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By SearchEngineWatch.com
Staff Unlike search engines, metacrawlers don't crawl the web themselves to build listings. Instead, they allow searches to be sent to several search engines all at once. The results are then blended together onto one page. Below are some of the major metacrawlers. Also see the Search Utilities category for metacrawler-style software that you can run from your desktop. Top Choices Ixquick Meta search engine that ranks results based on the number of "top 10" rankings a site receives from the various search engines. Vivisimo Enter a search term, and Vivismo will not only pull back matching responses from major search engines but also automatically organize the pages into categories. Slick and easy to use. qbSearch Want to get multiple pages of results from a search engine combined into one single page? QB-Search will quickly join up to 200 pages of listings from major search engines. Infonetware RealTerm Search This site is primarily designed to demonstrate classification technology from Infogistics. It's a meta search engine, and it does topical classification of results, like Vivisimo. However, it is unique in that you can select several different topics, then "drill down" to see results from all of them, rather than being restricted to the results from only one topic. SurfWax Searches against major engines or provides those who open free accounts the ability to chose from a list of hundreds. Using the "SiteSnaps" feature, you can preview any page in the results and see where your terms appear in the document. Allows results or documents to be saved for future use. InfoGrid In a compact format, InfoGrid provides direct links to major search sites and topical web sites in different categories. Meta search and news searching is also offered. ProFusion Brings back listings from several major search engines as well as "Invisible Web" resources. Formerly based at the University of Kansas, the site was purchased by search company Intelliseek in April 2000. Query Server Search against major web-wide search engines, as well as major news, health, money and government search services. Kartoo If you like the idea of seeing your web results visually, this meta search site shows the results with sites being interconnected by keywords. Popular Choices Many of the meta search engines below are popular with users, but they aren't listed as top choices by Search Engine Watch. This is because they typically mix paid listings within editorial results, without any type of disclaimers. The article below covers this issue more. It also explains how you can control the ads you see and turn the metacrawlers listed into better resources, by making use of customization options. Meta
Search Or Meta Ads? A review of meta search services by Search Engine Watch shows that some are providing results where more than half of their listings are paid links. A guide to what's paid, what's not and how to get the most from your meta search service. Dogpile Popular metasearch site that sends a search to a customizable list of search engines, directories and specialty search sites, then displays results from each search engine individually. Owned by InfoSpace, which also owns MetaCrawler. Mamma Sends search requests to major search services. MetaCrawler One of the oldest meta search services, MetaCrawler began in July 1995 at the University of Washington. MetaCrawler was purchased by InfoSpace, an online content provider, in Feb. 97. Search.com Search.com is a meta search engine operated by CNET. It offers both web-wide search and a wide variety of specialty search options. Search.com uses technology from SavvySearch, which was acquired by CNET in October 1999. The SavvySearch site itself no longer operates. SavvySearch was one of the older metasearch services, around since May 1995 and formerly based at Colorado State University. Other Choices The metacrawlers listed below are generally lesser-known, but you may still find them useful. 1Blink Metasearch against several major search engines or within subject categories. C4 allows meta searching against several major search engines. metaEureka Search against several major search engines and paid listings services. Offers a nice option to see Alexa info about pages that are listed. Widow Meta Search Easy to choose exactly which search engines you wish to query, and the same listings found at multiple search engines are combined together. SearchIQ: Meta Search Reviews Not a meta search engine but instead reviews of meta search engines. Specialty Choices The metacrawlers listed below let you meta search in specific subject areas. Family Friendly Search Meta search service that queries major kid-friendly search engines. TeRespondo Spanish metacrawler that searches on the more popular search engines. Motor de busqueda que busca tu consulta en los buscadores mas populares en espanol. All-In-One Search Pages Unlike metacrawlers, all-in-one search pages do not send your query to many search engines at the same time. Instead, they generally list a wide-variety of search engines and allow you to search at your choice without having to go directly to that search engine. See All-In-One Search Pages for a list of these type of resources.
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