Brief Reviews Of The Major Search Engines - Strengths, Weaknesses And Recent Changes
Strengths - Excite tries to provide assistance as you search by suggesting related keywords, and offering to automatically search for items similar to any result you retrieve. And its menu-based Power Search page is short and easily understandable.
An extensive roster of entertaining and informational special features are available, ranging from website subject channels to horoscopes.
Weaknesses - Although Excite is fairly large (55 million web pages), it sometimes yields surprisingly sparse results. Another drawback - you can't search for words in titles or limit your searches to images or sounds.
Especially useful for - Searchers who are new or inexperienced.
HOTBOT - BIG, POWERFUL SEARCH ENGINE YET FRIENDLY TO BEGINNERS
Recent Changes - HotBot (http://www.hotbot.com) has been redesigned, and the changes make it much easier to understand and use. In addition, like Alta Vista, HotBot has partnered with LookSmart in order to provide searchers with its very well-done subject directory of websites.
Strengths - HotBot, at 110 million web pages, is second to Alta Vista in size. Even new searchers can perform precise searches by using its many useful menus with a variety of options.
Weaknesses - HotBot's size makes it especially prey to irrelevant and duplicate items showing up in a search.
Especially Useful For - Comprehensive, complicated or obscure searches and research. Also notable for its ability to search for various media types (e.g. image, audio, java, ActiveX, etc.) in web pages.
INFOSEEK - GREAT ALL-AROUND SEARCH ENGINE FOR EVERYONE
Recent Changes - Infoseek (http://guide.infoseek.com) has recently added an outstanding, menu-based Advanced Search page. It also claims to have recently improved its search algorithm (which has always been exceptionally effective) for one- and two-word searches.
Strengths - Infoseek only has 30 million web pages, but often yields more and better results than expected. Its subject channels are particularly informative. Cleverly-arranged menus on its Advanced Search page let you easily look for words in the title, text and url in the same search.
Weaknesses - Infoseek does everything with clarity and thoughtfulness. However, be aware that you may have to go to the larger search engines to find everything you need.
Especially Useful For - Finding relevant information about your subject quickly. A good choice for both the beginner and the experienced searcher.
LYCOS - MANY UNIQUE SEARCH OPTIONS AND A USER-RATED SUBJECT DIRECTORY
Recent Changes - Lycos (http://www.lycos.com) has made many improvements in its search system in recent months, including a redesigned menu-based Advanced Options
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