IndustrySearch Engine Results Chart: Feb. 2003

Search Engine Results Chart: Feb. 2003

Chart shows how major search engines get their results from crawlers, human directories or via payments, for Feb. 2003.

Major search engines generally provide listings from a variety of sources, which they may get from third-party search providers or through their own efforts. The table below shows where each search engine gets the main results it displays. See beneath the chart for a full explanation of each column. Information is for the US/global version of the search engine and for what users in the US see, unless otherwise noted.

Clicking on a search engine’s name in the first column of the chart provides a description of that search engine and a link to it, from Search Engine Watch’s Major Search Engines page.

Interested in being listed in the results at one of the search engines shown below? Just click on the other links in the chart. They bring up submission help from Search Engine Watch’s Search Engine Submission Tips section.

Search Engine

Type Of
Main Results
Provider Of
Main Results
Paid
Results
Directory &/or
Backup Results
AllTheWeb.com (FAST) Crawler AllTheWeb.com (FAST) Overture (for US users)
Espotting (for European users)
n/a

AltaVista

Crawler AltaVista Overture LookSmart

AOL Search

Crawler Google Google Open Directory
Ask Jeeves Crawler Teoma Google Open Directory
Google Crawler Google Google Open Directory

HotBot

Crawler AllTheWeb.com (FAST),
Google, Inktomi, Teoma
Overture & Lycos n/a

LookSmart

Human LookSmart/Zeal LookSmart Backup from Inktomi

Lycos

Crawler AllTheWeb.com (FAST) Overture & Lycos Open Directory
MSN Search Human LookSmart Overture Backup from Inktomi
Netscape Search Crawler Google Google Open Directory
Overture Paid Overture Overture Backup from Inktomi
Open Directory Human Open Directory n/a n/a
Teoma Crawler Teoma Google n/a

Yahoo

Crawler Google Overture (for US users)
Espotting (for European users)
Yahoo

Type Of Main Results

While search engines display results from many different sources, usually the results from one particular source will be most dominant. These are considered to be the “main” results for that search engine. For example, in a search at Google, the main results are typically editorial listings that come from Google having crawled the web.

Here is more information about the “type” of main results that are listed on the chart:

  • Crawler: the main results are compiled by having crawled the web.
  • Human: the main results come from listings compiled by human editors.
  • Paid: the main results come from paid listings.

Provider Of Main Results

Some search engines gather their own listings for the main results they display. For example, Google crawls the web itself for the main results it shows. Other search engines use third-party search providers for their results. For instance, the main search results at AOL come from Google’s crawler-based listings, rather than work inside AOL. This column shows who provides the listings for main results, be it internal work or a third party.

The Who Powers Whom? search engine alliances page shows third-party partnerships in a different way. On that page, you can more easily see who the significant search providers are and the search engines they power.

For help in getting listed with a particular search provider, read the Essentials Of Search Engine Submission guide, for a step-by-step process to the basics of submitting to key players. Or, click on any of the chart links for submission help about a specific search provider. Also consider becoming a Search Engine Watch member, to gain access to detailed information about how these search engines work.

Paid Results

Every major search engine has paid listings that are also presented alongside its editorial results. This column shows who provides those paid listings. For example, Overture provides paid listings to many different partners.

Also see the Buying Your Way In page for detailed information about paid listing partnerships.

Directory, Backup & Other Results

Most search engines where the main results come from crawling the web will also provide human-powered “directory” results in some way. For example, in a search at Google, “category” links that lead to human-compiled information often appear at the very top of the search results page. This column shows where directory information comes from, from the crawlers that provide this human directory information in some way.

For search engines where the main results come from human work, it’s common for them to have a “backup” or “fallthrough” partnership with a crawler-based search engine. For example, if a search at MSN Search fails to find a match in information from LookSmart, then matches from Inktomi provide answers. This provides backup against having no matches at all. This column shows where the backup results come from, for search engines where this is in operation. For Overture, it shows what happens on the Overture site itself, when there are no paid results.

Other Relationship Charts

Several other sites chart the relationships between search engines. Below are some links you may wish to try. Also see the Country-Specific Search Engines page for some country-specific relationship charts.

Bruce Clay’s Search Engine Relationship Chart
http://www.bruceclay.com/searchenginechart.pdf

Long-standing graphical look at relationships between different search engines. This is in PDF format, so be sure to have a viewer before clicking on the link. Selecting any search engine “node” takes you to a web page within Bruce Clay’s site with more information about that search engine.

Brett Tabke’s Search Engine Relationship Chart
http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum5/1234.htm

Compiled by WebmasterWorld.com’s Brett Tabke, this table provides a comprehensive review of who powers whom for major US-based search engines and some European sites.

Integrated Resource Management’s Search Engine Tips Chart
http://www.integratedresourcemgmt.com/searchenginenews.html

Details about various major search engines, such as who powers whom, submission links and other information, all in table format.

PA WebSearch Top 15 Search Engines & Directories Charts
http://www.precisionarts.com/info-center.html

Offers three graphical charts in PDF format showing editorial relationships, indexing fees and paid listings partnerships.

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