Evaluating Search Engines

There are more than 2500 search services on the Web, and there are approximately a dozen major search services not to mention metasearch tools. It will require a great deal of time just to develop an in-depth knowledge of just one search engine.  Spend some time checking out the top five to ten search engines to determine which one works best for you.  Each search engine does not index a majority of web sites, and each of the major search engines can produce a significant number of results that are not found by its competitors.  You should experiment with several search engines, and then choose a few that you are most comfortable with.

Some criteria to consider when selecting a search engine are:

• Size of the database.
• Currency of data.  In an index, how often do the spiders or robots search or in a directory, how many professionals are searching and updating the finding?
• Speed.
• Ease of use of the interface.
• Quality of help tools.
• Search features.
• Clarity and quality of search results.  How many relevant hits the first time you search versus relevant hits after refining the search.
• Are there duplicate "hits"?
• Elimination of invalid and expired hyperlinks.

< PREVIOUS | NEXT >

TOP...