The World's Leading Search Engines

1/. Yahoo Search

Still the market leader for search engine technology, rapidly expanding with further new services including the move into WAP, mobile phone functionality search market areas and retains high standards (hence our use of the service above).

http://yahoo.com

2/. Google Search

In the past two years Google has jostled MSN from the number two spot of search engine rankings. However, as it rapidly expands driven by the corporate investor. Reports of abuse and passing off is still an issue yet to be addressed in relation to adwords and search result listings.

http://www.google.com

3/. MSN Search

Microsoft's MSN Search and portal for many years held the number two position in search engine rankings. However, as more users turn to Fire Fox and the New Netscape browser, support has dwindled slightly and also as a result that Microsoft's search engine functionality hindered certain browser software.

http://www.msn.com

4/. Ask Search

Formerly 'Ask Jeeves' has rapidly moved up the search engine rankings surprisingly after putting the waiter into retirement. The service offers a number of web tool features and is pleasing to the eye and easy to navigate.

http://www.ask.com

5/. AOL Search

America Online incorporating Netscape Communications and directly affiliated to the 'Open Directory Project' grouping together these three services rank it at five. Traffic and loyal users are constant, many derive from the takeover of Netscape and AOL being an ISP (Internet Service Provider) in the USA and Europe.

http://www.aol.com

6/. AltaVista

Is one of the long established search engine services and commands a large following of users especially in the United States of America. Ranked at six based upon indexing technology that spiders the whole of the world wide web. Does deserve more traffic and could achieve a greater audience base with a few cosmetic changes.

http://www.altavista.com

7/. Dog Pile Search

Has been around a number of years and very popular for it's slick appearance and simplicity in design. A very comprehensive indexer technology and updates very frequently.

http://www.dogpile.com

8/. Hotbot

Has been one of the longest standing search engine services on the net covering areas more on finding people, groups, music and entertainment.

http://www.hotbot.com

9/. Lycos Search

A popular search engine and portal, been a main stay service for a great many years. Offers Newsgroups, News feeds, Entertainment and a comprehensive directory.

http://www.lycos.com

10/. Excite Search

Long standing search engine and directory service, became very popular in the United Kingdom around the mid to late 1990's and commanded a considerable following, offers News Feeds, Groups, Entertainment and a comprehensive Directory.

http://www.excite.com

11/. Mamma

The Mother Of All Search Engines known as and still to this day the Search Engines Corporate slogan. Always been a reliable service and stayer in this fast changing landscape of the World Wide Web.

http://www.mamma.com

12/. Netscape Search

The commercial beginning of it all and sold to AOL. But today, the Netscape loyalty club still continues and AOL must find this phenomena a constant thorn in their side, as they try to vanquish the past and merge Netscape into the AOL and Time Warner scheme of things.

http://search.netscape.com

13/. Open Directory Project

Was originally developed by DevEdge Members as a project for Netscape Communications and continued by AOL. The directory is humanly edited but unfortunately member editors are unable to keep up with new site entries and changes to existing ones.

http://dmoz.org

14/. Webcrawler

Encompasses a different method of data collection with a strong emphasis on keywords. Continually crawls the World Wide Web all day and night. Tends to compile all web site records rather than filter some to demonstrate a more stringent policy.

http://www.webcrawler.com

15/. About.Com

Has been around many years and covers more News content and web resources. Always a good bet to try in the event of seeking out old archives and information. If I recall it had some television network tie up back in the late 90's.

http://www.about.com

16/. Infoseek
Now part of the Overture Organization and the infoseek search engine has changed to go.com! One of the very earliest of services and specialized in finding people and white papers.
http://www.infoseek.com

The RMB Audio Edition of this web page!

Search Engines Project Information:

About The Project:

Welcome to our Search Engines Project here at RNCSA. This small project has been developed to assist all web users and developers of the factual situation to leading search engines for the English speaking language and the additional cultural dialects they offer.

There are many claims from different optimization companies and web sites trying to persuade user webmasters and developers to purchase a package in some form to get your web site listed in the 'Top 300 Search Engines' for example. This project is to help dispel the myths and claims so you can spend your valuable time and energy in creating quality compliant and validated web pages for the web community that meet World Wide Web Consortium standards.

The above mentioned search engines that I have listed conduct 97.4% of the World's global searches. There are some other directories in this equation that I have listed in the Directories Project.

The most important fact for getting your web pages to the masses is by very carefully reading every instruction and manually registering with just these few. Make sure your web pages are optimized so your entry will not only be included but listed on merit of your efforts. To help you further the Web Squids Project and the Mozeditor Project have been developed for accuracy and optimization. On those projects pages you will find clear insight, scripts and guidance so you do not fall fowl of making mistakes that can be irreparable.

Web Site Rankings:

Web site rankings is again another area of contention, there are many offers and claims to delivering great search engine rankings for your personal or business web site. Again I have written tutorials to clearly explain the dynamics of the topic and how rankings are established. I can say it is not an overnight success, so any claims to the contrary are falsehoods. The tutorials for Web Site rankings and optimization can be found in our Web Squids Project.

Mozeditor Certificates:

This area has been of great concern to me for a very long time especially as a Parent of four. The object of introducing this new and unique project available to all to use is to eventually diminish phishing, spam and abuse in search engine web site listings and results. I have developed an XML and RDF environment that can be cross referenced by data mining technology. In other words if for example you are the official web site of 'Marks and Spencer' the certificate labels and parameters will be available to provide information and technologies for data mining to determine what is for example the genuine web site of 'Marks and Spencer' and the others that are fraudulently passing off so you click on the web page and immediately they receive revenue from 'Google Adwords' for example, by displaying their advertisements on a web page that has nothing to do with Marks and Spencer. Detailed tutorials can be found in the Mozeditor Project as to how you can freely label your web site for protection and how to be a web watch member and contributor.

Certificate Rules Example:
You will note that the above search engines have been issued with a 12 certificate (age 12 plus with parental guidance) this is because on the entry pages of these search engines there is no material that would be offensive in the way of images or written content. However, the 12 Certificate with Parental Guidance rules apply as the search engine results may generate content that could be offensive. Certificates Identity Guide can be found here in our Mozeditor Project.

RMBs:
I have developed RMB's for a number of reasons, but primarily related to Education and disabilities. As I near my fifties I often suffer with frustration at times with reference to changing glasses and have noticed once you reach a certain age how quickly ones eyesight deteriorates. So for our dear friends in society who suffer from blindness cannot be imagined. I have also considered members of our society of all ages can suffer from dyslexia and also from a view point of our younger web surfers as an aid in an early learning process. But RMB's can also further enhance a web site not just through a public service duty to the partially impaired or blind, but delivering content in a rich media format that more consumers demand in the fast changing landscape of interaction. In the RMB's Project section I have provided tutorials and clear step by step instruction on how to produce RMB's with the use of free web community software. The 'New' RMB buttons and icons can be found in our Imagescape Web Community Project.

Learn More - About The Web Squids Project For Webmasters and Developers.

Published by:

Alastair Agutter, Head of Riverside Networks Computer Sciences Academy (RNCSA).

Please send feedback to site-comments@riversidenetworks.net (public archive).

Last Modified:

Last modified $Date: 2007/10/14 22:56:00 $ by $Author: aagutter $

Related Links:

Suggest A Site | Target Advertising | Optimized Links | Web Directories

The RNCSA Official Web site and related Safe Harbour Web Communities being developed are to World Wide Web Consortium benchmark standards. Learn more!

Credits:

Creative RNCSA Search Logo, Lighthouse Beacon, Apache Logo, Mozeditor Certificate and RMB Buttons, Web Squid Icons, Screen Shots, designed and created by Alastair Agutter (RNCSA Imagescape Project). Validation Icons Courtesy of the World Wide Web Consortium.