Who's Who of the Major Search Engines and Directories

In the search engine list below, we provide a guide to the major search engines of the Web. Why are these considered to be "major" search engines? Because they are either well-known or well-used.

For small business owners, the major search engines are the most important places to be listed, because they can potentially generate so much traffic.

For small business owners using the Web for research, well-known, commercially-backed search engines generally mean more dependable results. These search engines are more likely to be well-maintained and upgraded when necessary, to keep pace with the growing Web.

The search engines below are all excellent choices to start with when searching for information.

Google
http://www.google.com

Voted three times Most Outstanding Search Engine by Search Engine Watch readers, 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 or locate news information Also offered, though not through tabs, is catalog searching and product searching.

Google is also know for the wide range of features it offers, such as cached links that let you "resurrect" dead pages or see older versions of recently changed ones. It offers excellent spell checking, easy access to dictionary definitions, integration of stock quotes, street maps, telephone numbers and more. See Google's help page for an entire rundown on some of these features. The Google Toolbar has also won a popular following for the easy access it provides to Google and its features directly from the Internet Explorer browser.

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 a list of major partnerships, see the Search Providers Chart.

Google was originally a Stanford University project by students Larry Page and Sergey Brin called BackRub. By 1998, the name had been changed to Google, and the project jumped off campus and became the private company Google. It remains privately held today.

Getting Listed: Read the Submitting To Google section of Search Engine Watch's Essentials Of Search Engine Submission guide for more about being included in Google's editorial results and the Google AdWords section for more about its paid listings programs.

AllTheWeb.com
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, for some. 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.

Getting Listed: Read the Submitting To AllTheWeb section of Search Engine Watch's Essentials Of Search Engine Submission guide for more information on being included in editorial results. Paid listings come from Overture, described here.

Yahoo!
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.

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 ("Related Directory Categories") and "Directory Results," which are the top Web site matches drawn from all categories of the Yahoo! Directory.

Sites pay a fee to be included in the Yahoo! Directory's commercial listings, though they must meet editor approval before being accepted. Non-commercial content is accepted for free.

Consider Yahoo! any time you think you might be well served by having a list of human-reviewed Web sites. It's also a good choice for popular queries, since the category listings it provides may help you narrow in and refine your query. Doing a pure Yahoo! Directory search also provides an unique human view of the Web.

Finally, expect further changes at Yahoo! throughout 2003, such as those that happened in April 2003, as described in the Yahoo! Moves To Revitalize Search article from Search Engine Watch. The company completed its purchase of Inktomi in March 2003, a crawler-based rival to Google. Thus, Inktomi results may appear at Yahoo! in the near future.

Getting Listed: Paid listings for Yahoo.com in North America come from Overture, described here.

MSN Search
http://search.msn.com

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. In particular, 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 here. 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.