The meta search engine operates by extracting and collating search-box keywords from singular search engines.

The user inputs keywords into one source (the meta search engine) and the query is transmitted to a selection of search engine databases, for example Google, Yahoo and MSN. The meta search engine will accrue a proportion of the results and display them to the user.

The meta search engine acts as the “virtual host” in that it does not itself possess a database, but it acts as the “middleman” in providing the user with a quotation of results from a broad spectrum of search engines.

This, in theory, will allow for an increased collation of webpages according to the specified keyword input, but the accumulated results may not include a detailed selection due to the nature of the meta search engine only usually gaining access to data from the top 50 hits within each search engine database.

The present capabilities and future potential of meta search engines in clustering technology and content analysis is commendable, but a precise and detailed accumulation of keyword specific data are better obtained through the direct access of individual search engine databases.

For a broad and comprehensive exploration of Internet webpages the meta search engine can provide the user with a source.

The ensuing results from the meta-search are displayed in a variety of formats

, using textual and pictorial configurations.

Five leading meta search engines:

Dogpile – A popular site that scrutinizes the four leading search engines in Google, Yahoo, MSN and Ask.com plus several other search engines, although Dogpile.com does include sponsored links within the results.

Clusty – Launched in Pittsburgh, PA in 2004, Clusty extracts the keyword data from Ask, Live, Gigablast and Open Directory, but not Google and Yahoo. Results are displayed in ascending rank, but it offers the user themed sub-headings. The meta engine clusters the results into groups according to a topic and similar word use within the results. The user can then search the ranked list of results, or continue the search in-depth through the clustered sub-menu.

Kartoo – Uses a variety of search engines, but not Google, Ask or Yahoo. Displays keyword search results with a visual snapshot of the webpage.

SurfWax – Allows the user to preview a “SiteSnap” for each result and see where the keywords appear in the webpage document.

Mamma – A forerunner in providing the meta search. Mamma.com was launched in 1996. A fashionable meta search provider that crawls the leading singular search engines, with the added benefit of automatically eliminating duplicate webpages from the displayed results.

Source: http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/Te achingLib/Guides/Internet/Meta Search.html

Tags: Search Engine Databases