| |
| |
|
|
|
The Search Engine Showdown
If you're anything like me, you have a favourite search engine and you're loyal to it. You never use any others (which made this research difficult for yours truly), insist yours is the be-all and end-all and you even go so far as to deny any shortcomings it may have. But is your search engine truly the best? Inspired by a great article at the BBC News (BBC News: Search Wars), we decided to compare the major search engines. Here's what we found. We chose the search term "real estate fiji" because it's a competitive industry and geographically specific. We also searched with the same phrase, misspelled to see if the search engine would suggest the correct spelling. Initially loading the search page for Google is lightning fast. The look is clean and easy to understand. Search time was 0.15 seconds. The search yielded 1,190,000 results. All results on the first page were relevant. Spellcheck was available. Yahoo! Initially loading the search page for Yahoo! is a little bit slower than Google, but still fast. Search time was 0.18 seconds. The search yielded 711,000 results. It is difficult to tell the sponsored links from the actual web results. All results on the first page were relevant, however one of them directed you to another set of results for your search at DMOZ.org. Spellcheck was available. AskJeeves Initially loading the search page for AskJeeves is fast. Search time was not posted and was much slower than Google & Yahoo!. The search yielded 63,100 results. Sponsored links take up the whole screen. You have to scroll down to see the web results. All first page results were relevant. Spellcheck was available. A9.com Initially loading the search page for A9 is fast. Search time was not posted but was average. The search yielded 209,000 results. All the results on the first page were relevant. There were image results alongside the text results. This could be helpful. Spellcheck was available. MSN Initially loading the search page for MSN is fast. Search time was not posted but was average. The search yielded 112,607 results. All except one of the results were relevant. This result pointed to Philippines real estate. Also, one the results directed you to DMOZ, where a second search for your keywords is performed. Spellcheck was available. Alexa Initially loading the search page for Alexa was fast. Search time was not posted but was somewhat slow. The search yielded 208,000 results. It was difficult to tell the sponsored results from the web results. Some results included screen shots. The look was kind of disorganized. Spellcheck was available. AltaVista Initially loading the search page for AltaVista is fast. Search time was not posted but was a sliver slower than Google. The search yielded 736,000 results. The sponsored results take up almost the entire screen. You have to scroll to get to the good stuff. The results are all relevant, though one redirects you to DMOZ, where a second search for your keywords is performed. Spellcheck was available. Lycos Initially loading the search page for Lycos is fast. Search time was not posted but was rather slow. The search yielded 114,356 results. The sponsored results take up almost the entire screen. Once again, you have to scroll to get to the good stuff. All the results are relevant although 2 of them redirect you to DMOZ.org. Spellcheck was available. Excite Initially loading the search page for Excite is slow. Search time was not posted but was rather slow. The search yielded 114,356 results. All the results on the first page were relevant. The look of the site was clean. Spellcheck was available. HotBot Initially loading the search page for HotBot is fast. Search time was not posted but was fast. The search yielded 114,389 results. The sponsored results take up almost the entire screen. Once again, you have to scroll to get to the good stuff. All the results are relevant although 1 of them redirects you to DMOZ.org. Spellcheck was available. AllTheWeb Initially loading the search page for AllTheWeb is fast. Search time was not posted, but was fast. The search yielded 679,000 results. It is difficult to tell the sponsored results from the web results. An offensive content filter was available. All the results are relevant although 1 of them redirects you to DMOZ.org. Spellcheck was not available. Looksmart Initially loading the search page for Looksmart is fast. Search time was not posted but was rather slow. The search yielded 300 results. There were 3 completely irrelevant results on the first page. The look of the site was clean. Spellcheck was not available. Jayde Initially loading the search page for Jayde is somewhat slow. Search time was not posted but was average. The search yielded 60,424 results. There were quite a few irrelevant results. The look of the site was clean. Spellcheck was not available. So, what's the conclusion? My favorite search engine is the best. All hail Google! ... Alright, alright, some of the others are pretty cool, too. Courtney Heard is the founder of Abalone Designs, an Internet Marketing and SEO company in Vancouver, Canada. She has been involved in web development and marketing since 1995 and has helped start several businesses since then in the Vancouver area. More of Courtney's articles are available at http://www.abalone.ca/resources/.
MORE RESOURCES: Buy Website Internet Traffic. Website online advertising. Buy full page popunder advertising and increase website traffic to your sites. Bad Credit Loans - Loans for people with bad credit. Access online government grants and financial credit services instantly online. Digital Streaming Radio On Your Mobile Phone - La Vella Mobile Radio. La Vella Mobile Radio Gives You Access To Over One Hundred Of The Hottest Streaming Radio Stations From Around The World And Brings Them To The Palm Of Your Hand, Right On Your Mobile Phone. Get Streaming Radio On Your Cell Phone! Audio And Video Streaming For Multimedia Purposes. This Is A Complete Step By Step Guide To The Beginners Who Want To Install And Setup Audio And Video Streaming For Multimedia Purposes On The Internet.
|
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
What In The World Is This Google Sandbox Theory Thing? And How Do I Beat It? Ok, so over the past month or so I've been collecting various search engine optimization questions from all of you. Today, I'm going to answer what was the most frequently asked question over the past month. The Write to Link Popularity Incorporating writing as a means of boosting your link popularity can be a turnoff for many webmasters, when in fact it can lead to a wealth of links.I first learnt about link popularity while researching about many different methods that I could use to market a Geocities site I had. Types of Links Internal Linking - An introductionThe web as they call it is a mesh of links. The wired world is now being counted for what it is. Search Wars! - MSNs Opening Salvo With all the recent publicity given to Google as the Internet's number one search service, it's hardly surprising that Microsoft has already started work on re-vamping their MSN search service. Okay, it's still powered by the Yahoo engine, but according to Microsoft it has been "cleaned up" and the new service mirrors much more the kind of "non-commercial" results which are currently displayed by Google. Google's Siren Call - Is It Crashing Your Search Engine Marketing? It's difficult to dispute the rational behind the rant since Google continues to outpace its rivals in popularity with an 89% "strongly positive experience" rating from an opinion poll of U.S. What All Top Google Websites Have in Common While it is okay to admire and envy all those sites enjoy top ranking with leading search engines like Google, it is much more important to study these sites closely. You will definitely end up learning a lot that will prove to be very useful in helping you take your own site to the top of Google rankings. Google Page Rank Is Dead - Part II In part I - Google Page Rank Is Dead - Or Ist It? http://web-marketing.smartads. Google Sitemaps: 7 Benefits You Cant Ignore Google Sitemaps enables Webmasters to Directly Alert Google to Changes and Additions on a Website and that's just one of 7 Benefits.Telling search engines about new pages or new websites use to be what the submission process was all about. Do Not Drop Your Web Site Off the Search Engine Cliff If you've been feeling like Tom Cruise climbing up the side of some remote jagged mountain in the blazing hot sun and concerned you're facing "mission impossible", chances are you own a web site.Adding to the intense thrill of web site ownership are keyword comparisons and bidding for good keyword positions in search engines. Search Engines Are Going to Love You for This What's the most potent free traffic source on the web?*** Search Engines! ***Surprised? Of course not. Why do so many people concern themselves so deeply with search engine optimization, positioning and ranking?In the United States, the follow FOUR search engines handle (*)94% of all search inquiries each and every day. Professional SEO: Hand Off to Bob or Outsource the Job We are often asked if professional SEO (search engine optimization) can be done effectively utilizing in-house talent. Despite our obvious self-interests on the subject, our answer is always a qualified "yes"- you can achieve professional SEO results using existing talent. SEO Expert Guide - Keyword Analysis (part 3/10) If you imagine that building an optimized site is like cooking a meal, then keywords are the essential ingredients. Would you attempt to cook a complex new dish without first referring to a recipe? Would you start before you had all the ingredients available and properly prepared?In our analogy, key words are your ingredients and the rest of the guide (after this part) is your recipe. Get a Number One Google Ranking With This Simple Technique You probably do this already - complete regular searches in Google for your key phrases and see how high you rank. It's well known that the first three results are far and away the sites that get the most clicks. Internet Directory Submission Tips Internet Directories and their ImportanceThere are two very pertinent reason why we submit to directories, first, to get more targeted traffic to your site and secondly, to build link popularity in hopes of a better page rank. Acquiring links from other websites may obtain the same results, providing they are qualified links meaning the website you want to exchange links with pertains to your business. Writing SEO Copy - 8 Steps to Success We all know that the lion's share of web traffic comes through the search engines. We also know that keywords and links to your site are the two things that affect your ranking in the search engines. Your Website Title Could Be Costing You Money Nothing could be simpler than the title you give to your web pages right? Unfortunately, the vast majority of the websites I visit these days have absolutely terrible titles that hurt their online business. The title of your website is a very important part of getting good rankings on most of the major search engines. The Disease of Google Banning: Are You At Risk? Definition:Google banning occurs when Google removes your site from its index and flags your domain as 'banned', so it won't spider your site anymore. It is actually a serious disease and may be even life threatening specially for small websites. Website Optimization, Good Overall Optimization is Key Good overall optimization, the right keyword phrases and quality content play the key roles in the success of any web design project. Link Popularity and Google PageRank are almost secondary for the overall success of a website. Straight Talk on Search Engine Optimization To get your website listed well in the major search engines, you have to perform search engine optimization (SEO). . Search Engine Optimization, Positioning: Is Chasing Google Algorithms Worth It? Google is the undisputed heavyweight champion of search engines. Most SEO (search engine optimization) companies pitch their tent around Google.
|
