TIPS and TRICKS
Search engine links
Here are links to the directories and search engines that have been discussed on this site or are otherwise significant.
Directories
A directory is a site that has links to different websites, which are arranged into categories by their topic. Unlike search engines, it is uncommon for a directory to list several pages from one site.
Born in 1994, Yahoo is one of the largest directories on the Internet. Its online properties serve a modest 1,2 billion pageviews per day, according to the company's FAQ.For more information, read the article about Yahoo from this site.
Among the three most important directories, the Open Directory is the only one of them that allows commercial sites to be submitted for free. Rather than the popularity of its own site, the Open Directory's power comes from the many large search engines that use its data to supplement their own results.For more information, read the article about the Open Directory from this site.
About has a directory in which each category contains both original content and links. However, it's not a directory in the same sense as those listed above and does not offer a similar possibility to submit sites as they do.Those who wish to attempt to get listed at About should first find the correct category for their site, then E-mail its editor.
Independent search engines
Independent search engines are search engines that have their own databases. You can submit your site to these.
Google is one of the leaders in the field of search engines and its popularity among searchers seems to just keep on growing. Not surprisingly, obtaining a high ranking in this engine under the correct keywords is a great way to produce plenty of traffic. If a good ranking seems too difficult to achieve, you can also pay to get your site featured under Sponsored Links.For more information, read the article about Google from this site.
One of the more popular search engines, probably due to its connection with Microsoft and Internet Explorer. Still far behind Google, but does send a nice amount of traffic to some sites.
A small player, Ask.com is nevertheless an independent search engine that deserves to be mentioned. Whether it will one day grow up to become a serious challenger to Google remains to be seen.
Formerly a large and a well-respected engine, Altavista has since then declined and now only holds a small share of the total market. The days when it sent major amounts of traffic to the sites listed on it are gone, all we can do is to hope it'll recover one day.
Non-independent search engines
Non-independent search engines do not have a database of their own. The results on non-independent search engines are provided by someone else, usually by several other search engines. You can submit to these by submitting to the independent search engines that produce the results.
Basically Google with different clothes on, the most notable difference is that AOL displays sponsored results more prominently. AOL's large user base guarantees that its search feature has a number of users. However, because Google provides the data, there's no need to worry about tuning your site to suit the taste of AOL's search.
This once-independent search engine now uses Yahoo for its search results. For most sites, it's more a curiosity rather than a serious source of traffic, but every bit helps.
Ask.com powers the search feature at Lycos. Unfortunately, Ask.com itself isn't overly popular and Lycos is too small to greatly expand the audience Ask.com reaches.
Paid search engines
These search engines require sites to pay for being listed. Usually the ranking of a site depends on how much it is willing to pay.
Yahoo! Search Marketing offers access to a considerable audience for those who are willing to pay for visits.
A small pay-per-click search engine, FindWhat's main advantage is that it is usually fairly affordable.
Smaller PPC search engines that operate pretty much in the same way as all the others.
Meta search engines
A meta search engine gets its results from several other search engines. Usually meta search engines are also non-independent engines.
Draws results from multiple smaller search engines. Sponsored links from Ask.com.
One of the more popular meta search engines, Dogpile relies on major search providers such as Google and MSN Search (Windows Live Search) to provide search results.
An Infospace-owned search engine similar to Dogpile.
CNet's Search.com is a small meta search engine with a catchy domain name, but not much else to set it apart from the rest.
When compared to other meta search engines, Ixquick's strong point is that it can be used in a wide variety of languages in addition to English. Its ranking system is also somewhat unique, as it arranges sites based on how many top ten rankings they have in the search engines used by Ixquick.
Clusty's special feature is collecting results into clusters that can be used to narrow down a search. Search is powered by the Open Directory, Wikipedia and Ask.com among others.
