When we covered Meta Search Engines on AltSearchEngines, they had impressive numbers of search engines on their sites. CrossEngine, for example, claims that it searches 300 search engines for you when you use their engine. But what about the meta search engines that only search 2, 3,….or 6 search engines? Is there any reason to use them? This week we take a quick look at a dozen “mini-metas.”

GahooYoogle, of course, searches two, and the results page shows you both sets of results on a screen split right down the middle. OK , but that’s all!

DoubleTrust Ooops! Make that in Yahoo we trust. The Google half is broken. Take this off of your list!

 

GoYams is Google, Yahoo!, and MSN, but You choose the weight given each, the example shows Google 60%, Yahoo 30%, and MSN 10% - then it does the math. A fun toy.

jux2 searches Google, Yahoo!, and MSN. It combines the results from all three, or you can separate them.

Crawl can show you unique results, those only found in Google, Yahoo!, or MSN or by the individual search engine. Preview window is broken.

Prase Tries to search the Big Three, merged or “Un-merged,” but one is broken. Might as well scratch this one off your list, too!

Ipselon searches the Big Three. Boring.

Dogpile is the perennial favorite! Lists the Big Four, but inside it says: Google, Yahoo! Search, Live Search, Ask.com, About, MIVA, LookSmart and more. What more?

WebFetch is four-in-one; Google, Yahoo!, MSN, Ask. Sort by relevance (collated) or by search engine (separate). Searches the Web or just the UK.

PolyMeta searches the Top Four search engines, but then adds Exalead! Caution: Not filtered for Adult content. Me no like.


Metacrawler has six search engines: Google, Yahoo!, MSN, Ask, LookSmart and About. Mixes all six, but you can prioritize one if you want to.


SearchBoth: For the U.K. has six engines on each side of a split screen so you can mix and match them any way.

Conclusion?

In this day when Google has such huge market share, Google + Yahoo! that much more, the “Big Three” almost all searches, and if you throw in Ask or Exalead or whatever, chances are you’re finding enough for casual surfing.

Some of the tools are neat, such as deciding the % of each search engine, showing different engines side-by-side, or displaying only unique results (removes any site that also appeared on another engine searched). On the down side, some were so cheap that I just tossed them in File 13, and even so, some of these are showing signs of age.

None of these are the caliber of the Top 100 Alternative Meta Search Engines such as CrossEngine, Agent 55, ixquix, srchr, nutshell, turboscout, or whonu? If you’re doing serious search, use one of those.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 23rd, 2007 at 6:18 pm and is filed under Alts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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