Google is a search engine that makes heavy use of link popularity as a primary way to rank web sites.

HotBot is a favorite among researchers due to its many power searching features. In most cases, HotBot's first page of results comes from the Direct Hit service, and then secondary results come from the Inktomi search engine


Excite is one of the more popular search services on the web. It offers a fairly large index and integrates non-web material such as company information and sports scores into its results, when appropriate. Excite was launched in late 1995


AltaVista is consistently one of the largest search engines on the web, in terms of pages indexed. Its comprehensive coverage and wide range of power searching commands makes it a particular favorite among researchers

iWon Backed by US television network CBS, iWon has a directory of web sites generated automatically by Google, which also provides its more traditional crawler-based results.


Yahoo is the web's most popular search service and has a well-deserved reputation for helping people find information easily. The secret to Yahoo's success is human beings

Netscape Search's results come primarily from the Open Directory and Netscape's own "Smart Browsing" database, which does an excellent job of listing "official" web sites. Secondary results come from Google. At the Netscape Netcenter portal site, other search engines are also featured.

AOL Search allows its members to search across the web and AOL's own content from one place.


Lycos started out as a search engine, depending on listings that came from spidering the web. In April 1999, it shifted to a directory model similar to Yahoo

Overture / Goto Unlike the other major search engines, GoTo sells its main listings. Companies can ay money to be placed higher in the search results, which GoTo feels improves relevancy. Non-paid results come from Inktomi.


Microsoft's MSN Search service is a LookSmart-powered directory of web sites, with secondary results that come from Inktomi.