Got the crazy idea of searching the word ’search’ on 6 popular search engine for kicks. What I found out was quite interesting. Through the pointless research I found out that Live Search actually determines your country of origin by the browser language instead of your IP (like Google). Worse, the results are tuned to your supposedly country of origin whether or not you choose it. To switch to the default version, change the language setting to ‘English US’.

Anyway, here are the search engines in alphabetical order along with their top 10 results. Comments and points are given based on the results returned for the word ’search’ so it might not accurately reflect the actual state of the engines.

ALTAVISTA (2 out of 5)

The results reeks Yahoo. Quite a sad state it’s in … used to be my favourite search engine before Google
Submit Your Pages through Yahoo! Search Submit @ searchmarketing.yahoo.com
CNN.com @ edition.cnn.com/search
Lycos Search @ www.lycos.co.uk/search/index.html
Search @ www.iop.org/EJ/search
Search Microsoft.com @ search.microsoft.com
Yahoo! Search - Web Search @ search.yahoo.com
Yahoo! Search @ uk.search.yahoo.com
Searching University of Cambridge @ www.cam.ac.uk/global/search
Dogpile Web Search Home Page @ www.dogpile.com
Live Search @ www.live.com/?searchonly=true

ASK.COM (2 out of 5)

Take a look at the results. Noticed anything missing? No? Try again.
Here are 3 hints: Google, Yahoo and Live Search. Jeeves, just because you don’t see them doesn’t mean they don’t exist.
HotBot as the 2nd result … priceless.
Ask.com Search Engine - Better Web Search @ www.ask.com/
Homepage HotBot Web Search @ www.hotbot.com/
Dogpile Web Search Home Page @ www.dogpile.com/
AltaVista @ www.altavista.com/
WebCrawler Web Search @ www.webcrawler.com/
LookSmart Vertical Search @ www.looksmart.com/
Lycos @ www.lycos.com/
AllTheWeb @ www.alltheweb.com/
Search (TV series) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia @ en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_(TV_series)
Excite @ www.excite.com/

DOGPILE (5 out of 5)

Points given for the very relevant search results. “All the best search engine piled into one” is Dogpile’s tagline and it works.
Google @ www.google.com/
Dogpile Web Search Home Page @ www.dogpile.com/
Yahoo! Search - Web Search @ search.yahoo.com/
Ask.com Search Engine - Better Web Search @ www.ask.com/
SEARCH : The National Consortium for Justice Information and … @ www.search.org/
AltaVista @ www.altavista.com/
WebCrawler @ www.webcrawler.com/
HotBot @ www.hotbot.com/
MetaCrawler @ www.metacrawler.com/
AllTheWeb @ www.alltheweb.com/

GOOGLE (3 out of 5)

Ironically, Live Search is placed first. The results are slightly repetitive too.
Live Search @ search.live.com/
Google @ www.google.com/
Myspace.com @ www.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=find
Myspace.com @ musicsearch.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=music.search
Google @ www.google.ca/
Yahoo! @ www.yahoo.com/
SEARCH : The National Consortium for Justice Information and … @ www.search.org/
Ask.com Search Engine - Better Web Search @ www.ask.com/
Yahoo! Search - Web Search @ search.yahoo.com/
Patent Full-Text and Full-Page Image Databases @ www.uspto.gov/patft/

LIVE SEARCH US (4 out of 5)

This is the default version of Live Search. Results are pretty relevant.
Metasearch Search Engine - Search.com @ www.search.com
Yahoo! Search - Web Search @ search.yahoo.com
Google @ www.google.com
Live Search @ www.live.com
Google Book Search @ books.google.com
Ancestry.com @ www.ancestry.com/search
Dogpile Web Search Home Page @ www.dogpile.com
Ask.com Search Engine - Better Web Search @ www.ask.com
Google Image Search @ images.google.com
Family Search @ www.familysearch.org

LIVE SEARCH UK (1 out of 5)
The UK version is automatically at work if your browser’s language is set to ‘UK English’. I included this here UK for to be compared with the US/International version.
Search results are heavily biased as you can see; to the extent of only showing UK sites, some of them pretty useless too.
Google @ www.google.co.uk
Lycos Search @ www.lycos.co.uk/search/ index.html
Search @ search2.openobjects.com/kbroker/ doh/search.jsp
search2.openobjects.com @ search2.openobjects.com/kbroker/ warks/search.jsp
Search Recruitment Agency: UK Wide Online Employment Solutions @ www.search.co.uk
Search Accountancy Jobs UK with Search Consultancy @ www.search.co.uk/content/html/ divisions/accountancy.htm
search.number-10.gov.uk @ search.number-10.gov.uk/kbroker/ number10/number10/asearch.jsp
eBay: Redirect @ pages.ebay.co.uk/search/items/ search.html
THE BRITISH LIBRARY - The world’s knowledge @ www.bl.uk
ArchitectureWeek Search @ www.architectureweek.com/search.html

YAHOO! (4 out of 5)

Like Live Search US, the search results are relevant.
Yahoo! Search @ search.yahoo.com
Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) @ www.google.com
Dogpile @ www.dogpile.com
AltaVista @ www.altavista.com
WebCrawler @ www.webcrawler.com
Yahoo! People Search @ people.yahoo.com
Monster.com @ www.monster.com
HotBot @ www.hotbot.com
Search Engine Watch @ www.searchenginewatch.com
MetaCrawler @ www.metacrawler.com

Tags: Altavista, Ask.com, Comparison, Dogpile, Experiments, Google, Live search, Seo, Yahoo

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