Meta Search Engines

Metasearchers, or "Crawlers," perform searches in several search engines simultaneously. Metasearchers function as an “intermediary,” in that they pass on the query to the search engines and afterwards order the results.

There are generally two types of metasearchers. The first type presents the various search engines together on one page, all with their own text box. The user subsequently chooses a particular search engine. The advantage of such a page is that you can immediately go back to the metasearch page and choose another search engine. The second type allows the user to enter a query once, and then indicate in which search engine(s) the search is to be carried out. The query is then simultaneously submitted to the chosen search engines. The results are presented either in a long list sorted as to relevance, or as a list per search engine that is then sorted as to relevance.

The advantage of metasearchers is that you can obtain extensive results, from a variety of diverse sources, from a single query. The disadvantage of metasearchers is that the results can be so numerous that they are difficult to manage and review.

The following is a list of a few popular Metasearchers:

Metacrawler
An example of a metasearcher that searches different search engines including Google, Yahoo, AltaVista, Ask Jeeves, About, Overture, and LookSmart.

Excite
By using Excite, you are searching these leading Web search engines: Google, LookSmart, Ask Jeeves, About, Overture, FindWhat, FAST, Open Directory, Search Hippo and Sprinks. Excite offers two search options: searching the web (in that case Excite acts as a metasearch engine) or searching the directory (in that case Excite acts as a metasubject directory).

Dogpile
Besides an excellent Advanced Search and a spelling checker, Dogpile offers to frequent visitors the possibility to make a personal search profile.

Ixquick
Translates the search into each search engine's syntax. It can perform natural language or complex Boolean searches. Each resulting site is preceded by one or more stars which indicate how many search engines included the item in its top ten results. Since different search engines value different content, a site that appears in multiple top ten lists is likely to be very pertinent. Ixquick also offers three specialized metasearchers: News, MP3 and pictures and is fast.

Vivisimo
Picks up results from the search and divides them into several folders. The result screen is split into three portions: the search interface, the folders and the results or the page to which the results point. The folder categories are to the point even by syntax-heavy searches.

SurfWax
Starts clean and simple with a search box. The interface of the result page is divided into three parts. Again, the search box with the query included, a short presentation, on the left-hand side, of the sites found, and a SideSnap, a description almost a compressed version, of the clicked site, on the right-hand side. The green SideSnap presents a faster overview than if you had to load the entire page. If the search results are unsatisfactory, the option Focus may offer a solution. SurfWax will suggest a number of search terms to either broaden (option: broader) or narrow (option: narrower) the search.

Metaeureka
Has no ads, graphics or news and searches AltaVista, Google, Lycos, AllTheWeb, and Yahoo. Besides name of the page, a summary, and what search engines it appeared on, each search result is accompanied by the option Site Info. When you click on it, a little window pops up without going to the site, giving information on the site's server, the date on the server, the last time the page was updated, title, author, keywords and description. To put it briefly, relevant information on the site's status.

Turbo10
Clusters results, allowing researchers to narrow down a search using a pull-down menu at the top of the page.