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Major Search Engines and Directories for Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
The Major Search Engines,Directories and their order of importance.
http://www.google.com
Google is the Most Outstanding Search Engine for search engine optimization (seo), Google has a well-deserved reputation as the top choice for those searching the web. The crawler-based service provides both comprehensive coverage of the web along with great relevancy. It's highly recommended as a first stop in your hunt for whatever you are looking for.
Google provides the option to find more than web pages, however. Using "tabs" on the top of the search box on the Google home page, you can easily seek out images from across the web, discussions that are taking place on Usenet newsgroups, scan through human-compiled information provided from the Open Directory.
In addition to Google's unpaid editorial results, the company also operates its own advertising programs. The cost-per-click AdWords program places ads on Google as well as some of Google's partners. Similarly, Google is also a provider of unpaid editorial results to some other search engines.
For the moment, suffice it to say that getting listed in Google should be a top priority.Once you are in your positioning will dictate to what degree you will need to emply off-page stretegies to elevate your page to the top of the Google listings.
http://www.alltheweb.com
An excellent crawler-based search engine, All The Web provides both comprehensive coverage of the web and outstanding relevancy. If you tried Google and didn't find it, All The Web should probably be next on your list. Indeed, it's a first stop search engine. In addition to web page results, AllTheWeb.com provides the ability to search for news stories, pictures, video clips, MP3s and FTP files.
Until recently, AllTheWeb.com was owned by a company called FAST and used as a showcase for that company's web search technology. That's why you sometimes may sometimes hear AllTheWeb.com also referred to as FAST or FAST Search. However, the search engine was purchased by search provider Overture in late April 2003. It no longer has a connection with FAST now.But AllTheWeb is the best search engine for starting search engine promotion.
http://www.yahoo.com
Launched in 1994, Yahoo is the web's oldest "directory," a place where human editors organize web sites into categories. However, in October 2002, Yahoo made a giant shift to using Google's crawler-based listings for its main results.
If Yahoo is now powered by Google, then why bother using it? For one thing, you might find that the way Yahoo "enhances" Google's listings with information from its own directory may make search results more readable. See the Yahoo Renews With Google, Changes Results article from Search Engine Watch for more about this.
In addition, Yahoo's search results pages still show Categories links. When offered, these will take you to a list of web sites that have been reviewed and approved by a human editor.
It's also possible to do a pure search of just the human-compiled Yahoo Directory, which is how the old or "classic" Yahoo used to work. To do this, search from the Yahoo Directory home page, as opposed to the regular Yahoo.com home page. Then you'll get both directory category links and "Directory Results," which are the top web site matches drawn from all categories of the Yahoo Directory.
Once upon a time, getting a directory listing in Yahoo was considered to be a top priority. However, Now we feel it could be a waste of time and money due to the fact that Yahoo's search results are provided by Google while Yahoo's ($299 Per year) directory listings are buried inside the Yahoo listing will your ranking over at Google which, Ironically, will also help your Google-powered ranking at Yahoo.
Still,Google considers Yahoo to be an important site based on their perfect page ranking of 10. Therefore, There's no doubt that Yahoo listing will boost your ranking over at Google.
In any case, You have to decide for yourself whether or not you should pay $299 per year to be listed in Yahoo - and if you do, be sure to carefully read our submission guidelines for Yahoo because, francky, submitting to yahoo can be a major pain in the ass!
MSN Search
MSN Search
Microsoft is known for constantly reworking its software products until they get them right, and MSN Search is a shining example of the company putting that same effort into an online product.The company has its own team of editors that monitors the most popular searches being performed and then hand-picks sites that are believed to be the most relevant. After performing a search, "Popular Topics" shown below the search box on the results page are also suggestions built largely by editors to guide you into making a more refined search. When appropriate, search results may also feature links to encyclopedia content from Microsoft Encarta or news headlines, at the top of the page.
Of course, humans editors can't do everything, so MSN Search also relies on search providers for answers to many of its queries. Usually, it will be human-powered results from the LookSmart directory that dominate the page. Unlike when MSN editors are involved, these human-powered results are not hand-picked to match a query. Instead, MSN uses its own search algorithm to sift through all the listings from LookSmart to automatically find answers that are believed to be best.
For more obscure queries, it is crawler-based results from Inktomi that are provided. More about Inktomi is described below. By the way, if you'd prefer to get "pure" Inktomi results via MSN Search, you'll need to use the MSN Search Advanced Search page.
Overall, MSN Search provides a blend of human-powered directory information and crawler coverage different from any of the other top choices listed above. It's a high quality resource that provides its own unique view of the web and one worth checking.
Getting Listed: You need to be listed with search providers LookSmart and Inktomi, which are described further below on this page. Search Engine Watch members have access to the How MSN Search Works page, which provides in-depth coverage of how MSN integrates listings from its search providers and its own editors.
AOL Search
http://search.aol.com
AOL Search provides users with editorial listings that come Google's crawler-based index. Indeed, the same search on Google and AOL Search will come up with very similar matches. So, why would you use AOL Search? Primarily because you are an AOL user. The "internal" version of AOL Search provides links to content only available within the AOL online service. In this way, you can search AOL and the entire web at the same time. The "external" version lacks these links. Why wouldn't you use AOL Search? If you like Google, many of Google's features such as "cached" pages are not offered by AOL Search.
Getting Listed: AOL essentially duplicates the editorial and ad listings that are shown on Google, so you need to be listed with Google in one of these ways, as described above.
Ask Jeeves
http://www.askjeeves.com
Ask Jeeves initially gained fame in 1998 and 1999 as being the "natural language" search engine that let you search by asking questions and responded with what seemed to be the right answer to everything.
In reality, technology wasn't what made Ask Jeeves perform so well. Behind the scenes, the company at one point had about 100 editors who monitored search logs. They then went out onto the web and located what seemed to be the best sites to match the most popular queries.
Today, Ask Jeeves instead depends on crawler-based technology to provide results to its users. These results come from the Teoma search engine that it owns.
Ask Jeeves also owns the Direct Hit service, but results from Direct Hit are no longer offered to the public directly through the Direct Hit site.
Getting Listed: For the main editorial listings at Ask Jeeves, you need to be listed with Teoma. Paid listings come from Google AdWords.
Hotbot
http://www.hotbot.com
HotBot provides easy access to the web's four major crawler-based search engines: AllTheWeb.com/FAST, Google, Inktomi and Teoma, all of which are described elsewhere on this page. Unlike a meta search engine, it cannot blend the results from all of these crawlers together. Nevertheless, it's a fast, easy way to get different web search "opinions" in one place.
The "4-in-1" option at HotBot was introduced in December 2002. However, HotBot has a long history as a search brand before this date.
HotBot debuted in May 1996, it gained a strong following among serious searchers for the quality and comprehensiveness of its crawler-based results, which were provided by Inktomi, at the time. It also caught the attention of experienced web users and techies, especially for the unusual colors and interface it continues to sport today.
HotBot gained more notoriety when it switched over to using Direct Hit's "clickthrough" results for its main listings in 1999. Direct Hit was then one of the "hot" search engines that had recently appeared. Unfortunately, the quality of Direct Hit's results couldn't match those of another "hot" player that had debuted at the same time, Google. HotBot's popularity began to drop.
Even worse, HotBot also suffered by being owned by Lycos (now Terra Lycos). Lycos had acquired HotBot when it purchased Wired Digital in October 1998. Lycos failed to make search a priority on its flagship Lycos site as well as HotBot through much of 1999 and 2000, as it focused instead on adding "portal" features. The company refocused on search in late 2001, making significant improvements to the Lycos site and, as noted, reworked the HotBot site at the end of 2002.
Lycos
http://www.lycos.com
Lycos is one of the oldest search engines on the web, launched in 1994. It ceased crawling the web for its own listings in April 1999 and instead uses crawler-based results provided by AllTheWeb. So why bother with Lycos rather than using the AllTheWeb.com site.
"Fast Forward" lets you see search results in one side of your screen and the actual pages listed in another. Relevant categories of human-compiled information from the Open Directory appear at the bottom of the search results page. At the top of the page, Lycos will suggest other searches related to your original topic right under the search box. Perhaps you might even like the look and feel better! Whatever the reason, under the hood, Lycos provides all the same relevancy and comprehensiveness you'll find at AllTheWeb.com.
Lycos is owned by Terra Lycos, a company formed with Lycos and Terra Networks merged in October 2000. Terra Lycos also owns the HotBot search engine.
Getting Listed: For the main editorial listings at Lycos, you need to be listed with AllTheWeb.com, which is described above on this page. Paid listings come from Overture, described below, and additional paid listings come from Terra Lycos's own program, as described in this article.
http://www.teoma.com
Teoma is a crawler-based search engine owned by Ask Jeeves. It has a smaller index of the web than its rival crawler-competitors Google, AllTheWeb.com, Inktomi and AltaVista. However, being large doesn't make much of a difference when it comes to popular queries, and Teoma's won praise for its relevancy since it appeared in 2000. Some people also like its "Refine" feature, which offers suggested topics to explore after you do a search. The "Resources" section of results is also unique, pointing users to page that specifically serve as link resources about various topics. Teoma was purchased by Ask Jeeves in September 2001 and also provides some results to that web site.
http://www.inktomi.com
Among the major search engines, Inktomi is the second-oldest crawler. It briefly operated as an experimental search engine at UC Berkeley. However, the creators then formed their own company in 1996 with the same name and gained their first customer, HotBot, in the middle of that year. The company then pursued a strategy of "powering" other search engines, rather than running its own branded service for the public.
Today, Inktomi continues to crawl the web. The company had been left behind by rivals Google and AllTheWeb.com in terms of comprehensiveness, but changes made in the summer of 2002 made it much more competitive. It was purchased by Yahoo in March 2003. Nevertheless, Yahoo-owned Inktomi still continues to provide results to Yahoo-rival MSN Search.
http://www.looksmart.com
The major benefit to a looksmart listing lies in the exposure you may gain from MSN,The default search tool of the Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser.It sgould be noted, However, thatthe order of appearance for the MSN listings does not necessarily match the listing order for the same search at LookSmart.It is evident that MSN is pulling search results from india LookSmart Database due to the fact the site descriptions are assigned by the LookSmart editors match those that are being displayed at MSN.
LookSmart is a flat rate pay per click search engine that may, or may not make sence to specifics of your unique marketing strategies.
The importance that google places on this is qustionable.LookSmart's PageRank rating is zero! Therefore it is unlikely that having a LookSmart Listing will help your google ranking at all.
http://www.dmoz.org
The Open Directory uses volunteer editors to catalog the web. Formerly known as NewHoo, it was launched in June 1998. It was acquired by AOL Time Warner-owned Netscape in November 1998, and the company pledged that anyone would be able to use information from the directory through an open license arrangement.
While you can search at the Open Directory site itself, this is not recommended. The site has no "backup" results that kick in should there not be a match in the human-compiled database. In addition, the ranking of sites during keyword searching is poor, while alphabetical ordering is used when you choose to "browse" categories by topic.
Instead, to scan the valuable information compiled by the Open Directory, consider using the version offered by Google, the Google Directory. Here, keyword searching uses Google's refined relevancy algorithms and makes use of link analysis to better propel good pages from the human database to the top. In addition, when viewing sites by category, they will be listed in PageRank order, which means the most popular sites based on analyzing links from across the web will be listed first.
http://www.overture.com
Formerly called GoTo until late 2001, Overture is an extremely popular paid placement search engine that provides ads to many of the search engines.
While Overture has traditionally been a paid listings provider, the company is expanding into offering crawler-based editorial results. To do this, it purchased AllTheWeb in March 2003 and expects to complete its acquisition of AltaVista by the end of April 2003.
http://www.altavista.com
AltaVista is the oldest crawler-based search engine on the web. It opened in December 1995 and for several years was the "Google" of its day, in terms of providing relevant results and having a loyal group of users that loved the service.
AltaVista is once again focused on search. Improvements have been made, but crawlers such as Google and AllTheWeb provide more comprehensive results. Because of this, AltaVista is probably a third-choice crawler, one to try if you haven't found what you are looking for at one of its competitors.
AltaVista does remains strong is in terms of some of the specialty searching it offers. It provides a good image search service, and you can look for video and audio clips, as well. It also has an outstanding news search service.
Having listed in Altavista can help your google ranking listing because Google considers Altavista to be a very important site. That makes your Altavista link an important off page factor that elevate your score at Google.
AltaVista was originally owned by Digital, then taken over by Compaq, when that company purchased Digital in 1998. AltaVista was later spun off into a private company, controlled by CMGI. Overture is now purchasing the search engine, with the acquisition expected to complete by the end of April 2003.
Netscape Search
http://search.netscape.com
Owned by AOL Time Warner, Netscape Search uses Google for its main listings, just as does AOL's other major search site, AOL Search. So why use Netscape Search rather than Google? Unlike with AOL Search, there's no compelling reason to consider it. The main difference between Netscape Search and Google is that Netscape Search will list some of Netscape's own content at the top of its results. Netscape also has a completely different look and feel than Google. If you like either of these reasons, then try Netscape Search. Otherwise, you're probably better off just searching at Google.
Wisenut
http://www.wisenut.com
Like Teoma, WiseNut is a crawler-based search engine that attracted attention when it appeared on the scene in 2001. Like Teoma, WiseNut features good relevancy. Unlike Teoma, WiseNut has a large database, making it nearly as comprehensive as Google, AllTheWeb and Inktomi. However, the WiseNut database has consistently been months out of date. The search engine is supposed to be regularly updated sometime in 2003, when WiseNut's owner LookSmart is promising to revamp the engine. LookSmart bought WiseNut in April 2002. If the revamp happens, then WiseNut may deliver on its initial promise.
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