| General Information | Google | Yahoo! Search | Bing (formerly Live and MSN) | Ask | Hakia semantic | Exalead | Dogpile | Wolfram Alpha | Truevert | Searchme | Mahalo | Scour | Wink | Brainboost | AltaVista |
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| Overview | Most used search engine on the Web. Google search service receives several hundred million queries each day. | Yahoo! Search is owned by Yahoo!, Inc. and is currently the second largest search engine on the web. | Bing (formerly Live Search, Windows Live Search and MSN Search), codenamed Kumo, is the Microsoft's web search engine | Ask.com was originally known as Ask Jeeves, where "Jeeves" is the name of the "gentleman's personal gentleman", or valet (illustrated by Marcos Sorensen), fetching answers to any question asked. | Hakia is a semantic search engine, currently operating in BETA. Hakia’s semantic technology is focused on quality, not popularity. The search results come from credible Web sites recommended by librarians and represent the most recent information available. | French search engine involved in the Quaero project. Exalead provides thumbnail previews of the target pages along with the results, and allows advanced refining on the results page. | Dogpile is metasearch engine - searches multiple search engines. Fetches results from Google, Yahoo!, Live Search, Ask.com, About.com, MIVA, LookSmart and others, including those from audio and video content providers. | Wolfram Alpha is an answer-engine developed by Wolfram Research. It is an online service that answers factual queries directly by computing the answer from structured data, rather than providing a list of documents or web pages that might contain the answer as a search engine might. | Truevert is semantic search engine launched in beta. It focuses on "green" issues related to environmental and sustainability issues. Truevert uses YAHOO's BOSS interface to retrieve relevant documents. | Searchme is a search engine that uses visual search and category refinement. Searchme displays results in a slick image gallery of actual Web pages you can flip through and filter results by topic. Currently SearchMe is offline (site redirects to Google search). Since July 2009 the SearchMe has been looking for potential buyer. | Mahalo.com is a web directory (or human search engine) launched in alpha test in May 2007. It differentiates itself from algorithmic search engines like Google and Ask.com and Yahoo by tracking and building hand-crafted result sets for many of the currently popular search terms. | Scour is a metasearch engine combining the three most used search engines–Google, Yahoo and Live Search–into a single aggregated search page with social aspects. Scour rewards users with a point for each unique search. | Wink is a community-based social search engine. It provides people search across social networks, and Web search based on user input. | Brainboost is metasearch engine designed to provide specific answers to questions asked in natural language. The Brainboost uses machine learning and natural language processing. Supports English only. Owned by Answers.com | Search results on AltaVista are powered by Yahoo! Search Technology. |
| Website URL | www.google.com | search.yahoo.com | www.bing.com | www.ask.com | www.hakia.com | www.exalead.com/search | www.dogpile.com | www.wolframalpha.com | www.truevert.com | www.searchme.com | www.mahalo.com | www.scour.com | wink.com | www.answers.com/bb | www.altavista.com |
| Website Submission |  Yes, www.google.com/addurl | Yes, siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/au/free/submit | Yes, www.bing.com/docs/submit.aspx |  No, Ask.com doesn't have a submit URL option | Yes, club.hakia.com/submitsite.aspx | Yes, www.exalead.com/search/web/submit | No, Dogpile is a metasearch engine and does not have a database of websites. | Yes, www.wolframalpha.com/participate/datafile.html | | Yes, www.searchme.com/support/submit.php | Yes, www.mahalo.com/directory-site-listing-to-submit | No, Scour is a metasearch engine and does not have a database of websites. | | No | Yes, addurl.altavista.com |
| Wikipedia Article | en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_search | en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yahoo_Search | en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bing_(search_engine) | en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ask.com | en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hakia | en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exalead | en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dogpile | en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfram_Alpha | | en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SearchMe | en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahalo.com | en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scour | en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wink_Technologies | en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BrainBoost | en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AltaVista |
| Web Site Blog | googleblog.blogspot.com | ysearchblog.com | Bng community blog - www.bing.com/community/blogs | Ask blog - blog.ask.com | Hakia Blog - blog.hakia.com | blog.exalead.com | Dogpile official blog - www.dogpile.com/dogpile/ws/pressroom/_iceUrlFlag=11?_IceUrl=true | blog.wolframalpha.com | truevert.blogspot.com | Searchme blog - blog.searchme.com | blog.mahalo.com | blog.scour.com | blog.wink.com | Answers official blog - www.nostupidanswers.com | |
| Customer Support | www.google.com/support/websearch | help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/search/search_support.html | help.live.com | sp.ask.com/en/docs/about/contact_us.shtml | company.hakia.com/contact.html | www.exalead.com/about/document/21 | www.dogpile.com/dogpile/ws/contactUs/_iceUrlFlag=11?_IceUrl=true | www.wolframalpha.com | info@truevert.com | www.searchme.com/support | www.mahalo.com/Special:Mahaloreportissue?returnto=Mahalo_FAQ | support@scour.com | wink.com/feedback | www.answers.com/main/contact_us.jsp | www.altavista.com/help/contact/intro_help |
| Ranking | Google | Yahoo! Search | Bing (formerly Live and MSN) | Ask | Hakia semantic | Exalead | Dogpile | Wolfram Alpha | Truevert | Searchme | Mahalo | Scour | Wink | Brainboost | AltaVista |
| Ranking Algorithm | PageRank algorithm www.google.com/corporate/tech.html | | Bing ranking algorithm analyzes webpage content, the number and quality of websites that link to these webpages, and the relevance of the website’s content to keywords. | ExpertRank algorithm | SemanticRank algorithm. company.hakia.com/technology.html | | | Wolfram Alpha answers factual queries directly by computing the answer from structured data, rather than providing a list of documents or web pages that might contain the answer as a search engine might. | "Green" search engine that limits its results to environmental topics | Brainboost ranks the different answers based on AnswerRank algorithm. Then it analyzes the documents line by line and extracts the best answers. | Human editors reviews websites and writes results pages that include text listings, as well as other media, such as photos and video. Each Mahalo search results page includes frames from Google, Yahoo, Live search, Ask.com, Wikipedia, Del.icio.us, YouTube and Flickr. | Returns results from Google, Yahoo, MSN. Then Scour weight them against their own database to see what users have said about where positions should be, and apply that weight to the results. | Wink’s PeopleRank technology analyzes which pages people like or don’t like to determine relevant results. | | |
| Search Features | Google | Yahoo! Search | Bing (formerly Live and MSN) | Ask | Hakia semantic | Exalead | Dogpile | Wolfram Alpha | Truevert | Searchme | Mahalo | Scour | Wink | Brainboost | AltaVista |
| Audio Search | No | Yes, audio.search.yahoo.com | Yes, music.msn.com | No | No | Yes, as you refine your search results (audio) | No | | No | Yes | | No | No | No | Yes, www.altavista.com/audio |
| Blog Search | Yes, blogsearch.google.com | Yes, ysearchblog.com | Yes | Yes, www.ask.com/?tool=bls | No | Yes, as you refine your search results (blog) | No | No | No | Yes, as you refine your search results (blogs) | Yes, live blog search at www.mahalo.com/Liveblog | | | No | No |
| Book Search | Yes, www.google.com/books | No | | No | No | No | | | No | | | | No | No | No |
| Career Search | Yes, www.google.com/base | Yes, hotjobs.yahoo.com/jobs | Yes, careers.msn.com | No | Yes | Yes, as you refine your search results | No | No | | Yes, as you refine your search results (work & career) | | | | No | No |
| Desktop Search | Yes, desktop.google.com | Yes, us.config.toolbar.yahoo.com/yds | Yes, www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/desktopsearch | Yes, sp.ask.com/en/docs/desktop/overview.shtml | No | Yes, www.exalead.com/download/exaleadDesktop | No | No | No | No | | Coming soon | No | No | No |
| Dictionary Search | Yes, type the word "define" then a space, then the word(s) you want defined | NA, only in search results | Yes | Yes | Yes, using semantic search | Yes, as you refine your search results | No | No | No | Yes, as you refine your search results (dictionaries & treasauri) | No | Yes | No | No | Yes, only in search results |
| Events Search | Yes, www.google.com/base | Yes, upcoming.yahoo.com | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | | No | | | No | No |
| Finance Search | Yes, www.google.com/finance | Yes, finance.yahoo.com/search | Yes, moneycentral.msn.com | Yes | No | Yes, as you refine your search results | No | Yes, www.wolframalpha.com/examples/MoneyAndFinance.html | No | Yes, as you refine your search results (investing, personal finance, stocks and companies) | | | No | No | No |
| Forum Search | No | No | | No | No | Yes, as you refine your search results( forum) | No | No | No | Yes, as you refine your search results (online forums) | No | | | No | No |
| Google | Yahoo! Search | Bing (formerly Live and MSN) | Ask | Hakia semantic | Exalead | Dogpile | Wolfram Alpha | Truevert | Searchme | Mahalo | Scour | Wink | Brainboost | AltaVista |
| Health Search | No | Yes, health.yahoo.com | Yes, www.bing.com/health | Yes, using Health Smart Answers | Yes, health.hakia.com | No | No | Yes, www.wolframalpha.com/examples/HealthAndMedicine.html | Yes, As you refine your search results with themes | Yes, as you refine your search results (alternative health) | Yes, www.mahalo.com/answers/health | | | | No |
| Image Search | Yes, images.google.com | Yes, images.search.yahoo.com | Yes, www.bing.com/images | Yes, www.ask.com/?tool=img | Yes | Yes, www.exalead.com/image | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | | Yes | | No | Yes, www.altavista.com/image |
| Local Search | Yes, local.google.com | Yes, local.yahoo.com | Yes, www.bing.com/local | Yes | No | No | Yes, Yellow pages search | | No | Yes, as you refine your search results (restaurants, weather, classifieds) | | No | | | No |
| Map Search | Yes, maps.google.com | Yes, maps.yahoo.com | Yes, www.bing.com/maps | Yes, maps.ask.com/maps | Yes, hakia.com/search.aspx?q=Maps | No | No | Yes | No | | | No | | No | Yes, using Yahoo! service www.altavista.com/web/map |
| Mobile Search | Yes, www.google.com/mobile | Yes, mobile.yahoo.com | Yes, m.bing.com | Yes, gps.ask.com | Yes, using Berggi Search | No | | Yes, iPod mobile version | No | Yes, www.searchme.com/mobile | | | | | No |
| News Search | Yes, news.google.com | Yes, news.search.yahoo.com/news | Yes, www.bing.com/news | Yes, news.ask.com/news | Yes | No | Yes | | Yes, As you refine your search results with themes | Yes | Yes, www.mahalo.com/News | No | | | Yes, www.altavista.com/news |
| Patent Search | Yes, www.google.com/patents | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| People Search | No | Yes, people.yahoo.com | No | Yes | Yes, using semantic search | No | Yes, White pages search | Yes, www.wolframalpha.com/examples/PeopleAndHistory.html | No | No | No | | Yes | Yes | Yes, using Yahoo! service at people.yahoo.com |
| Phrase Search | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | | Yes | | Yes | | Yes | Yes |
| Google | Yahoo! Search | Bing (formerly Live and MSN) | Ask | Hakia semantic | Exalead | Dogpile | Wolfram Alpha | Truevert | Searchme | Mahalo | Scour | Wink | Brainboost | AltaVista |
| Product Search (Shopping) | Yes, www.google.com/products | Yes, search.yahoo.com/products | Yes, www.bing.com/shopping | Yes, ask.pronto.com/welcome/index.do | Yes, using semantic search | No | No | No | | Yes | No | | | Yes | No |
| Questions and Answers Search | No, Google Answers is no longer accepting questions. | Yes, answers.yahoo.com | | Yes, www.ask.com/popular-questions | Yes | Yes, as you refine your search results | No | Yes | No | No | Yes, www.mahalo.com/answers | No | | Yes | No |
| Real Estate Search | Yes, www.google.com/base | Yes, realestate.yahoo.com | Yes, realestate.msn.com | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | Yes, as you refine your search results (real estate) | | | No | No | No |
| Recipe Search | Yes, using Google Base: www.google.com/base/s2?a_n0=recipes&scoring=ld&a_y0=9 | Yes, In main results | Yes | Yes, in main results | Yes, using semantic search | Yes, as you refine your search results | No | | Yes, using semantic search | Yes, as you refine your search results (cooking) | | | | Yes | Yes, in main results |
| Scholar Search | Yes, scholar.google.com | No | No | No | No | No | No | | No | | No | | | No | No |
| Search Alerts | Yes, www.google.com/alerts | Yes, alerts.yahoo.com | Yes | No | No | No | No | | | No | No | No | | No | No |
| Search Creative Commons | | Yes, search.yahoo.com/cc | No | No | No | No | No | | No | No | | | No | | No |
| Search in Categorized Directories | Yes, directory.google.com | Yes, search.yahoo.com/dir | Yes, specials.msn.com | No | Yes, Each gallery has 10 categories on the average. That is equal to running 10 queries in conventional search engines | Yes, as you refine your search results | Yes, as you refine your search results | Yes | Yes, As you refine your search results with themes | Yes, By selecting a different category from the list | Yes, www.mahalo.com/Special:MahaloCategories | | Yes, wink.com/directory | Yes, With related subjects | Yes, using Yahoo at dir.yahoo.com |
| Search Public Source Code | Yes, google.com/codesearch | Yes, developer.yahoo.com | No | No | No | No | No | | No | Yes, as you refine your search results (open source) | | | No | No | No |
| Google | Yahoo! Search | Bing (formerly Live and MSN) | Ask | Hakia semantic | Exalead | Dogpile | Wolfram Alpha | Truevert | Searchme | Mahalo | Scour | Wink | Brainboost | AltaVista |
| Semantic Search | For some of the search queries. Google uses expanded list of useful related searches and longer search result descriptions | For some of the search queries. Yahoo open search platform at tools.search.yahoo.com/newsearch/open.html includes semantic web format | Some results are based on semantic technology from PowerSet which Microsoft purchased in 2008. | For some of the searches | Yes, Hakia is ontological semantic and natural language processing (NLP) based search engine | Yes, as you refine your search results | No | Yes, Wolfram Alpha is a computational knowledge engine. | Yes, Truevert is a true vertical semantic search engine, based on OrcaTec’s Information Discovery Toolkit and Yahoo’s BOSS. | No | No | No | No | | No |
| Travel Search | No | Yes, travel.yahoo.com | Yes, www.bing.com/travel | No | Yes, using semantic search | No | No | | Yes, using semantic search | Yes, as you refine your search results | Yes, as travel questions/answers: www.mahalo.com/answers/travel | | | Yes | Yes, using Yahoo! service at travel.yahoo.com |
| TV Listings Search | No | Yes, tv.yahoo.com/listings | Yes, tv.msn.com | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | Yes, as you refine your search results (television) | Yes, www.mahalo.com/Category:Television | | No | | No |
| University Search | Yes, www.google.com/options/universities.html | Yes, education.yahoo.com | No | No | No | No | No | Yes, www.wolframalpha.com/examples/Education.html | No | Yes, as you refine your search results (colleges & universities) | | No | | | No |
| US Government Search | Yes, www.google.com/unclesam | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes, as you refine your search results (us government) | | | No | | No |
| Vehicles Search | Yes, www.google.com/base | Yes, autos.yahoo.com | Yes, autos.msn.com | Yes | Yes, using semantic search | No | No | | No | Yes, as you refine your search results (automotive) | | No | No | | No |
| Video Search | Yes, video.google.com | Yes, video.search.yahoo.com | Yes, www.bing.com/videos | Yes, www.ask.com/?tool=vid | No | Yes | Yes | | No | Yes | Yes, www.mahalo.com/Video | Yes | | | No |
| Weather Search | Yes, as you type "weather" followed by the city and state, U.S. zip code, or city and country | Yes, weather.yahoo.com | Yes, weather.msn.com and also as you type "weather" followed by the city and state, U.S. zip code, or city and country | Yes | No | No | Yes, using www.weather.com | Yes, www.wolframalpha.com/examples/WeatherAndMeteorology.html | No | Yes, as you refine your search results (weather) | No | | No | No | No |
| Search Results | Google | Yahoo! Search | Bing (formerly Live and MSN) | Ask | Hakia semantic | Exalead | Dogpile | Wolfram Alpha | Truevert | Searchme | Mahalo | Scour | Wink | Brainboost | AltaVista |
| Browser Toolbar | Yes, toolbar.google.com | Yes, toolbar.yahoo.com | download.live.com/toolbar | Yes, dl.ask.com/toolbar/moz/download.html | Yes, company.hakia.com/scoopbar.html | Yes, www.exalead.com/download/firefoxToolbar | Yes, rescue.dogpile.com/toolbar | Yes, www.wolframalpha.com/license/firefox3toolbar.html | No | Yes, www.searchme.com/tools/toolbar | Yes, greenhouse.mahalo.com/Special:FollowDownload | Yes, www.scour.com/goodies/toolbar | Yes, wink.com/wink/tools/searchplugin | No | Yes, www.altavista.com/toolbar |
| Highlights of Relevant Phrases | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes, Highlights relevant phrases or sentences that best correspond to the meaning match of your query | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Cached Pages | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No |
| Related Searches | Yes, related pages only and using auto suggest feature | Yes, Search Assist and auto suggest | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes, as you refine (narrow) your search results | Yes | | Yes, as you refine your search results with themes | | Yes, As related rages | Yes, If you create an account | | Yes, As related subjects | No |
| Thumbnails Preview | No, but It's is available using Mozilla Firefox extension - ackroyd.de/googlepreview | No, but It's is available using Mozilla Firefox extension - ackroyd.de/googlepreview | No | Yes | No | Yes | No | | Yes | Yes | No | | Yes | No | No |
| Translate Searches | Yes, translate.google.com/translate_s | Yes, babelfish.yahoo.com | Yes, www.bing.com/translator | No | No | Yes | No | | No | No | No | | No | | Yes, using Yahoo! service at babelfish.yahoo.com |
| Advanced Search Operators | Google | Yahoo! Search | Bing (formerly Live and MSN) | Ask | Hakia semantic | Exalead | Dogpile | Wolfram Alpha | Truevert | Searchme | Mahalo | Scour | Wink | Brainboost | AltaVista |
| Logical (Boolean) operations | Yes, AND OR NOT | Yes, AND OR NOT | Yes, AND or &, NOT or, OR or |, | Yes, www.searchengineshowdown.com/features/ask | Yes | Yes, AND OR NOT NEAR | Yes | | | Yes, OR | | Yes | | | Yes, AND NOT |
| Operator [-] - exclude Terms from search result (-). Attaching a minus sign immediately before a word indicates that you do not want pages that contain this word... learn more | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | | | | | | | | | Yes |
| Operator [*] - search with wildcard (*)... learn more | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | | | | | | | | No |
| Operator [+] - search exactly as is (+)... learn more | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | | | Yes | | Yes | | | Yes |
| Operator [after:] - search for modified after a given date. For example after:31/12/1999 | | | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | | | | | | | | Yes |
| Google | Yahoo! Search | Bing (formerly Live and MSN) | Ask | Hakia semantic | Exalead | Dogpile | Wolfram Alpha | Truevert | Searchme | Mahalo | Scour | Wink | Brainboost | AltaVista |
| Operator [before:] - search for modified before a given date. For Example before:31/12/1999 | | | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | | | | | | | | Yes |
| Operator [inurl:] - restrict the results to documents containing that word in the url.... learn more | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | | | No | | No | | | Yes |
| Operator [link:] - webpages that have links to the specified URL (link:).... learn more | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | | No | No | | | | Yes |
| Operator [site:] - search within a whole class of sites (site:).... learn more | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | | | Yes | No | Yes | | | Yes |
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