Meta-Search
Engine Comparison
Note: I have used the standard options - some allow you to add
extra engines
Topics are also known as clusters or folders, and greatly
help to narrow down ambiguous results
Multiple Dots indicate getting
results from the same index, via different providers. So Killer Info has three
dots for Google, because it fetches results from Google, Yahoo and AOL, all of
which use the Google database. This means that the results have a strong Google
bias. Engines GG = Google
(includes AOL, Yahoo Web and Netscape)
ATW = AlltheWeb (includes Lycos)
INK = Inktomi (includes MSN, HotBot and BBCi)
AV = AltaVista
TE = Teoma
WI = WiseNut
OD = Open Directory
YH = Yahoo Directory
LS = LookSmart
PPC = Pay-per-click search engines and any
non-majors like GigaBlast. These can dilute the quality of the results
Scoring For me the ideal meta-search
is as follows: - No PPC included in the meta-search. Advertising is
okay, it just doesn't belong within the results
- A bias towards Google
or AlltheWeb, because their results are superior. This is more obvious when they
source them from multiple places
- Topics. A big help
- More engines
rather than less, so that their is a bigger total coverage.
I started
out by giving each engine a 5. Then I adjusted it by doing this: - +1
for an extra Google
- +1 for an extra AlltheWeb
- -2 for not having
Google
- -2 for not having AlltheWeb
- -1 for not having Inktomi
- -1
for having multiple Inktomi
- +1 for adding each of Teoma, WiseNut, Open
Directory, Yahoo Directory, Looksmart
- -2 for including PPC
- +2
for using topics
Problems - I've based my scores on the
meta-search engines not giving extra weight to results from the better search
engines. None make their algorithms public, so I am stuck with an assumption.
Tested - I ran a test to
see which performed best for in a search for God - a search that Google isn't
that good at, due in part to some Google-bombing. See the results.
|
Meta-Search Engine
Capsule Reviews Killer Info
Everything including the kitchen sink, and it works wonderfully. Results are very
easy to read, and the ranking from each engine is displayed. They have "Quick
Peek", allowing you to see a page without leaving the search results, and
results are sorted into topics on the right hand side (the same technology as
Vivisimo). Aside from a regular web search, they also have Business, Research,
Health, Science, Sports, The Arts, Government & Kids meta-searches. Or you
could search by country. Plus it is fast, and advertising or PPC listings are
rare. The only faults (how dare I!) are that it lacks options like having more
than 10 results per page, and lacks the ability to exclude any of the engines
they utilise. Minor quibbles. Use it alongside Google. Query
Server
Query Server has a good selection of engines (no PPC), and
the speed is okay but not brilliant. It does however have a major downside - the
results are clustered by topic. A few other meta-search engines have a sidebar
with topics outlined, and it's nice as an extra. But at Query Server the clustering
is the main result, and it just isn't very good. There are too many leftover sites
that do not fit into categories, and there are many categories missing, categories
that other meta-search engines worked out okay. For example, compare the results
for "2012" with those at Killer Info. The two biggest events of that
year are the Olympic Games and the End of the World. A better version of the same
idea is at Brainespot ZWorks
Their slogan is "the meta-search that works", and it does. It lacks
the fancy extras of the others, but for those who are just after quick, clear,
precise results, ZWorks is excellent. It works fast and has a clean interface.
The power search is easy to
use. A minor quibble is that, while it is searching, it looks like it has just
stopped dead, and could do with a little animated GIF or the like, to let you
know what it is up to. SurfWax
SurfWax includes news items in the results - that's pretty cool. The results pages
are a bit strange, and are more suited to heavy-duty researching than casual searching.
The patent-pending Site-Snaps feature is easily the best of its kind, and provides
a great deal of precise data about web pages in the results. Think of Google's
results with the keywords in context, and turbo-charge it. |
