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Search Features Chart

By Danny Sullivan, Search Engine Watch, Oct 26, 2001

The search engine features chart below is designed primarily for users of search engines. It summarizes key search commands and search assistance features. These are described more fully on the Search Engine Math, Power Searching For Anyone and Search Assistance Features pages. You may also find information on the Search Engine Features For Webmasters page to be of interest. See the Major Search Engines page for links to the services listed below.

Search Engine Math Commands
Updated: March 11, 2003
(See Search Engine Math and Power Searching For Anyone for more details)
Covers: AllTheWeb, AltaVista, AOL Search, Ask Jeeves, Google, HotBot, Lycos, MSN Search, Teoma and Yahoo. HotBot references are only for its Inktomi-powered results.

Command	How	Supported By
Must Include Term	+	All
Must Exclude Term	-	All
Must Include Phrase	" "	All
Match All Terms	Automatic at	All
Match Any Terms	Via Advanced Search	AllTheWeb, AltaVista, Google, Lycos, MSN Search, Teoma, Yahoo (HotBot offers but failed to work when tested)
Match Any Terms	OR	AltaVista, AOL Search, Ask Jeeves, Google, HotBot, MSN Search, Teoma, Yahoo (must be done in ALL CAPS) AllTheWeb, Lycos (only works for two words)

NOTE: By default, all the major search engines named above will match ALL of the terms you enter into a search box. This means that it is not necessary to use the + symbol in front of a particular word, though it won't hurt if you do so.

Power Searching Commands
(See Power Searching For Anyone for more details)

This section is being updated to cover the major crawler-based search engines of AllTheWeb, AltaVista, Google, Inktomi and Teoma. These crawlers also provide results to other search engines, so you may find commands on them work with their partners. Major partnerships are as follows: AllTheWeb (Lycos), Google (AOL Search, Yahoo), Inktomi (HotBot), MSN Search (Inktomi), Teoma (Ask Jeeves)

Command	How	Supported By
Title Search (Updated March 11, 2003)	title:	AltaVista, AllTheWeb, Inktomi
	intitle:	Google Teoma
	allintitle:	Google
Site Search	host:	AltaVista
	site:	Excite, Google (Netscape, Yahoo)
	url.host:	AllTheWeb, Lycos (for AllTheWeb results only)
	domain:	Inktomi (HotBot, iWon, LookSmart)
	none	AOL, Direct Hit, HotBot, LookSmart, Lycos, MSN, Netscape, Northern Light, Open Directory, Yahoo
URL Search	url:	AltaVista, Excite, Northern Light
	url.all:	AllTheWeb, Lycos (for AllTheWeb results only)
	allinurl: inurl:	Google
	originurl:	Inktomi (AOL, GoTo, HotBot)
	u:	Yahoo
	none	AOL, Direct Hit, HotBot, LookSmart, MSN Not yet updated, but may be still correct: Open Directory
Link Search	link:	AltaVista, Google, Northern Light
	linkdomain:	Inktomi (AOL, HotBot, iWon, MSN) (NOTE: measures links to entire domains)
	link.all:	AllTheWeb, Lycos (for AllTheWeb results only)
	none	AOL, Direct Hit, Excite, HotBot, LookSmart, Northern Light Not yet updated, but may be still correct: Netscape, Yahoo (n/a)
Wildcard	*	AltaVista, Inktomi (iWon), Northern Light Not yet updated, but may be still correct: Yahoo
	?	AOL Search, Inktomi (iWon)
	%	Northern Light
	none	AllTheWeb, Direct Hit, Excite, Google, HotBot, LookSmart, Lycos, MSN (MSN's help says it offers wildcard, but it failed to during testing)
Anchor Search	anchor:	AltaVista
Anchor Search	None	AllTheWeb, AOL Search, Direct Hit, Excite, Google, Inktomi, HotBot, Lycos

NOTE: The commands above are primarily useful when dealing with crawler-based search engines. "None" indicates any crawler-based or human-powered search engine that creates its own listings but which does not provide a particular command for searching within those listings. It may also indicate a portal that that outsources for its listings and which lacks a single command to work across the multiple datasets it uses.

Search Assistance Features
(See the Search Assistance Features page for more details)

Feature	Offered By
Related Searches	AltaVista, AllTheWeb, Excite, HotBot, Lycos, MSN, Yahoo Not yet updated, but may be still correct: iWon
Clustering	AltaVista, AllTheWeb, Excite, Google, HotBot, MSN, Northern Light
Find Similar	AltaVista, AOL Search, Google
Stemming	AOL Search, Direct Hit, HotBot, Inktomi (HotBot, MSN)
Search Within	AltaVista, Google, HotBot, Lycos
Spidered Version	Google
Search By Language	AltaVista, AllTheWeb, Excite, Google, HotBot, Lycos, MSN, Northern Light
Page Translation	AltaVista, Google, Lycos
Porn Filter	AltaVista, AllTheWeb, Google
Porn Warning	HotBot, MSN, Northern Light

Customization & Display Features
(See Search Assistance Features page for more details)

Feature	Supported By
Number Of Listings Shown (10 unless noted)	AltaVista, AllTheWeb, AOL Search (5), Direct Hit, Excite, Google, HotBot, LookSmart (15), Lycos, MSN (15), Northern Light Not yet updated, but may be still correct: iWon, Netscape, Yahoo (20)
Ability To Increase Number Of Listings?	AltaVista, AllTheWeb, Excite, Google, HotBot, MSN Not yet updated, but may be still correct: Yahoo
See 20 Results	AltaVista, AllTheWeb, Excite, Google, HotBot, MSN Not yet updated, but may be still correct: Yahoo
See 50 Results	AltaVista, AllTheWeb, Excite, Google, HotBot, MSN Not yet updated, but may be still correct: Yahoo
See 100 Results	AllTheWeb, Google, HotBot, Not yet updated, but may be still correct: Yahoo
Sort By Date	MSN Search, Northern Light
Date Range	AltaVista, Google, HotBot, MSN, Northern Light Not yet updated, but may be still correct: iWon, Yahoo
Date Displayed?	AltaVista, HotBot (for Inktomi results), Northern Light
Display Titles Only?	AltaVista, Excite, HotBot (URLs only option), MSN
Other Major Customize Options	AltaVista, AllTheWeb, Google

Boolean Commands
(See Boolean Searching page for more details)

Command	How	Supported By
Or	OR	AltaVista, AOL Search, Excite, Google, Inktomi (HotBot, MSN), Lycos, Northern Light
Or	None	AllTheWeb, Direct Hit, LookSmart, Not yet updated, but may be still correct: Yahoo
And	AND	AltaVista, AOL Search, Excite, Inktomi (HotBot, MSN) Lycos, Northern Light
And	None	AllTheWeb, Direct Hit, Google, LookSmart Not yet updated, but may be still correct: Yahoo
Not	NOT	AOL Search, Excite, Inktomi (HotBot), Lycos, Northern Light
	AND NOT	AltaVista, Inktomi (MSN) Not yet updated, but may be still correct: Netscape
	None	AllTheWeb, Direct Hit, Google, LookSmart, Not yet updated, but may be still correct: Yahoo
Nesting	( )	AltaVista, AOL Search, Excite, Inktomi (MSN), Northern Light
Nesting	None	AllTheWeb, Direct Hit, Google, Inktomi (HotBot), LookSmart, Lycos Not yet updated, but may be still correct: Yahoo
Near	NEAR	AltaVista (10 words), AOL Search (specify number), Lycos (25 words)
Near	None	AllTheWeb, Direct Hit, Google, Inktomi (HotBot, MSN), LookSmart
Notes At AltaVista, Boolean only works on advanced search page. At Excite, Google & MSN, Boolean commands must be in UPPERCASE At Inktomi-powered services, set menu to "Boolean"