Search Engine Comparison
Major search engines
Australian Search Engines
Meta-search engines
Key:
Search types indicates the different types of searches. 'Natural language' searches let
you type plain-English questions. 'Concept' searches make matches with ideas and subjects
rather than by word.
Search scope shows the areas and types of files you can search without resorting to domain searches Ease of use includes a ranking for both how easy it is to search and how usable are the results returned
Default search indicates how the engine treats a series of keywords with no Boolean operators specified
| Search Engine | Search types | Search scope | Ease of use | Default search | Comments |
| AltaVista www.altavista.digital.com |
Keyword; Boolean |
Web, Usenet |  |
OR | Comprehensive but somewhat out of date; can produce a deluge of results; multilingual |
| AskJeeves www.askjeeves.com |
Natural language; meta-search; category |
Web | |
Concept | Ask a question, Jeeves responds with the question it thinks you're asking, plus results from 5 other engines; choose the closest match, and Jeeves retrieves matching pages; slow but very easy. |
| Excite www.excite.com |
concepts; Boolean; natural language; category | Web, Excite Guide, Usenet, news sites | |
concept | "More like this" option makes it easy to focus searches; great for searches of concepts rather than specific phrases |
| HotBot www.hotbot.com |
Keyword; forms-based; Boolean | Web, Usenet, selected news sites | |
AND | Menu-driven search options let you narrow searches easily; can save searches; forms aid in different types of searches. |
| Infoseek www.infoseek.com |
Keyword; category | Web, Usenet, news services | |
OR | Good search scope; Search These Results button helps narrow searches; idiosyncratic advanced search syntax |
| Lycos www.lycos.com www.lycos.com/lycospro.html |
Keyword; Boolean; natural language | Web, sounds, pictures, 'top 5%' reviews,
personal homepages, books and UPS tracking numbers; Lycos Guides. |
|
OR | Good search scope and variety of search options; advanced search with Lycos Pro Power Panel gives exceptional control |
| Magellan Internet Guide www.mckinley.com |
concepts; Boolean; natural language; Category | Web; reviewed sites | |
concept | Shares Excite engine, but restricts results more; can search 'green light' (suitable for young people) sites. |
| Open Text Index index.opentext.net |
Keyword; Boolean; forms-based | Web | |
OR | Comprehensive but easier to use than AltaVista; Power Search provides forms-based Boolean searches |
| Web Crawler www.webcrawler.com | Keyword; Boolean, category | Web | |
OR | Does good job of ranking to make results usable; can customise how results are displayed |
| Yahoo www.yahoo.com |
Category, keyword | Web; Usenet | |
OR | Great category organisation; returns results as a page list, and as category list; saveable search options |
| Search Engine | Search types | Search scope | Ease | Default search | Comments |
| Anzwers www.anzwers.com.au |
Keyword; form; Boolean | Web | |
AND | Simple forms-based searching including media types, file extensions (uses Inktomi engine also used in HotBot) |
| Australian Business Connection www.webraven.com.au/abc/welcome.html |
Keyword; category | Web in Australia | |
OR | An Australian business site directory, well categorised, with a keyword search; can limit search to a particular state; results poorly ordered |
| Australian Internet Directories www.sofcom.com.au/Directories/index.html |
Keyword; category | Web in Australia; E-mail; Mailing Lists; Newsgroups | |
OR | Includes the Australian Web, E-mail, News and Mailing List directories, all accessible from the Web Directory page; limited content |
| Cowley's Jump Sites www.cowleys.com.au/public/jumpsite.htm |
Keyword | Web in Australia | |
OR | Somewhat erratic results with poor ordering |
| Matilda Search Engine www.aaa.com.au/matilda |
Keyword; category | Web | |
OR | Forms-based category search; erratic performance |
| WebWombat www.webwombat.com.au |
Keyword; category | Web | |
OR | Has a well-organised collection of focussed categories |
| WebSource www.websource.com.au |
Keyword; category | Australian Web | |
OR | Content lacking; categories not alphabetised. |
| Yahoo Australia www.yahoo.com.au |
Category; keyword | Web; Usenet | |
'Intelligent' OR | Just like the main Yahoo, but ranks Australian and New Zealand sites first, and lets you search local sites with ease. |
| Search Engine | Search types | Ease | Comments |
| DogPile www.dogpile.com |
Web; FTP sites; Usenet; newswires | |
Lets you enter one query that is then submitted to multiple search engines; fast; configurable - choose which search engines and which order; limit by time; forms-based |
| Inference Find www.inference.com/infind |
Web | |
Sends out search to 6 engines in parallel, merges the results, removes redundancies, reports results by domain; very fast |
| Metafind www.metafind.com |
Web | |
Lets you enter one query that is then submitted to six search engines; fast; deliberately limits number of 'hits' returned |
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