Comparison between search engines
2006-08-05 | By: A. Lundgren | Comment on this articleIn this article we will compare the three most popular search engines (called SE trough rest of the article). These three SE stands for about 90% of all searches on the internet. Amongst these three Google is the most used one.
* Google - www.google.com
* Yahoo! Search - search.yahoo.com
* MSN Search - search.msn.com
There is also some SE based on the three above. Those SE will show the same result as the ones above and you'll also be able to use the same technique when searching. The only difference you'll ever find will probably be the design.
It's hard to say which of the three SE that is the best one. It depends on what you needs are but Google is the authors SE of choice and a majority of the population use Google. The most important thing is that you find a SE that you like. If you decide on anyone of the above three you'll probably be able to find what you're looking for.
Search help
If you haven't read our other article: Learn how to search smarter we really recommend you to do so. There you'll learn a couple of easy techniques on how to search smarter and how to find the things you're looking for the fastest way.
If you already know about the techniques that's described in that article you could use this guide to learn about what techniques you can use in the three SE mentioned above. And use that information to determine which SE that suites your needs the best.
The comparison
Below you'll find a table with information about the three SE. If there's something that you don't understand you could read some explanation about it underneath the table.
| Yahoo! search | MSN search | ||
| Indexing Limits | 520kb | 210kb | 1030kb |
| Proximity | Phrase | Phrase | Phrase |
| Boolean | -, +, AND, OR | -, +, AND, OR, NOT, ( ) | -, +, AND, OR, NOT, ( ) |
| Default boolean | AND | AND | AND |
| Stemming | Yes | No | No |
| Fields | intitle, inurl, link, site, more | intitle, inurl, link, site, more | intitle, link, site, loc, url |
| Limits | Language, filetype, date, domain | Language, file type, date, domain | Language, site |
Indexing Limits - The max amount of data from a webpage that the SE index. The amount of data that is index may vary between file types (.htm, .pdf etc.). Read more about it on sitepoint.com.
Proximity - If you can specify how close the keyword should appear in relation to each other. The most common one is: phrase (within ""). Phrase mean that the keyword should appear in the exact order you typed them.
Boolean - Used to specify more complex search terms.
| Expression | Explanation | Example |
| OR | Find pages with any of the terms. | apple OR banana - Find pages with either apple or banana or both. |
| AND | Find pages with both terms. | apple AND banana - Find pages with both apple and banana. |
| NOT | Find pages that don't contain the word. | apple NOT banana - Find pages with and without banana. |
| + | Equivalent to AND. | +apple +banana - Find pages with both apple and banana. |
| - | Equivalent to NOT. | apple -banana - Find pages with apple and without banana. |
| ( ) | Use to nest your search term. | apple AND (banana OR orange) - Find pages with apple and either banana or orange. |
Default Boolean - What the SE is using if you don't specify a Boolean expression. For example a search for [apple banana] equal to [apple AND banana] if default Boolean is AND.
Stemming - If the SE could find word variants of your search words. Such as plurals and singular form.
Fields - You could use this to specify where on the page your search word should appear.
| Expression | Explanation | Example |
| intitle: | Find pages with the term in the page title. | washington intitle:daycare - Find pages with the word daycare in the page title and washington anywhere in the page. |
| inurl: | Find pages with the term anywhere in the URL to the page. | inurl:daycare - Find pages with the word daycare anywhere in the site URL (instead of * => http://www.***.com/***/***.htm) |
| link: | Find pages with a link to a specific site. | link:yoursite.com - Finds all pages that link to your site. |
| site: | Find pages under a specific address. | war site:www.nytimes.com - Finds all pages with the word war in nytimes site. |
Limits - How you can limit down your search result. The best example probably is language where you can choose to only get result from a specific language.
Summary
Well there is really nothing to say about it. Use the search engine that got the function you think you'll be using. All three search engine got billions of pages in their indexes so they should be able to find the page you're looking for. Google is the one, out of the three, that got the most amount of pages indexed.