Number 4: About.com
USER RATING: 4.5 Stars out of 5About, like Yahoo directory and DMOZ, is a search "directory". The links you find at About are hand-picked by human editors, not auto-indexed like they are at Google.
Ironically, About's search directory service is a secondary focus for the company. About is primarily focused on being a provider of relevant and specific original content on the Net. With 480 subjects managed by 480 expert editors, About publishes the most-prolific original content on the Internet, while simultaneously providing search directory resources for its readers.
PROS: When you want to focus on a single topic, About is often the single best free resource for depth and breadth.
CONS: About is powered by advertising, and can be cumbersome to navigate.
USERS' COMMENTS::"Too much advertising", "Excellent content for consumers", "Good depth of material for hobbyists and researchers".
EDITOR'S COMMENT: About is staffed by some of the most professional and earnest authors on the planet. It is a joy to be part of this network.
Number 2: Yahoo (Tied with Vivisimo.com)
USER RATING: 4.6 Stars out of 5Yahoo.com is ten years old this 2004. Originally managed by a human editor staff, Yahoo recently switched to "automated-crawling" like Google uses. With the acquisition of Alltheweb, GoTo (Overture), and Altavista, Yahoo is now an amalgam of many different database technologies. Furthermore, Yahoo is also a full-featured consumer portal like MSN, providing shopping, news, and other services beyond searching.
PROS: A familiar household name that constantly strives to earn its users' trust and affection. Lots of money is poured into Yahoo.com development, which helps maintain its status as cutting edge.
CONS: The Yahoo.com interface is a knock-off of Alltheweb.com's interface (no points for originality there, boys).
USERS' COMMENTS:: "Yahoo is the best!", "I like it more than Google", "It's gotten better over the years".
EDITOR'S COMMENT: Yahoo.com is not only easy spelling to remember, but it is an old family friend you can always count on.
Number 2: Vivisimo.com (Tied with Yahoo.com)
USER RATING: 4.6 Stars out of 5Surprise! This underdog meta-search engine was virtually unknown in the first weeks of this survey. However, once our focus group experimented with Vivisimo for 7 days, it quickly usurped Ask.com as a Number 2 favorite.
Like Dogpile.com, Vivisimo is an excellent alternative to Google. It is fast, clean, and relevant, and it offers guiding search suggestions in the form of "Clustered Results" in the left margin. Clustering means, if you search for the keywords "german shepherds", Vivisimo will also offer you results organized by "breeds", "training", "breeders", "rescue", and "clubs".
PROS: All the functionality and speed of Google, with "Clustering" added.
CONS: It is difficult to type "vivisimo.com" quickly
USERS' COMMENTS::"Awesome. I like it more than Google!", "The margin suggestions are really helpful", "Cool".
EDITOR'S COMMENT: Vivisimo is excellent. It is my second focused-searching choice after Google.com.
Number 1: Google.com (no surprise there)
USER RATING: 4.8 Stars out of 5Hyper-fast searches, consistent relevance, a gigantic catalog, curious features like archived pages, spell check, toolbars, froogle, a phenomenal image search, a banner-free interface, and publishing in nearly 100 different languages... nobody can offer what Google.com offers. Consistently the favorite choice of millions of Internet searchers, Google (Google.com, Google.ca, Google.fr, Google.de, Google.co.uk) has rightfully earned the spot as Top Search Engine for 2004.
PROS: Google is the single largest, most thorough, and most featured web database available to the public.
CONS: it's not necessarily good to have a dynasty.
USERS' COMMENTS:: "It's all you'll ever need to search for anything", "I use the images searching all the time", "I love the Google toolbar, the Zeitgeist, and the Froogle features".
EDITOR'S COMMENTS: The taller they are, the harder they fall. Keep an eye out for Vivisimo.com and Dogpile.com.
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Related Article: The Search Engine Handbook
Related Article: The Four Layers of the World Wide Web
Related Article: The Cloaked Internet
