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Search Engine Relationships
They're all related. It's true, you can't get away from it.
Somehow each directory or search engine will use results
from other search engines or directories. I will try
to explain the relationships as they stand today.
However, tomorrow, they could change.
Does it matter that you know all of these affiliations? Not
really. My best advice is, if it is confusing, don't worry about it.
You can still optimize and submit your pages to the search
engines, you can submit your home page or content specific
pages to every directory and not be penalized - we will explain
more about submitting when we discuss each specific directory
and engine (because even though they're related, they all have
different rules.)
Here's what I see today, September 1, 2002. (I'm only giving you the big ones,
there are many other small ones and I've probably
missed some of the relationships.):
ODP or Open Directory Project (directory - free)
feeds the queries of Netscape (Netscape basically
"owns" ODP), AOL, Google, Lycos, Hotbot, AlltheWeb, Teoma,
and countless others.
Inktomi (search engine - submit through positiontech, must pay.)
provides a database for LookSmart, AOL, Hotbot, MSN, Overture,
IWon, and a lot more!
Google (search engine - still free)
provides a database for itself, Netscape, AOL, and Yahoo!
AltaVista (search engine - free submit but also a pay for spidering)
provides a database for itself (owned by Compaq)
and AltaVista family of sites and Excite. AltaVista has seen a resurgence
of popularity with it's paid for spidering.
Fast (search engine - free submit but also a pay for spidering)
provides a database for Lycos, Fast or "AllTheWeb" is
a new one so look for this engine to partner
with others in the future.
LookSmart (directory - must pay for inclusion and not highly recommended.)
feeds the queries at Iwon, AltaVista, MSN, CNN, Juno, TimeWarner.
Teoma (engine)
feeds the queries Askjeeves.
Overture (pay per click engine)
partners with Yahoo, Teoma, AskJeeves, Excite, AltaVista, MSN, Iwon, Hotbot, Netscape, AlltheWeb, and Lycos.
Now you can see that some of these overlap. However, just
because Yahoo and AOL both take information from
the Google database, that does not mean that they rank that
information in the same way.
Why do they all interrelate? Because, every search site wants
to have the freshest data on the net. Some of them compete
for the "biggest" index of sites on the net. If they take from
different sources, it helps them to maintain a fresh database
and a large one.
Another important thing to remember: it is a safe assumption
that a surfer will find a particular search engine and stick with it.
They learn how to use it; they become familiar with it. The
interrelations between search engines and directories
does not matter to the average surfer. The average surfer
wants fresh content.
It is also possible that a surfer would like to go to an engine
and get different content every time. AltaVista rotates
algorithms. This means that today you may type in a
keyword and bring up a specific set of websites. Then,
tomorrow, you can type in the same keyword and bring
up a totally different set of results.
This brings me again to the point that you cannot worry too
much about what the search engines are doing. It is more
to your advantage to create content rich pages, that focus
on one or two particular keywords and submit these pages
to each search engine.
More Resources
Search Engine Partners: Another list of Partnerships between engines and directories.
Who Are the Major Search Engines? Short explanation
of each major search engine and their relationships to the directories.
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