Evaluation of English and Spanish Health Information on the Internet

Table 2.1: Search Engines--Types and Characteristics

Search Engine Search Engine Type Reason Selected Crawler Characteristics Directory Characteristics
Alta Vista Crawler;
Directory component		 Crawler results ranked based on how many times search words appear in the text. Full Text Search
HTML Title
First lines of text
Order of appearance
"Sponsored listings" section (Goto)
No submission fee		 LookSmart directory
Open Directory

Submission fees:

  • Express:$199
  • Basic: $99
  • Not-for-profit: free
Ask Jeeves Directory;
Metacrawler component		 Human edited directory results presented in the form of a question. Metacrawler:
AltaVista, Excite, WebCrawler GoTo		 Editors & popularity technology
Editors identify Web sites
Pick "best in class" content
No submission fee
Direct Hit Directory; Crawler component Crawler results ranked based on the number of times users click on the site link at partner websites. Previous site activity determines rank
Human input
No submission fee 		Popularity Engine
Open Directory
No submission fee
Excite Crawler;
Directory component 		Search engine selected because it was ranked #3 by Media Metrix, June 2000 Page content
Meta-tags
Referring anchor txt
Link popularity
No submission fee 		LookSmart directory

Submission fees:

  • Express:$199
  • Basic: $99
  • Not-for-profit: free
Google Crawler;
Directory component		 Crawler results ranked based on the number of times other sites are linked to the ranked site. Page relevance
Proximity of search terms on page
Popularity
Text matching
"PageRank"
No submission fee 		Open Directory
No submission fee

Table 2.1: Search Engines--Types and Characteristics (cont.)

Search Engine Search Engine Type Reason Selected Crawler Characteristics Directory Characteristics
Go To Directory
Crawler component		 Directory results ranked based on how much the website author is willing to pay. Inktomi crawler Editor determined relevance
Paid placement
Advertisers bid in ongoing auction
Search results appear ranked in order of price
Lycos Directory;
Crawler component		 Search engine selected because it was ranked #2 by Media Metrix, June 2000. FAST crawler
Inktomi crawler
No submission fee		 Open Directory
No submission fee
Metacrawler Metasearch Engine Crawler;
Directory component 		  Presents the results of several search engines ranked by how many search engines list the website. No local database
Queries other search engines
Presents "voted" order		 LookSmart directory
Open Directory
Northern Light Crawler Crawler results ranked based on patented classification system and relevance rating. Natural language search engine
Frequency of search terms in text
Context of search terms in page
Link popularity
No submission fee 		N/A
Yahoo Directory;
Crawler component		 Search engine selected because it was ranked #1 by Media Metrix, June 2000. Google Crawler Yahoo Editors "Suggest your site"
Relevancy

Submission fee:

  • Free for non-commercial
  • $199 for commercial
  • ($600 for adult content
Crawler = computer generated index of webpages
Directory = human generated index of webpages
Open Directory = a comprehensive human generated index of webpages run by volunteer editors
Inktomi = proprietary search technology for search engines by Inktomi, Inc.


Table 2.1: Search Engines--Types and Characteristics (cont.)

Search Engine Search Engine Type Reason Selected Crawler Characteristics Directory Characteristics
Yupi Directory;
Crawler component		 Identified as Popular Spanish Search Engine by search engine experts, and unique directory. Altavista Crawler Manual selection
Manual categorization
Human editors
QuePasa Crawler Identified as Popular Spanish Search Engine by search engine experts and only Spanish Inkomi-powered search engine. Inktomi-powered
Link and caching data to determine popularity Link analysis
Paid inclusion 		N/A
TeRespondo Directory;
Metacrawler component		 Identified as Popular Spanish Search Engine by search engine experts and only Metacrawler Queries other search engines
Yahoo en Espanol, Altavista, HotBot, Excite, Fast		 Editor-controlled
Editors generate a list of questions leading to advertisers' sites
YahooenEspañol Directory;
Crawler component		 Identified as Popular Spanish Search Engine by search engine experts and only Google-powered search engine. Google Crawler Yahoo Editors "Suggest your site"
Relevancy

Submission fee:

  • Free for non-commercial
  • $199 for commercial
  • ($600 for adult content or services)

Table of Contents
Chapter 2