Search engine links

Here are links to the directories and search engines that have been discussed on this site or are otherwise significant.

Directories

A directory is a site that has links to different websites, which are arranged into categories by their topic. Unlike search engines, it is uncommon for a directory to list several pages from one site.

Yahoo

Born in 1994, Yahoo is one of the largest directories on the Internet. Its online properties serve a modest 1,2 billion pageviews per day, according to the company's FAQ.

For more information, read the article about Yahoo from this site.

The Open Directory

Among the three most important directories, the Open Directory is the only one of them that allows commercial sites to be submitted for free. Rather than the popularity of its own site, the Open Directory's power comes from the many large search engines that use its data to supplement their own results.

For more information, read the article about the Open Directory from this site.

Looksmart

Another major directory, Looksmart is completely different from the Open Directory. Commercial or non-Commercial, you'll need to pay for the visitors LS sends to you. Fortunately there is a back door, a directory called Zeal, that can be used by non-Commercial sites to get to Looksmart for free.

For more information, read the article about Looksmart from this site.

Zeal

Zeal, Looksmart's non-Commercial directory, does not charge any review or click-through fees from the sites submitted through it. Since Looksmart uses Zeal's data in parts of its own directory, Zeal offers the perfect way for a non-Commercial site to acquire a listing at Looksmart.

For more information, read the article about Looksmart from this site.

About

About has a directory in which each category contains both original content and links. However, it's not a directory in the same sense as those listed above and does not offer a similar possibility to submit sites as they do.

Those who wish to attempt to get listed at About should first find the correct category for their site, then E-mail its editor.

Independent search engines

Independent search engines are search engines that have their own databases. You can submit your site to these.

Google

Google is one of the leaders in the field of search engines and its popularity among searchers seems to just keep on growing. Not surprisingly, obtaining a high ranking in this engine under the correct keywords is a great way to produce plenty of traffic.

For more information, read the article about Google from this site.

Ask Jeeves

A somewhat unique search engine, Ask Jeeves uses human editors instead of robots. Their job is to find sites and pages that offer exact answers to the most frequently asked questions. This means that for the majority of search queries, Ask Jeeves returns only a handful of sites as answers, compared to the millions offered by others.

To supplement the answers found by humans, Ask Jeeves uses Teoma and Overture to provide more results.

Altavista

Formerly a large and a well-respected engine, Altavista has since then declined so much that it is questionable whether it should be called a "major search engine" any longer. The days when it sent major amounts of traffic to the sites listed on it are gone, all we can do is to hope it'll recover one day.

Inktomi

Rather than running a search engine of its own, Inktomi provides search services for other sites. Currently it is somewhat difficult to get listed on it, unless you're willing to pay. A free way to submit is also available, but it seems to be very unreliable.

FAST

Not as large as Altavista and Inktomi, FAST is a fairly new player. However, it is able to offer free submission and update its database every now and then, both of them things that are not too common these days. In addition to having its own search site, FAST also powers other search engines, Lycos probably being the most famous of its customers.

Some search results at FAST include one link from the paid search engine Kanoodle.

Non-independent search engines

Non-independent search engines do not have a database of their own. The results on non-independent search engines are provided by someone else, usually by several other search engines. You can submit to these by submitting to the independent search engines that produce the results.

MSN

According to Jupiter Media Metrix, Microsoft's MSN Search is currently the most popular search service. Not depending on what you think of Microsoft, having your site appear on this search engine is a good move.

The search results at MSN are mostly provided by Looksmart, Inktomi and Overture, with a small part coming from Direct Hit.

AOL

AOL has been able to grab itself a fair share of the searches executed on the Internet today. It may not be quite as large as that of MSN's, but AOL does not fall far behind. Being listed here is well worth your while.

AOL gets its search results from the Open Directory and Inktomi.

Lycos

For a long time, the results at Lycos were drawn from its own search engine. However, it was later dropped and now Lycos uses several different providers to compile its search results.

The results at Lycos come from Overture, FAST and the Open Directory project.

Paid search engines

These search engines require sites to pay for being listed. Usually the ranking of a site depends on how much it is willing to pay.

Overture

Undoubtedly the most significant pay-per-click search engine, Overture used to be called "GoTo" before it changed its name. Today, its search results are displayed on multiple search engines, which include AOL, Altavista, Lycos, Ask Jeeves, MSN and several others.

When it runs out of results from its own database, Overture uses data from Inktomi.

FindWhat

Not as large as Overture, FindWhat's main advantage is that it is usually more affordable. It has some partners that use its results, Dogpile, Metacrawler, Mamma and Search.com being a few of the larger ones.

About.com's Sprinks

Sprinks is a PPC search engine that has a minimum bid of 5 cents per click, just like Overture. The main user of Sprinks is About.com, which displays results from Sprinks among its own.

Searchhound, Ah-ha, Kanoodle

Smaller PPC search engines that operate pretty much in the same way as Overture and all the others.

Meta search engines

A meta search engine gets its results from several other search engines. Usually meta search engines are also non-independent engines.

Mamma

Born in 1996, Mamma claims to serve over 7.9 million unique users each month. Like many other meta search engines, Mamma usually draws a great deal of its results from various paid search engines.

Dogpile

One of the more popular meta search engines, Dogpile was founded in 1996 and bought by Infospace in 1999. It uses mostly Overture, FindWhat, About.com, About.com's Sprinks and Looksmart for its search results.

MetaCrawler

Another Infospace search engine, MetaCrawler has been on the Web since 1995. It relies less on paid search engines than Dogpile.

Search.com

CNet's Search.com differs somewhat from most of the other meta search engines. In addition to normal meta search, it offers access to around 800 specialized search engines.

Search Online

Search Online is a fairly new meta search engine, but seems to be producing quite relevant results. Labels sponsored results clearly, which is very unusual. Has been favorably reviewed by About.com's Web Search Guide Kevin Elliott.

Ixquick

When compared to other meta search engines, Ixquick's strong point is that it can be used in a wide variety of languages in addition to English. Its ranking system is also somewhat unique, as it arranges sites based on how many top ten rankings they have in the search engines used by Ixquick.

Vivisimo

Vivisimo's specialty is that it arranges its search results into folders, just like the late Northern Light used to do. It also currently displays very few links from paid search engines.