Updated: 14 February 2006.
There are literally thousands of search engines and directories on the Internet, which can enjoy complex relationships as they may provide and receive results, one to another. The environment often changes as bigger players acquire their smaller counterparts.
We've compiled some brief information on some of the most popular international search engines — Google, Yahoo! and MSN shared over 80% of all US searches at the end of 2005*.
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It's hard to believe that Google began life as a PhD research project back in 1996. It is now the world's largest and most popular search engine with over 8 billion items in its index. In 2005, the company was valued at USD $52 billion. In terms of stock market value, Google has become one of the world's biggest media companies.
Its name is a play on the word "googol", which refer to the number represented by 1 followed by one hundred zeros. This may also refer to the number of services Google intends to offer, as it seems to frequently release a myriad of new search related services and products for email, news, images, maps, music, books, blogs, videos and online shopping. Google aims to continually improve its search engine programs to produce faster, more relevant results to searchers anywhere in the world.
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MSN Search is Microsoft's search engine, which started as a beta program in November 2004 and now provides Microsoft-built search engine results. Its index includes more than 5 billion documents, 400 million images and 3 million instant answers and updated weekly or even daily.
Previously, MSN Search relied on different search engine companies for its sources including Inktomi, now owned by Yahoo. Nowadays, MSN Search is well established as a major competitor to Google, Yahoo! and others. |
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Yahoo! was the world's first major search directory. Originally its results were powered by other search engine results (such as Google), but in 2002, Yahoo! acquired Inktomi and in 2003, Overture Services, (which also owned AlltheWeb and AltaVista) with a view to providing its own search engine results. In 2004, it started to sell its search results to other companies and became one of Google's main competitors.
Among other services such as instant messaging and online shopping, Yahoo! still operates its directory and a popular free mail service. Towards the end of 2005, Yahoo!'s ever increasing network of Web sites received an average of 3.4 billion page views per day. |
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Founded in 1998, the Open Directory Project (ODP), also known as Dmoz, is a directory owned by Time Warner. ODP is created and maintained by about 10,000 volunteer editors, who look after sections of the Web that particularly interest them, keeping information fresh and relevant and links up to date.
With over 5,182,325 listings and over 590,000 categories, data from the ODP powers many search engine and directory services, including Netscape Search, AOL Search, Google, Alexa and AltaVista. |
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Founded in 1996, Ask Jeeves is the seventh largest Web property in the world and delivers information through search-based Web sites such as Ask Jeeves, Ask Jeeves Japan, Ask Jeeves, Bloglines, Excite, iWon, My Way and Fun Web Products.
Additionally, Ask Jeeves owns differentiated search technology, as well as natural language processing, portal and ad-serving technologies. Ask Jeeves generates revenue from advertisers seeking to reach the company's broad-based online audience.
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Visit
Danny Sullivan's Search
Engine Watch for further useful information and a larger search engine list.
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Sources: Google , Ask Jeeves, Wikipedia* and Neilsen//NetRatings.
Quick Definitions:
A search engine is a program designed to retrieve information on the World Wide Web using keyword searches. A directory is a Web site consisting of categorised links to other Web sites.
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