What on earth is the “Dream Team of Search?”

Well, it all began with a post by Gord Hotchkiss entitled Search in the Year 2010. He writes, “if ever I had to build a search engine, or more precisely, the interface of a search engine, this would be the team I would want to bring together.”

He goes on to list (surprise! surprise! -Gomer Pyle): a Google VP, a Yahoo! VP, a manager from Microsoft and one from Ask, amongst other luminaries from the world of Search.

From the 1,000+ Alternative Search Engines that we track here at AltSearchEngines, he includes, wait, I just want to check again…, okay, none.

I think I could end this post right here, and that should give you plenty to think about.

But fortunately it doesn’t end there. Kaila Colbin, the blogger at VortexDNA, read about this “Dream Team” and wrote a post August 20th inviting those not chosen by Hotchkiss to submit their own vision of Search in the Year 2010. I just sent her mine.

So what are we to make of this? Are some of us just peeved that Mr. Hotchkiss didn’t pick us for his team? Are we deluded about our own qualifications? After all, he selected people with some very impressive credentials. Kaila, on the other hand, made clear that she is looking for rising stars. Am I rising?

First at Read/WriteWeb, and now here on their network blog AltSearchEngines, I have been looking for rising stars myself. And every month I have laid my cards down face up on the table and showed you my Top 100 Alternative search engine rising stars, my “Dream Team.”

And, to be fair, my list has never had any of the major search engines on it, speaking out of the same mouth that just complained about Alternative search engines not being included on Gord’s list. So is it really a case of Them vs. Us? I think so.

Only there’s more than one thousand of Us, and only five of Them!

The Reality is that together they weigh 95 lbs, and all of us together weigh less than 5. We’re just too small, even if we work together! Fortunately that’s a bad word picture. The major search engines are actually just balloons filled with the air molecules of a billion searchers. Pull out the air hose and attach it to another balloon, and then see what happens.

So far this year, I have picked for my Dream Team: GoshMe, AfterVote, KoolTorch, KartOO, Quintura, Dialogus, and Omgili. Today I would like to add one more company to my team.

But wait! Before you head for the Comments section, let me assure you that I know that this month’s winner is not a “pure” search engine. The Top 100 list has some latitude and a lot of diversity. Remember, one of the main qualifications is that those on the list do one thing better than the major search engines. They may crawl the web and create their own index, or they use rent-an-index. They may just search a particular database.

Now, I want to congratulate the Search Engine of the Month for September:

Answers.com.

When I search “Absinthe” on Google, I get the usual 10 disjointed web pages:

When I search the same query on Answers.com, I get, in a matter of seconds, a beautiful 14 page report, with:

Dictionary; Etymology, Production, Preparation (The Absinthe Ritual), Czech Absinth, History, Controversy, Effects, Regulations, References (40 citations), External Links, Articles, and the Best of the Web.

All perfectly organized and beautifully displayed. It looked like an A+ term paper!

You can get an Answers.com search box on your site – check out the design choices:

1-Click Answers is a very impressive feature. If you have it, you can alt-click on any word on any page, and get an instant report on that term. Everyone should have it.

Answers.com lists 5 reasons why you should use their site.

Check Answers.com for more details and information.

1. The Web is a big place, and it’s getting bigger.
2. We’re more than just a website.
3. You can count on us.
4. We’re your first stage of research. Think of it as pre-search.
5. It’s 10 p.m. Do you know where your kids are surfing?

The Top 100 Alternative Search Engines, September 2007 (Excel link)

The Top 100 Alternative Search Engines, September 2007 (.pdf file)

Search Engines marked with double astericks (**) are honorable mentions. If you don’t have time to try all 100 Alts, you might look at just these ten. And given the Search Engine of the Month, I would like to call Kosmix the first Runner-up for its similar categorization technology.

Okay, now you can run to the comments section. Is there an alternative search engine that should be on this Top 100 dream team that you think I missed? Let me know…