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The way we figure it, the best way to test a search
engine is to look for information
that you know is online, because if it can't find the stuff you already know is
online,
how is it going to find the stuff you don't know is online?
 Best viewed 1024x768
So we did a search for a page on D.i.L.
You see, the search engines find websites by the Page Title
and/or Within the Document...
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And they should also search
within the meta tags (if the page has them)....
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So...we searched for the above
page (every_file_name_extension_on_the.htm)
that we know is online on D.i.L, and, depending on what results the
search engine
came up with, we also did extended testing.
And these were the results....
By the way, to find an exact phrase, you type
" " before and after what you're searching for...
as in "every file name extension on the planet"
X found results
------ found no results
N/A Didn't go that deeply with that search engine, because
it didn't even find surface > results
As of August, 2002
"tegu" = On http://webreference.com/content/search/features.html,
the author claimed there was a page online that he knew existed about
"tegu's" ("...a South American lizard that is only moderately popular even
among lizard enthusiasts...") So he tested the 'big boys' search engines to see if
they would find this link: http://www.concentric.net/~tegu/tegu.htm According to
his test, none of them did! So, we tried this same test in our search engine test.
(Keep in mind, however, that the above mentioned test is a bit outdated.)
"If some one
deserves the title herp queen or king" = this text is within the page of http://www.concentric.net/~tegu/tegu.htm
- see "tegu," above.
Vivisimo.com - meta search engine
searches with these engines: defaults with Fast, MSN,
Looksmart, Openfind
Features: Advanced search, Preview of web page before you go to it,
Clustered (category) results
"Every (?) File
extension on the planet" - Although D.i.L was listed #1 out of 28,
vivisimo also searches for any of the words, when the " " are supposed
to indicate an exact phrase. One nice feature, though, is that vivisimo bolds
the words that you were searching for.
"tegu" - also found http://www.concentric.net/~tegu/tdata.html
"internet reference
listing outstanding" - only found 4u2interkey2dil.html, which is a valid find,
but an older page.
7metasearch.com - meta search engine
searches with these engines: ? couldn't locate this info.
Features: Gives details (web site e-mail, NIC registration year, Phone
No., etc.), Links to search engines that give results
"Every (?) File
extension on the planet" - Although D.i.L was listed #1 out of 10,
7metasearch also searches for any of the words, when the " " are
supposed to indicate an exact phrase.
"tegu" - also found http://www.concentric.net/~tegu/tdata.html
"internet reference
listing outstanding" - Also found yourarea_frame.htm, 4u2interkey2dil.html,
media_kit_frame.htm, vo_frame.htm. Seems to be very good with searching
through meta tags, but it also found 7 other sites with this 'meta phrase,' but when the
source was looked at, the other sites didn't have "internet reference listing
outstanding" in them. Maybe it searches for any of the words in this case,
also.
Beaucoup.com
- meta search engine
searches with these engines: ? couldn't locate this info.
Notes: Once you hit the search button, it redirects to findtarget.com
Also, the search box only allows you to type in so many words...you can't type as
much as you want.
"Every (?) File
extension on the planet" - Although D.i.L was listed #1 out of 15,
beaucoup also searches for any of the words, when the " " are supposed
to indicate an exact phrase.
"tegu" - also found http://www.concentric.net/~tegu/tdata.html
"internet reference
listing outstanding" - Also found 4u2interkey2dil.html
Widow.com - meta search engine
Notes: Seems to search any of the words, not the phrase, and
doesn't seem to search within meta tags.
"Every (?) File
extension on the planet" - Found on the next page of results
"Of
course there are always more extensions being introduced." - Found
on the next page of results
"tegu" - also found http://www.concentric.net/~tegu/tdata.html
"If some
one deserves the title herp queen or king" - Also found other results, so it
seems to search for any of the words, and not the exact phrase.
"internet reference
listing outstanding" - Many results, but none for D.i.L
Anzwers.com.au
If you'll notice, this site is redirected to http://au.search.yahoo.com
(Yahoo!), and powered by Google!!
Mamma.com - meta search engine
It's very weird, but just the other day, we conducted the same tests with this search
engine as the other ones, but yet today, August 30, 2002, mamma didn't even find "every file name extension on
the planet" for D.i.L!! But the results the other day were somewhat
positive! What's up with that?
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