Search Engine Comparison
LSC 548
| Name of Search Engine | (Name of First Search Engine) | (Name of Second Search Engine) |
| What is the URL? | altavista.com | google.com |
| What is it used for? | internet searches
" patented technology giving the most relevant information and up to the minute news. provides 1000+ companies with search technology to convert data into valuable information. internet searches and search software provided to FBI, Borders, NASA, and Amazon.com" categories - entertainment, health, finance, travel, internet |
internet searches,phonebook, PDF files, stock quotes, street maps, dictionary definitions imagesearch- 250 million images indexed and available for viewing |
| How easy or difficult is it to figure out how to search? | easy | very easy |
| How do you navigate through it? | text string web directory | text string web directory |
| How many Web sites are covered? | millions of Web sites are covered | over one billion Web pages are indexed at their site |
| What are some searching tips? | there are many search tips and help screens, you can also go to
searchsupportataltavista.com or traffick.com (a guide to portals and
search engines)
putting a plus sign in front of a word means that word must be included on a page for it to be a match best time to get the most accurate results: 7PM - 7AM (PST) some words, when followed by a colon have special meaning Boolean query: if you don't know what term to enter for a search, it gives you a topic and a form to fill out top get your information
|
use key words wisely
be specific because google includes all the words in your query exclude common words "I'm feeling lucky" takes you to the first web page google returned for your query all about google directory.google.com - if you don't know how to search or what words to use in your search. web organized by topic if a common word is essential to your results, put a + in front of it, otherwise, google ignores common words |
| Can you change the default search logic? | Search Assistant helps with a more specific search by asking for a
certain date, location and page element. You can also ask for a
certain number of results to be displayed per page
You can customize settings in a results display and it will customize the elements you want included in a search |
Google's default provides fastest results(10): go to Preferences if you always want more than 10 results and change it to the number you would like |
| Can you change the way in which results are displayed? | Yes, through advanced search which displays in random order unless you enter a term in
the sort box.
You can go to the search assistant and ask for results from a certain time frame (e.g. last six months)
|
Yes, there is a preferences page and an advanced search to specify things like language, dates and to include exact phrases |
| How many results did you receive? | 46,000 | 199,000 |
| How current are the results? | they "add fresh content to the directory everyday" | very current as they update every few weeks |
| What proportion of the results were relevant? | about two thirds of the results were relevant | about three fourths of the results were relevant |
| Was the amount of detail displayed with the results adequate? | yes | yes |
| Was the order in which the results were displayed evident and/or logical? | yes | yes |
| What are the strengths/weaknesses? | weaknesses: homepage is too busy with too much information about
shopping, news, and marketplace
strengths: breaks down searches into categories family filter to block out inappropriate information for children 50 million search queries daily 25 languages ranks sites automatically search for college admission information on all educational domains Boolean queries, government searches, educational searches, image searches many searching tips Babel fish translation of foreign language sites to English Look Smart - interactive guide to help you quickly find what you need through a category search or a keyword search using more than two million web sites |
strengths: they have a quick tour of google and all about google to
help you get started.
special features: other ways to google similar pages link for specific results PageRank software system for ranking websites choose googleSafeSearch to block out sexually explicit topics when children are searching multiple languages image searches web page translation |
| How often is it updated? | they don't give out that information, but said they work around the clock to make sure the information on their site is current and accurate | updated every few weeks |
| What is the e-mail address to submit questions? | altavista.com/contact/email | helpatgoogle.com |
| On a scale of 1 to 10 (1=poor, 10=superior), rate each search engine. | 7 | 9 |