, Ask.com will automatically suggest a
correct spelling.
Related searches provide related topics or suggestions for your
search.
The order of words used in a search is relevant so good word order
(natural language) is important.
AOL Search
The AOL search engine has it roots firmly implanted in Web crawling
technologies and companies. In its early years,from 1995 to 1999, AOL
bought and sold WebCrawler, it launched NetFind, acquired Netscape, and
used Excite and Inktomi. In 1999m howeverm AOL relaunched its own search
engine under its current name of AOL Search, which used both Open
Directory and Inktomi results.
In May 2002, Google won AOL's paid search listings from Overture and
since then AOL Search has often been called " a Google with an AOL
feel". In the mid2000s, AOL launched several services including AOL
Shopping (currently powered by PriceGrabber), Snapshots Search that
offers direct answers in search results, Local search, video search,
podcast search, news, and AOL Yellow Pages. Today the search engine is
branded "AOL Search with Google".

AOL Search Tips
- AOL video search results include
multimedia streams and files such as Real Media, Windows Media,
QuickTime, MP3 and Flash.
- imiliar to Google search, AOL's advanced search lets you specify a
language or domain to search within, specify a numeric range, choose
SafeSearch, or specifiy a type of format (PDF, Word, Excel, and so on).
Page 1 (Google,
Yahoo, Microsoft Live)
Current Page (AltaVista, Ask.com, AOL Search)
Page 3 (Business.com, Dogpile)
By Vangie
Beal
Last updated:
October 26, 2007
AltaVista Search Page

Ask.com Search Page

AOL
Search
page

Google Search Page

Yahoo Search Page

Windows Live Search Page

Business.com Search Page

Dogpile Search
Page

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