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I
know what you're thinking: Google gives you such accurate results that you
don't need any other search tool. Well, let's see about that.
You
might - or might not - know that no major search engine indexes ALL the
existing Web pages. OpenFind states that it indexes 3.5 billion Web pages,
Google claims 2.4 billion, AlltheWeb - 2.1 billion, Inktomi - a little more
than 2 billion, WiseNut - 1.5 billion and AltaVista - 1 billion Web pages.
The
truth is, nobody knows how wide the Web is. Some say 5 billion pages, some 8
billion, some even more. Anyway, what's definite is that the major search
engines (SEs) index only a fraction of the "publicly indexable
Web". Moreover, every SE indexes different Web pages, which means if
you use only one SE you will miss relevant results that can be found in
other search engines. One way to more effectively search the Web is to use a
meta search engine.
What
Is A Meta Search Engine?
A
meta search engine (also know as multi-threaded engine) is a search tool
that sends your query simultaneously to several search engines (SEs), Web
directories (WDs) and sometimes to the so-called Invisible (Deep) Web, a
collection of online information not indexed by traditional search engines.
After
collecting the results, the meta search engine (MSE) will remove the
duplicate links and, according to its algorithm, combine/rank the results
into a single merged list.
An
important note: Unlike the individual search engines and directories, the
meta search engines
1.
Do not have their own databases and
2.
Do not accept URL submissions.
Pros
and Cons of Meta Search Engines
Pros:
MSEs save searchers a considerable amount of time by sparing them the
trouble of running a query in each search engine. The results - most of the
time - are extremely relevant. MSEs can be used by Webmasters to find their
site's presence, rankings and link popularity in the major SEs.
Cons:
Because some SEs or WDs do not support advanced searching techniques such as
quotation marks to enclose phrases or Boolean operators, no (or irrelevant)
results from those SEs will appear in the MSEs results list when those
techniques are used.
MSEs
Come In Four Flavors:
1.
"Real" MSEs which aggregate/rank the results in one page
2.
"Pseudo" MSEs type I which exclusively group the results by search
engine
3.
"Pseudo" MSEs type II which open a separate browser window for
each search engine used and
4.
Search Utilities, software search tools.
The
following provides detailed information on each of the four MSE types, along
with my ranking:
1.
"Real" MSEs
These
real MSEs simultaneously search the major search engines, aggregate the
results, eliminate the duplicates and return the most relevant matches,
according to the engine's algorithm.
Following
is a list of a few meta search engines that you might find useful. It's by
no means complete, but it might help you find what you need.
(The
criteria I used to determine the best MSEs were: the amount and the
relevance of the results, the
capability to handle advanced searches, the ability to enable users to
customize searches, the speed of their searches and others.)
ez2www
[ http://ez2www.com ]
Searches
the best SEs - AlltheWeb, Google, AltaVista, Teoma, Wisenut - and
directories - Yahoo! and Open Directory. Through its "Advanced
Search" function it also searches a small part of the Invisible (Deep)
Web. It also searches news, newsgroups, MP3, images and many, many more.
Provides excellent results in a very neat interface. Created in September
2000 by the French search engine developer Holomedia. THE best!
Vivísimo
[ http://vivisimo.com ]
Uses
the clustering technology, meaning matches are organized in folders. Don't
like the frames? Just modify the size of both the upper and the left frames.
This MSE was created by researchers at Carnegie-Mellon University. Advanced
searching options available: exact phrase, Boolean operators, fields
searching (domain, host, title, URL, etc.) and more. A jewel for the serious
searcher.
Query
Server [http://www.queryserver.com/web.htm
]
Searches
an impressive list of 11 SEs - everything important except Google. But don't
worry: Query Server searches Yahoo!, Netscape and AOL, all partially powered
by Google. This is another example of the clustering technology. Highly
customizable metasearch tool. You can modify the appearance of the results
page, selecting the search engines, the amount of results, their timeout,
etc. It supports quotation marks to enclose phrases, the Boolean syntax and
parentheses. Very professional.
Infonetware
[ http://www.infonetware.com ]
Searches
the Web and provides relevant results, organized in topics, in a very clean
interface. This MSE is based in Edinburgh, Scotland and is a very good tool.
Metaseek
[ http://www.pcdigest.net/metasearch/en/main.shtml
]
Excellent
MSE from Ukraine. Searches major international and local search engines.
Besides the Web you can search images, MP3, FTP files, news and more. You
can use "Phrase" (""), "natural language"
processing, Boolean logic and field searching (by URL, title, site/domain or
link). Very nice.
IBoogie
[ http://iboogie.com ]
Uses
a minimalist design. This MSE "performs intelligent clustering of
results". It searches the Web, the Invisible (Deep) Web, images, video
and audio files.
Vinden.NL
[ http://www.vinden.nl ]
Searches
"the best," providing very good results in a clean interface. This
MSE comes from the Netherlands.
Search
Online [ http://www.searchonline.info
]
Uses
an excellent selection of search engines and directories. This MSE provides
relevant results in a relatively crowded interface. For each result you can
see the search engine where the hit was found, and its ranking.
Meta
Bear [ http://www.metabear.com ]
Provides
relevant results from both international and Russian sites. Be sure you type
the query in the "Search The World" box.
Web
Scout [ http://www.webscout.com ]
Searches
the Web, news, newsgroups, auctions, MP3 files and jobs. This Australian MSE
utilizes the major SEs - except Google - and provides relevant matches in a
clean results list.
argosa:de
[ http://www.argosa.de ]
Searches
17 international and local SEs. I suggest you avoid checking the boxes of
Acoon, Abacho, GoClick and ah_ha.com search engines, because they give many
irrelevant hits. This is Germany's first MSE, and provides excellent results
organized by relevance, source (quelle) or title.
Experts
Avenue [ http://www.expertsavenue.com
]
Searches
different search engines simultaneously for Web pages, auctions, jobs and
forums and provides very relevant results in a neat interface. Enables
online language translation of Web pages. Click on "Translate" and
you will be brought to AltaVista's Babelfish translation service, powered by
SYSTRAN.
InfoGrid
[ http://www.infogrid.com ]
Provides
excellent results in an easy to read layout, despite a very confusing Home
Page crowded and with frames. This MSE searches the "big ones"
including Google, AlltheWeb, Yahoo! and Open Directory. It also searches
newswires, auctions, discussion forums, MP3, FTP files and more. To avoid
the frames in the results list select the option "Open in the Current
Window".
Suchspider.de
[ http://www.suchspider.de/meta-suchmaschinen
]
Searches
a whopping 100 (!) international SEs and WDs. Google, AlltheWeb, Open
Directory, you name it. You can sort the results by relevance, source or -
much better - grouped by domain name. This "Meta-Suchmachine" is
based in Germany.
EmailPinoy
[ http://www.emailpinoy.com ]
Sends
your query to 15 search engines. Don't use Kanoodle, ah_ha.com and GoClick
pay-per-click search engines, because you'll get irrelevant results. For
better results enclose phrases in quotation marks. This MSE is from the
Philippines.
1
SECOND [ http://1second.com ]
Searches
a good selection of 14 major SEs and WDs, throws out the duplicates and
summarizes the results in a neat listings page. Use the Advanced Search if
you want to customize the search, especially the timeout of the search
engines.
My
Prowler [ http://myprowler.com ]
Searches
over a dozen search engines, news, images, audio/MP3, music videos, auctions
and various other sites. Compiles the results, weeds out irrelevant matches
and provides a summarized report. It accepts "natural language"
query.
Gimenei
[ http://www.gimenei.com ]
Use
of the "Advanced Search" option is strongly recommended. You can
customize the results page, including my favorite option, "All
Results" in one page. This is a comprehensive and fast MSE based in
Manhattan, New York.
Dug
Dugi [ http://www.dugdugi.com ]
Queries
the major search engines, collates the results, eliminates bad information
and aggregates the results in an ultra-clean layout. For each match you'll
get the search engine and the ranking of the page.
Search
66 [ http://search66.com ]
Groups
together pages from the same domain. Beautiful. To avoid SEs timeouts,
select the "Speed": "Comprehensive". Obviously, you'll
get more results from this excellent Australian MSE.
Besides
the very good MSEs listed above, there are also some others that are worth a
try:
Internav
[ http://internav.com ],
NetXplorer
[ http://www.netxplorer.de ]
(Germany),
Aaise
[ http://www.aaise.com/meta ],
Metengine
[ http://www.metengine.com ]
(Antigua),
One2Seek
[ http://www.one2seek.com ],
Ithaki
[ http://www.ithaki.net ],
Fossick
[ http://www.fossick.com/Search.htm
] (Australia),
Pandia
[ http://www.pandia.com/powersearch/index.html
] (Norway),
meta
EUREKA [ http://www.metaeureka.com ]
(Netherlands),
Widow
[ http://www.widow.com ],
VROOSH!
[ http://www.vroosh.com ] (Canada),
Meta
360 [ http://meta360.com ],
7
Meta Search [ http://7metasearch.com ],
Metor
[ http://www.metor.com ] (Germany) and
Ixquick
[ http://www.ixquick.com ].
The following is a list of some unimpressive
meta search engines. These MSEs do not provide the breadth of coverage
offered by the sites recommended above. Each of these has its own flawed
characteristics, but generally they are old and have not kept up with the
latest capabilities or they suffer from too many functional problems.
Metacrawler
[ http://www.metacrawler.com ],
Dogpile
[ http://www.dogpile.com ],
C4
(formerly Cyber 411) [ http://www.c4.com ],
Mamma
[ http://www.mamma.com ] (Canada),
Pro
Fusion [ http://www.profusion.com ],
moonmist
[ http://www.moonmist.info ] (UK),
Bytedog
[ http://www.bytedog.com ] (Canada),
il
motore [ http://www.ilmotore.com ]
(Italy),
METASEEK.NL
[ http://www.metaseek.nl ]
(Netherlands) and
ApocalX
[ http://search.apocalx.com ]
(France).
2.
"Pseudo" MSEs Type I
The
type I "Pseudo" MSE sends the query to the search engines, and
then presents the results grouped by search engine in one long, easy to read
scrollable list. Be careful. Based on how many SEs you select, the waiting
time can be very long. Some people might find these MSEs useful, however.
The
best MSEs in this category are:
Mall
Agent [ http://www.mallagent.com/web.html
], which provides results from 38 SEs
and WDs,
qb
Search [ http://www.qbsearch.com/ ]
(from 17),
Better
Brain [ http://www.betterbrain.com/
] (12),
My
Net Crawler [ http://www.mynetcrawler.com/
] (12),
NBCi
[ http://nbci.msnbc.com ] (11),
Planet
Search (Sherlock Hound)
[
http://www.planetsearch.com/ ]
(10),
Rede
Search [ http://www.redesearch.com/
] (8),
1
BLINK [ http://www.1blink.com/ ] (7),
Search
Wiz [ http://www.searchwiz.com ] (6)
and
Search
Fido [ http://www.searchfido.com ]
from 4 SEs and WDs.
3)
"Pseudo" MSEs Type II
There
are two types of Type II "Pseudo" MSEs:
a)
You type your query one time and then select the search engines. One browser
window will open for each SE selected. The best are:
Multi-Search-Engine.com
[http://www.multi-search-engine.com], which
opens 36 windows,
GoGettem [ http://www.gogettem.com ]
(30),
Search
Bridge [ http://www.searchbridge.com
] (24),
The
Info [ http://www.theinfo.com ] (15)
and
Net
Depot [ http://www.netdepot.org ]
(15).
b)
You choose the SE, type the query in the SE' form and a new window will
open. Every search engine has its own query form. Many users will find these
window-opening MSEs annoying. The best of this type are:
Alpha
Seek [ http://www.alfaseek.com ],
Westlaser
[ http://www.westlaser.com/ ],
Dan's
No Overhead Search Thingy [ http://www.danielc.com/thingy.html
],
Express
Find [ http://www.expressfind.com ]
and
Freeality
[ http://www.freeality.com/meta.htm
] .
4)
Search Utilities (also called Desktop Search Applications)
These
are downloadable meta search tools that search multiple search engines.
Results are collated and ranked for relevancy with redundancies removed.
They are not free but most of them have a free trial version available. The
price? A few dozen dollars. The most popular are:
BullsEye [ http://www.intelliseek.com/
],
Copernic
[ http://www.copernic.com/ ],
LexiBot
(formerly know as Mata Hari) [ http://lexibot.com
],
WebFerret
[ http://www.zdnet.com/ferret/index.html
] and
WolfBot
[ http://www.wolfbot.com/ ].
Conclusions:
Now,
you might ask yourself: If MSEs are so good, do we still need the search
engines?
Well,
it depends. I use a search engine - yup, Google - when I search for general
information. I use a meta search engine when I'm looking for a unique or
obscure search term or if I want to make an in-depth analysis of what's out
there on a specific subject.
My
suggestion is to find some time and give a test drive to the MSEs; you might
fall in love with these lesser-known search tools. And next time you use
your search engine of choice, remember that there are search tools that can
provide you many more relevant results.
Good
luck with your searches!
Daniel
Bazac is Search Engine Marketer for Web Design in New York, a site design,
Search Engine Optimization and promotion company ( http://www.web-design-in-new-york.com
).He's been online since 1995 and he's also an Internet Information
Researcher. He can be reached at mailto:danielbazac@hotmail.com
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