Internet Search Facilities

On the labs of week 5 and 6, we were to search our topic on different types of search facilities. I hadn't known that different search engines queries their databases differently and gives different results. In this exercise, we search for results from different search facilities and compare them. Then, we see which is more relevant to our topic. Here are my searches on the different search facilities:

1. Google.com(http://www.google.com) - Search Engine
   Keywords: "development of RSS" technology news
   Size of Hits: 357
   Relevant Rank: N.A.
   Relevant Result: Yes
   URL Found:
   http://www.attensa.com/news/2005/12/
   attensa_lands_series_b_financi.php
   Purpose: News
   
2. MetaCrawler(http://www.metacrawler.com) - Meta Search Engine
   Keywords: "development of RSS" technology
   Size of Hits: 67
   Relevant Rank: N.A.
   Relevant Result: Yes
   URL Found:
   http://www.infoworld.com/article/03/07/25
   /29NNrss_1.html
   Purpose: News
   
3. Yahoo!(http://www.yahoo.com) - Subject Directory
   Keywords: development of RSS
   Size of Hits: 126,000,000
   Relevant Rank: N.A.
   Relevant Result: Yes
   URL Found:
   http://topics.developmentgateway.org/rc/
   showRSSFeeds.do
   Purpose: Information

When comparing the results returned by the different search facilities, I am surprised to see they are quite different. This could probably be the way the search engine searches its database. By looking at the size of hits alone, the different search engines gives different number of results. Google gave 357, then MetaCrawler gave 67 and Yahoo!, gave a huge number of results of 126,000,000! Same keywords used on different search facilities did not return me the same sites nor related contents, at least. I had to alter the keywords a little, trying around the wildcards in the search query in order to get the right content.

After this exercise, I no longer think that all search engines perform similarly and are of the same. The different search facilities query the database differently. As they query the keywords I keyed in differently from their database, I get different results from the different search facilities. In some cases, this different way of querying the database returns more relevant results. Through this, I can effectively make use of the different types of search facilities for the different kind of contents I am looking for!