[WEB4LIB] Re: metasearch engines

[Danny Sullivan]

Some more metasearch comments:

> I use HotBot which indexes move pages than AltaVista as a 
> backup to AltaVista when a search turns up too few hits.

Actually, AltaVista says it indexes more pages (140 million ) that 
Inktomi (110 million), which powers HotBot. Additionally, Inktomi has 
been running different indexes for its different partners. HotBot's index 
still seems to be smaller than the index MSN Search is using. Inktomi 
said last month that this would be corrected soon.

> Since Northern Light Search (http://www.nlsearch.com) searches the
> web as well as a private collection of documents, would it [not]
> qualify as a metasearch? 

Metasearch is generally seen as a search of more than one of the 
major, World Wide Web search engines. So while Northern Light 
returns searches from a variety of resources, it wouldn't be considered 
a metasearch service.


-----------------------------------
Danny Sullivan 
Editor, Search Engine Watch
http://searchenginewatch.com