This post is by Александра Денисова (Alexandra) in response to our recent series; “What is a Search Engine?”

This is a reader’s point of view; we would love to know yours! Just email it to me at: Charles@ReadWriteWeb.com

Note: This article has been translated from its original Russian to English.

After having translated and posted 3 articles in Charles’ AltSearchEngines blog about defining what is a search engine I decided to speak my mind and reflect upon the issue. Especially concerning alternative search engines (hereafter just “AltSE”), of course.

With search engines everything is quite clear: this is a web-service which is searching for information on the net.

Yes, I know, it’s not a definition. Secondly, this is not quite an exhaustive non-definition. I personally believe there is no need in putting strict frames in defining a search engine. First of all because search engines can be both traditional and alternative. And, no doubt, there can be such a significant difference between them, that it is hard to come to a narrower definition. This is why I will not set up any conditions like having its own index, algorithm or a crawler.

One specification I would add (which, by the way, is not a restriction at all) is that a search engine absolutely does need to accept a search query and to show results. The way it is done – is a personal matter of every search engine. Plus a limitation – a separate domain (meaning the search form in the sidebar of my blog – is obviously not a search engine).

This is all. I do not think there’s any more need in rummaging about search engine definitions. Because the simple should remain simple. It is actually quite strange that so common a thing such as a search engine (or even web 2.0), still does not have a definition, though intuitively it is quite obvious.

Moving on to AltSE. Charles said alternative search engines are a subjective term. I totally agree with him. For someone an AltSE is just “not Google.” For someone – a vertical search. For someone else – search innovations. And they’re right, more or less. To give an objective evaluation of what an alternative search engine is, I’d like to reflect upon it’s every side.

1. An AltSE is not a traditional search giant.

This is quite right, you can’t deny it. At least for now, when none of the alt search engines has covered a considerable market share (in fact, as Charles stated, all the 100 of best AltSEs of the world have only 5% of search market IN TOTAL. A miserable share. I remember when I spoke to one of Russia’s SEO gurus and I suddenly started talking about alternative search engines. She responded with a question – what is an alternative search engine?

Webalta? Webalta is a regular Russian search engine. It’s just not popular. There was a time when Webalta introduced social elements in their search but for some reasons (and I’d love to ask what those reasons were) refused it in some time).

There’s an obvious difficulty with this approach. What would you consider a search giant? For example, Ask.com. Is it a giant or not? It might be for somebody. But it has rudiments of semantic search, which is absolutely alternative. Or, even AOL, or MSN. Are they giants? For whom? And of course such an approach might cause a false reverse conclusion – what is not a search giant is an AltSE. This is wrong. Speaking of the same Webalta example.

More than that, time doesn’t stand still. In time, every search engine will introduce some “alternative” elements in its search. Sooner or later, even Yandex (the most popular SE in Russia), a most traditional search engine, will think about socializing or “verticalizing.” Microsoft has MSN but also has another search-start page Live.com. Google has Searchmash (and who knows how many more little search engines); Yahoo! has Yahoo! Mindset, and so on.

This is why I would not call that a definition for an AltSE. First of all it is not exhaustive, and secondly – it is already losing its actuality.

2. AltSE is a vertical/social search engine.

This is quite simple. Of course, this is true. But you can not put a sign of equality between them. Vertical/social search engines ARE alternative, but alternative search engines are not only vertical/social SEs. I make it a separate point as I meet people thinking that AltSE is either a vertical or a social engine. And nothing more. Certainly, this is just another side of the alternative search engines phenomenon.

3. An AltSE is a search innovation. Undoubtedly! And, I suppose, there’s no need to say that upgrading PageRank is not the most striking search innovation. Semantic search, natural language searches – this is such a great step forward in search, that, really, no one would care about PageRank using these search engines. The abundance of media search engines (images, podcasts, videos, audio), where the next one is better than the previous, is also a great progress in technology, though we, people experienced in search engines, already do not consider them a search wonder (well, may be just some!). Of course search innovation is almost a synonym to an alternative search engine. But, again, AltSE is not only about innovations. Innovations are just another platitude.

4. An AltSE is an alternative interface.

I love this point! I love interfaces and alternative interface search engines! Don’t really know why. Maybe because interface – is a great field for experiments anв some search engines are really creative. Or maybe because such search engines show that they can give much more to a user than PageRank. Besides, visual (I am using this shorter term here, as mostly alternative interface is a visual change) search engines are called to lighten the search process (we all know these cases, when we don’t know what we’re searching for). But again; interfaces (though I consider it to be a very important direction of development not only for search engines but for all the web applications) – are not the only side of alternative search engines.

Every side mentioned above can be a good explanation for certain search engines. Or maybe even several sides. But as w see there are too many alternatives to come to a precise definition.

So this is what I think we should do. To define alternative search engines it is enough to separate them from the regular search engines. Yes, we’re coming to the point where we should define what a regular search engine is! But I have a great explanation, really. A regular search engine is a service with which SEOs work. Which makes sense for them to work. Meaning, this search engine has it’s own index, crawler and relevancy algorithm of course, which SEOs are so eager to beat.

I am sure, sooner or later, that regular search engines will transform into something else, and SEOs will finally turn their attention to other services. But I am not sure that it will happen soon. What do you think? Please leave a comment (in English or Russian).

Alexandra’s blog is called SE la vie, a marvelous play on words! It is in Russian.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 7th, 2007 at 12:06 pm and is filed under Guest Authors. 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.