Find Everything Faster
From big-time search engines to specialty sites, we uncover the best tools for tracking down facts, news, people, music, and more.Michael Gowan and Scott Spanbauer
Got a second? That's probably all the time you want to spend searching on the Web. Along with its billions of pages of information, the Web now serves up video and other media--resources so diverse that you need a team of sites to find what you want: an omnibus search engine, plus specialized search services for specific tasks. We tested both types: General search engines and specialty search sites.
Much has changed since our examination of Web search services exactly one year ago (see " How to Stop Searching and Start Finding"). Consolidation is the word you hear most often from search engine experts about trends in the industry. "We're likely to have fewer search engines and search portals," says Danny Sullivan, editor of SearchEngineWatch.com. "If the search engines don't figure out a way to make money, they're just going to quit." Recent casualties include Magellan and InfoSeek, two of the Web's earliest search services.
Sullivan and other analysts see more search services following Iwon and Go in adopting a pay-for-placement model. "Every major search engine has some form of paid placement," Sullivan says. He adds that users should be concerned if they find it difficult to distinguish between the search results listings that are paid for and those that aren't.
Search technology has advanced, too. For example, Google now performs full-text searching within files in Adobe Systems' Portable Document Format--used to post many government documents and corporate white papers. Chris Sherman, SearchEngineWatch.com associate editor, believes the inclusion of PDF files signifies that the "invisible Web" is shrinking. The invisible Web refers to pages that engines--for whatever reason--don't index, like sports scores and other information of momentary interest, as well as databases and other non-HTML content.
Technology improvements also mean that search results are less likely to include dead links (links to pages that no longer exist or that have been moved), and they are more likely to place the relevant link at or near the top of the first page.
But while some sites have improved, others seem to have gotten worse. The Open Directory and MetaCrawler, our favorite directory and metasearch engine last year, didn't perform as well in our tests this year--in fact, the Open Directory did so poorly that it didn't even make it onto our chart of the top 12 services. Google remains our Best Bet; it's our flat-out favorite of all search tools. Close behind is Fast. And leading the directory pack are longtime favorites Yahoo and Lycos.
In our tests, we evaluated search sites based on five criteria: relevance, advanced features (such as the AND, NOT, and OR Boolean operators; see " The Tricks of the Search Trade" for information about these), the site's ease of use, its percentage of dead links, and the freshness of the results it returned (based on how well a site did at returning pages about a current topic). And because a good search site makes it easy for you to pose your query and get to relevant Web pages quickly and simply, we awarded extra points to sites that gave us a correct page within the first five links. For our complete test results, see the chart.
We looked for data in five categories: product information (reviews of Pioneer DVD-Recordable drives), business results (Cisco's first-quarter 2001 revenue), technology specifications (the maximum data transfer rate of the Universal Serial Bus 2.0 standard), regional data (room rates at the Agate Cove Inn bed and breakfast in Mendocino, California), and obscure facts (the author of an out-of-print 1920s sci-fi novel, Eater of Darkness). We tested the freshness of the results by asking a question that was topical at the time of our tests.
Relevance and ease of use proved a mixed bag: Some of the services with the cleanest interface (MetaCrawler, for example) didn't score well in relevance, while some that overflowed with ads and options returned a relevant result among the first five links. Overall, we were pleased with the advanced search tools and techniques the engines and directories offered; for many searches it pays to put a little effort into your query. Keep in mind, however, that no one test can serve as a definitive basis for ranking competing search engines. Your experience will vary depending on search topic.
Engines vs. Directories
In their simplest form, search engines rely on machines to gather responses to searches; directories, on the other hand, are created by humans. Although search engines may index more than a billion Web pages, directories rarely include references to more than a million.
Google, Fast, AltaVista, and other search engines use a program known as a spider to scan and record the contents of Web pages. The spider collects a page's title and other information stored in its HTML code, and then it follows links on the page to gather information about those pages as well. Spiders are set to exclude certain words (such as articles and prepositions), and they "time out" after a specific period to avoid being trapped on a single Web page or site. That timing out means large Web sites are rarely completely spidered.
The information the spider collects is compiled into an index--something akin to a library's card catalog. When you enter a query at a search engine site, the engine searches its index and returns links to pages that seem to match your query. Of course, what the engine deems relevant may not match what you think is relevant.
Web directories, such as Yahoo, Lycos, Excite, and LookSmart, collect sites with a spider or receive them as submissions from site owners. Then directory editors sort through the sites and put them in a database arranged by topic. You can either search the database using the site's search engine or click through the site's category tree until you find the topic you want.
Directories usually include query results from one or more search engines in their results page. (The reverse is also true: Google offers results from the Open Directory.) For example, Yahoo's search results combine pages from its directory with results on the same topic from Google's search engine, though you won't get all of Google's results on a topic at Yahoo. Lycos mixes the results from its directory with Fast's search engine results. Metasearch engines, such as Dogpile and MetaCrawler, send your query to several directories and search engines, and then aggregate the results.
Because search engines index so many more pages than directories do, you're more likely to get hundreds of results when you search for something general, such as Ford Mustang. A rule of thumb: Use directories when you're looking for general information or when you're not sure where to begin, and use search engines when you're looking for a specific piece of information. If you use a directory that is integrated with a search engine, or if you use an engine that includes a directory, you don't necessarily get the best of both worlds because each can water down the strength of the other.
Everything Is Relevance
Regardless of how many pages a search site indexes, the relevance of the first results is what matters. Each search site determines relevance differently, so even if two engines produce the same link in their results, the link may not appear at the top of the page in both lists. Most search engines base relevance partly on where your search term appears on a page: A position high on the page translates into a higher relevancy score.
Both Google and Fast rank a page's relevance, in part, on the number of other sites that link to it. They theorize that if many sites link to a particular page, it must have greater value to people looking for information on that topic. Judging from our test results, we think Google and Fast are right.
All is not perfect in search engine land, however. The refinements don't guarantee that you'll find what you're looking for right off the bat. For example, when we entered the relatively straightforward cisco first quarter revenue 2001 to retrieve links to pages listing Cisco Systems' first-quarter revenues in 2001 (which were $6.5 billion), we saw many pages that reported earnings from other companies (most of which did business with Cisco), plus several older and newer Cisco revenue reports. Only half of the search sites linked us to a page with the answer in the first 20 results, which we consider a reasonable number of links to peruse.
In our obscurity test, we searched to find the author of Eater of Darkness. We got links to pages about The Hasheesh Eater by Fitz Hugh Ludlow, and Confessions of an English Opium Eater by Thomas de Quincey. We also got links to several Dr. Who fan pages and to a vampire site or two. If you try this search at Excite, you may want to send the kids to bed first--the word eater seems to appear on an awful lot of X-rated adult sites. The correct answer, found by both Google and Yahoo, is Robert Myron Coates.
Directories such as LookSmart mix fee-paying sites with nonpaying results. This practice is in addition to the "featured links" box at the top of the results page. LookSmart and others let sites pay to have more of their pages included in the listings. LookSmart claims that this gives researchers more resources to draw on, but the site's poor scores in our relevance tests indicate that doing so hinders your chance of getting relevant links for your queries. LookSmart did well in our technology specifications category, however.
Advanced Search Pays Off
You can help search engines do their job by using advanced search features. Some search sites automatically apply these techniques for you. For example, some search engines add the Boolean operators OR and AND automatically when you enter a multiword search.
Several engines offer forms and drop-down menus for honing your results. For example, Excite, Fast, Google, HotBot, Lycos, and Yahoo let you choose to view only pages containing your exact search phrase, pages that have all your phrase's words in any order, or pages with any of the words in your search phrase. AltaVista lets you sort your results by ranking the words in your search phrase.
In our tests, most search sites returned better results when we used advanced functions. The exceptions were Google (which couldn't improve because it recorded perfect scores in our basic tests) and Yahoo (which also scored well in the basic tests). LookSmart and Ask Jeeves do not support advanced searching.
It's important to use the right advanced technique, however. When we looked for Eater of Darkness, only Google and Yahoo returned a correct result within our test parameters (usually the first 20 links returned). The other sites failed to find it even when we inserted ANDs between the search terms. When we searched for the exact phrase eater of darkness, however, every site except Northern Light and MetaCrawler produced a correct result, generally within the top five links.
Looks Count
While the relevance of results is crucial, a site's interface and help features also matter. The best sites offer such features as a drop-down list of search delimiters ('.mp3s only,' for example) without cluttering the page. Sites that returned the most-relevant answers also scored well for their interface. Google and Fast use no-muss, no-fuss designs: Their home pages show little more than a search field and a link to the results. On the other hand, Yahoo's cluttered interface combines a search field, directory categories, news, shopping links, and more.
Not all directories are that distracting, however. For example, the small amount of extra information that appears on Lycos's home page is presented clearly. Similarly, among the metasearch sites, MetaCrawler is helped by its simple-yet-functional graphical interface, while HotBot's neon green will have visitors rushing to their Back button.
The true test of a site's interface is its results page. Ask Jeeves and MetaCrawler hide their results among ads and other clutter, while LookSmart and Excite fail to provide such useful, basic information as the full URL of the site that the included link leads to.
The best results pages balance clean interfaces with worthwhile extras, such as a search field that allows you to refine your search results by adding or deleting words. Google provides a link to a cached copy of the page so you can view it if the link to the live page isn't working.
Michael Gowan is a freelance writer based in Oakland, California. Scott Spanbauer is a PC World contributing editor.
Best Bet: Google, Sultan of Search
Last year's search engine champ retains its crown by serving up the links you're looking for in an interface that is a model of simplicity and efficiency. One of several enhancements to the engine is the ability to perform full-text searching within files in Adobe Systems' Portable Document Format.
Search Tips: The Tricks of the Search Trade
Finding a good search engine is only half the battle. You also have to know how to use it. Here are some tips for getting the most out of your queries.
Read the instructions: Most search sites tell you how to get the best results using their engine, so read before you search.
Be specific but concise: Include sufficient search terms to get the links you want at the top of the list. Too many terms can push the page you want to the bottom, however. Start with a few terms, then add or replace them one at a time to get better results.
Go Boolean: The Boolean operators AND, OR, and NOT let you include or exclude pages based on their content. For example, searching for Sopwith AND Camel AND Snoopy yields only pages about the Peanuts character's escapades as a World War I flying ace; Sopwith AND Camel NOT Snoopy blocks out most Peanuts-related pages--provided the engine recognizes the NOT operator.
The Google advanced search page automatically includes the AND operator in its 'with all of the words' field, the NOT in the 'without the words' field, and the OR in the 'with any of the words' field.
Some search engines, such as AltaVista, Lycos, and Fast, replace AND and NOT with + and-, respectively. To find only pages that discuss both the Dalai Lama and Bill Clinton, for example, you'd type +Dalai +Clinton (with a space between Dalai and the second +). Search Engines Showdown's Search Engine Features Chart identifies the Boolean terms each engine supports.
Add quotation marks: To find pages that mention W.C. Fields but not water closets or farmland, put quotation marks around your search term: "W.C. Fields." This instructs the engine to treat multiple words as a single term.
Use field specifiers: Some search engines support field specifiers--keywords that tell the engine to perform specific kinds of searches. For example, typing site:pcworld.com limits the results to pages on PC World's site; link:microsoft.com will give you pages on sites that link to Microsoft's site. Using url:weasel will produce only sites that contain the word weasel in their Web addresses. To see which specifiers a particular engine supports, read the site's advanced-search instructions.
--Scott Spanbauer
Specialty Searches: Sites and Tools
Sometimes, to find valuable nuggets on the Net, you have to call in the specialists.
Most of what you want on the Net you can find with a general search engine. The rest of the time, though, you'll come up with nothing or with way too many results. Fortunately, you can use topic-specific search engines and tools to focus on a subset of the Web or to gain access to online data that's otherwise not available. Specialty search services index only Web pages that cover a specific topic, omitting material outside that scope.
People Finders
When it comes to finding a person, the Web is the place to be. Google displays phone numbers and addresses when you search for a combination of the person's name, zip or area code, city, and state. Lycos's Whowhere lets you look for a phone number, an e-mail address, or a Web reference, and sometimes it provides a street address in the bargain. The service's advanced phone-search page features handy links to dozens of international phone directories. The site 411 Locate looks for phone numbers, e-mail addresses, and street addresses, and it even offers reverse phone-number lookups.
Bigfoot lets you do still more with street addresses. Clicking the street name whisks you to a directory of nearby locations. And Switchboard provides a map of an address and a list of nearby restaurants and hotels.
Sights and Sounds
Text has its place, but the Web comes alive with images and music. These sites will help you find them.
Photo finders: AltaVista's image search site can find photographs of such obscure subjects as Japanese archery. Excite lets you search the online photo collections of other Excite members, as well as recent Associated Press and Reuters news photos. ImageFinder is the University of California at Berkeley's directory of ten image databases, including some at the Smithsonian Institution and NASA. If it's fine art, design, and architecture you're after, go to ADAM, a librarian-edited catalog of over 2500 online image databases. Want stock photos? Random Eye Technologies' Image Grabber lets you search online stock-photography sites, once you've completed registration.
Virtual video: Lycos's multimedia search page finds troves of photos, but it doesn't stop there. The site's VideoCenter page is a directory of streaming video clips created by other VideoCenter members. To search the Web for video clips, try AltaVista's Video Search page. StreamSearch also scours the Web for streaming audio and video clips that match search criteria.
Napster-less MP3 sources: If you're looking for MP3s, start with AltaVista's Audio Search engine, which now puts Napster to shame. Lycos Music combines music downloads with links to recording artists' Web sites. AudioGalaxy boasts lots of downloads, but you have to download a utility to get them from other AudioGalaxy users. Fast's multimedia search is another good source for MP3s.
'Our Top Story Tonight...'
Most general-purpose search engines spider the Web too infrequently to provide up-to-date news. Search sites specializing in news tend to be more current, but they may not cover many news sources or let you search far back for stories.
Lycos News serves up recent Reuters, AP, and Wired News stories. Don't bother looking for stories older than a week, however. Paradigm News Search from TotalNews lets you query the BBC News and Washingtonpost.com. Northern Light lets you search within one or more of a dozen categories, including business, sports, and weather. This feature is convenient if you want disparate pieces of information--such as the latest Colorado Rockies baseball score and the weather forecast for Vail, Colorado--in a single search. The site encompasses a greater range of newswires than does Lycos's service, but you won't find material older than two weeks.
Moreover offers a broad range of news sources but only covers stories a day or two old. For a less mainstream view of the news, browse News Is Free, an interesting and highly customizable directory to current stories on the Web from international, alternative, and mainstream sources.
If you want to read about older news, visit Excite's NewsTracker. And finally, if volume's what you're looking for, InfoJump claims to have an index of over 5 million articles from 4000 online publications.
Public-Sector Searching
No single entity cranks out more sheer verbiage than the U.S. government, so it's no surprise that numerous search engines are dedicated to keeping tabs on this online outpouring. FirstGov, from the General Services Administration, claims to search every word of every U.S. government document (30 million pages' worth), while also digging up lots of state and local government information. Usgovsearch lets you search the Web or its own collection of government-related publications. If you like, you can limit your searches to a particular agency or branch of government. FedWorld, a production of the U.S. Department of Commerce, offers a browsable list of federal government databases, including Supreme Court decisions, FAA regulations, and IRS forms. You can also search a huge number of government reports. Even Google gets involved in the action with a version of its service that searches U.S. government sites only.
Newsgroups and Forums
Some of the best information on the Web bubbles up in Usenet newsgroups. The premier site for newsgroup prospecting is Google Groups, formerly known as Deja.com. With an archive of thousands of newsgroup postings going back to 1995, there are few nuggets of wisdom you won't find there. For a list of online communities go to Forum One.
Kid-Safe Searches
To keep your children from stumbling across adult material while searching the Web, steer them to a search site designed with kids in mind. Yahooligans is a directory of child-safe Web sites selected by Yahoo editors. Ask Jeeves for Kids invites children to ask natural-language questions, such as Why is the sky blue? KidGrid is yet another directory designed especially for kids. KidsClick offers separate search fields for several authoritative online dictionaries and encyclopedias, as well as a host of other youth-oriented Internet resources.
Search for Search Engines
Still can't find what you're looking for? Try a search engine directory. Search Engine Guide is a service that allows you to search for search engines dedicated to particular topics. Argus Clearinghouse, Beaucoup, and Search Engine Watch offer directories of specialized search engines as well. SearchAbility is a huge directory of search engine directories. (It's only a matter of time before there's a directory of search engine directory directories.)
Some online information doesn't show up in any search engine. The information may be stored in a database, the site may require that you log in, or the site may simply block search engine indexing. Lycos's Searchable Databases directory puts many of these otherwise-off-limits resources at your disposal.
How We Tested: Search Engines Compared
Our search engine tests covered five categories: the relevance of the first results returned by each search service, its advanced search features, its ease of use, the percentage of dead links it returned, and its ability to find links to information about a recent event (currency).
The relevance category was further broken down into five subcategories: product information (reviews of Pioneer DVD-Recordable drives), business information (Cisco Systems' first-quarter 2001 revenue), technology information (the maximum data-transfer rate of the Universal Serial Bus 2.0 standard), regional information (room rates at the Agate Cove Inn bed and breakfast in Mendocino, California), and hard-to-find information (the author of an out-of-print 1920s sci-fi novel, Eater of Darkness).
To test for currency we searched for information about an event that was topical at the time of our tests: musical artist and entrepreneur Sean Combs's decision to change his professional name from "Puff Daddy" to "P. Diddy."
We awarded from 0 to 40 points in the relevance and advanced search categories (averaging the relevance subcategories), and 0 to 20 points in the ease-of-use, dead links, and currency categories. In the first chart, we converted the number scores to one of four descriptions: excellent, good, fair, and poor. The second chart lists the number scores in each category, and the third chart shows the relevance test results when using each service's advanced search features. Note that Ask Jeeves and LookSmart are excluded from the third chart because they don't offer advanced search features.
In the relevance tests, the services earned 40 points when a link to the information we were looking for was among the first five results returned, 25 points when it was between the 6th and 10th results, 15 points when it was between the 11th and 20th results, and 5 points when it was between the 21st and 30th results.
For ease of use we subtracted points for anything that distracted us from: finding the site's search box on its home page, entering our search, or navigating through the service's list of results. These included obtrusive ads, poor placement of the search box, and any other design elements that made the site difficult to use.
We subtracted five points from the original 20 for each dead link in the first 20 results returned.
For our currency test we awarded 20 points when a link to a page with information about "P. Diddy" was among the first five returned, 15 points when it was between the 6th and 10th results, and 5 points when it was within the 11th and 20th results.
September 2001 Search Engine Test Results (chart)
| Service How We Tested (http://www.pcworld.com/features/article/1,aid,55383,pg,5,00.asp) | Type of service | Product information | Business information | Technology information | Regional information | Hard-to-find information | Overall relevance score | Advanced search features | Ease of use | Dead links | Currency | Comments |
| AltaVista www.altavista.com | Engine | Excellent | Poor | Fair | Excellent | Poor | Fair | Good | Fair | Fair | Poor | This service performed the worst of the pure search engines. It often pointed to home pages rather than to pages that provided the answer we were looking for. Its advanced searches require knowledge of Boolean, but its "sort by" feature greatly improves relevance.  |
| Ask Jeeves www.ask.com | Directory | Excellent | Poor | Poor | Good | Poor | Poor | n/a | Fair | Good | Poor | This natural-language site returned too many home page links and not enough direct links to the information. It has no advanced search features.  |
| Dogpile www.dogpile.com | Metasearch | Good | Excellent | Excellent | Good | Poor | Good | Good | Fair | Good | Poor | Unlike other metasearch engines, Dogpile divides results by the sites it gathered them from, which makes them less useful.  |
| Excite www.excite.com | Directory | Good | Poor | Excellent | Excellent | Poor | Fair | Good | Fair | Good | Poor | You must perform a basic search to get access to the service's advanced features. Our hard-to-find search turned up dozens of adult-site links. |
| Fast www.alltheweb.com | Engine | Excellent | Excellent | Excellent | Excellent | Poor | Good | Excellent | Excellent | Excellent | Excellent | A close runner-up to Google, this engine excelled in all categories except our hard-to-find topic. It produced the best percentage of correct answers with the first result, and it returned very few dead links. Its interface is simple and functional.  |
| Best Bet Google www.google.com | Engine | Excellent | Excellent | Excellent | Excellent | Excellent | Excellent | Excellent | Excellent | Good | Excellent | Still the champ, Google produced relevant returns in every category. Its easy-to-use interface fills out the experience.  |
| HotBot www.hotbot.com | Metasearch | Fair | Excellent | Excellent | Excellent | Poor | Good | Excellent | Fair | Good | Poor | This was the best metasearch site for our business, products, and technology searches, but its results were not as relevant as those of the pure search engines. |
| LookSmart www.looksmart.com | Directory | Poor | Poor | Excellent | Poor | Poor | Poor | n/a | Fair | Good | Poor | After recently switching to a pay-for-placement model, this site tanked on most of the tests. It works much better as a directory than as a pure search engine. Its human-compiled descriptions are useful, but it has no advanced search features. |
| Lycos www.lycos.com | Directory | Excellent | Excellent | Excellent | Excellent | Poor | Good | Excellent | Fair | Excellent | Excellent | Our highest-rated directory benefits from using Fast as its search engine. This service gets the edge over Yahoo because of its better interface and advanced search features.  |
| MetaCrawler www.metacrawler.com | Metasearch | Poor | Poor | Poor | Poor | Poor | Poor | Fair | Good | Excellent | Poor | This metasearch site struggled with our search terms. It works better when searching for general information. |
| Northern Light www.northernlight.com | Engine | Excellent | Poor | Excellent | Excellent | Poor | Good | Good | Fair | Good | Good | Known as a researcher's favorite, Northern Light did much better in the tests when we used its advanced features. It divides results into handy subcategory folders, but it also includes links to reports and articles that it charges you to access.  |
| Yahoo www.yahoo.com | Directory | Excellent | Excellent | Excellent | Excellent | Good | Excellent | Excellent | Fair | Good | Excellent | Yahoo benefits from using Google as its search engine, but its portal features distract you from getting the information you want quickly. |
September 2001 Search Engine Numeric Test Results (chart)
| Service What these numbers mean (http://www.pcworld.com/features/article/1,aid,55383,pg,5,00.asp) | Type of service | Product information | Business information | Technology information | Regional information | Hard-to-find information | Relevance average | Advanced relevance score | Ease of use | Dead links | Currency | Total |
| AltaVista www.altavista.com | Engine | 40 | 5 | 15 | 40 | 0 | 20 | 30 | 11 | 10 | 0 | 71 |
| Ask Jeeves www.ask.com | Directory | 40 | 0 | 0 | 25 | 0 | 13 | * | 8 | 15 | 0 | 36 |
| Dogpile www.dogpile.com | Metasearch | 25 | 40 | 40 | 25 | 0 | 26 | 34 | 7 | 15 | 0 | 82 |
| Excite www.excite.com | Directory | 25 | 0 | 40 | 40 | 0 | 21 | 26 | 7 | 15 | 0 | 69 |
| Fast www.alltheweb.com | Engine | 40 | 40 | 40 | 40 | 0 | 32 | 40 | 17 | 20 | 20 | 109 |
| Google www.google.com | Engine | 40 | 40 | 40 | 40 | 40 | 40 | 40 | 19 | 15 | 20 | 114 |
| HotBot www.hotbot.com | Metasearch | 15 | 40 | 40 | 40 | 0 | 27 | 35 | 10 | 15 | 0 | 87 |
| LookSmart www.looksmart.com | Directory | 0 | 0 | 40 | 0 | 0 | 8 | * | 9 | 15 | 0 | 32 |
| Lycos www.lycos.com | Directory | 40 | 40 | 40 | 40 | 0 | 32 | 40 | 11 | 20 | 20 | 103 |
| MetaCrawler www.metacrawler.com | Metasearch | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 21 | 13 | 20 | 0 | 54 |
| Northern Light www.northernlight.com | Engine | 40 | 5 | 40 | 40 | 0 | 25 | 32 | 10 | 15 | 15 | 82 |
| Yahoo www.yahoo.com | Directory | 40 | 40 | 40 | 40 | 25 | 37 | 37 | 9 | 15 | 20 | 98 |
Relevance Results When Using Advanced Search Tools (chart)
| Service What these numbers mean (http://www.pcworld.com/features/article/1,aid,55383,pg,5,00.asp) | Type of service | Product information | Business information | Technology information | Regional information | Hard-to-find information | Advanced relevance average |
| AltaVista www.altavista.com | Engine | 40 | 5 | 25 | 40 | 40 | 30 |
| Dogpile www.dogpile.com | Metasearch | 25 | 40 | 40 | 40 | 25 | 34 |
| Excite www.excite.com | Directory | 25 | 0 | 40 | 40 | 25 | 26 |
| Fast www.alltheweb.com | Engine | 40 | 40 | 40 | 40 | 40 | 40 |
| Google www.google.com | Engine | 40 | 40 | 40 | 40 | 40 | 40 |
| HotBot www.hotbot.com | Metasearch | 15 | 40 | 40 | 40 | 40 | 35 |
| Lycos www.lycos.com | Directory | 40 | 40 | 40 | 40 | 40 | 40 |
| MetaCrawler www.metacrawler.com | Metasearch | 25 | 40 | 40 | 0 | 0 | 21 |
| Northern Light www.northernlight.com | Engine | 40 | 40 | 40 | 40 | 0 | 32 |
| Yahoo www.yahoo.com | Directory | 40 | 40 | 40 | 40 | 25 | 37 |