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)
Page 2 (Alta Vista, Ask.com, AOL Search)
Current Page (Business.com, Dogpile)

Business.com
Business.com touts itself as both a business search engine and pay-per-click advertising network. The search directory caters to unique monthly visitors and its pay-per-click advertising network serving more than 40 million unique business users. The search is organized around a directory of more than 65,000 business product and service categories linked to over three million keywords. when users search Business.com the keywords are automatically match them to the most appropriate directory category and search results are a broad search across those categories. The search aims to help business professionals in three main ways:

Learn with Business How-To Guides, which are integrated into many Business.com categories, find information with links to related categories on each directory page, and also to buy through its list of relevant vendors across thousands of business products and services. In 2006, Business.com launched Work.com, a business-to-business community publishing platform where experts share advice on common business topics.

Business.com Search Tips:

- Business.com searches its Directory, however for searches outside the Business Internet, Business.com will search the entire Web for the most relevant results.

• By default, Business.com only returns results that include all of your search terms.
  
• There is no need to search for plurals (searching for "monitor" also returns results for "monitors")
  
• Stemming is automatically supported (searching for "manufacturing" will return results for any form of the word "manufacture").
  
• Search symbols such as + or - do not work on the Business.com search

• Business.com Search Page

Dogpile
Dogpile Web search is a single search engines that produces results compiled from what they call "all the best search engines." Dogpile is the company's flagship metasearch engine — that is, one search engine that searches multiple search engines. Dogpile offers users the most relevant search results from twelve different search engines including Google, Yahoo, About, Miva, LookSmart, Microsoft Live Search and Ask.com. Dogpile is owned by InfoSpace who also owns MetaCrawler, WebCrawler, Zoo.com and WebFetch. Infospace, Switchboard and Find It are the company's local search brands.

Dogpile Tips:

• Dogpile recognizes spaces, so be sure to search with the correct spaces included.
  
• Search using the most literal word order.
  
• Dogpile offers users the ability to refine search results. If you search using the broad term of insurance, its "Are You Looking For" technology suggests various terms such as home or auto.
  
• Dogpile's search categories, which should be used when looking for a specific type of content. These categories include things like audio, images, and news. Just check the category radio button above the search box to use them.

• Dogpile Search Page

Page 1 (Google, Yahoo, Microsoft Live)
Page 2 (Alta Vista, Ask.com, AOL Search)
Current Page (Business.com, Dogpile,)

By Vangie Beal
Last updated: October 26, 2007
 

Business.com Search Page
Dogpile Search Page
Google Search Page
Yahoo Search Page
Windows Live Search Page
AltaVista Search Page
Ask.com Search Page
AOL Search page
 

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