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Search engines relevance study

Several events motivated us to analyze in deeper details various search engines and Internet directories, and this resulted in several short studies. Read more details in our articles:

This short study is dedicated to the relevance of the search engines/Internet directories search results.

Originally, we chose 8 keywords combinations (alternating current, direct current, power electronics, SMPS, power supplies, PSpice, our Director of Operations name, and a known power supply designer name), relevant to the industry in which we are doing business and analyzed the search results from 20+4 search engines and Internet directories (About, AllTheWeb, AltaVista, AOL, DirectHit, Euroseek, Excite, Google, GoTo, HotBot, iWon, LookSmart, Lycos, MSN, Netscape, NorthernLight, OpenDirectory, Sprinks, Vivisimo, Voila, Yahoo! categories, Yahoo! Web pages, Yahoo! Web Sites-category, Yahoo! Web Sites-relevance). After we made all the searches, colected the data, analyzed it, drew the conclusions, and started writing the article, we realized that the resulting article would be too long, with too much data, therefore difficult to read. We decided to keep the complete data for our internal use, and to shorten the article to a manageable size, while maintaining the conclusions.

Here are the results:

1) Keyword "direct current" was chosen because we found it surprisingly in an Open Directory category. The keyword, while may look highly relevant to Power Electronics industry, is what we consider a wrong word to be targeted, and definitely improper for a category in a directory.

AltaVista - highly relevant-1 , some relevance-0 , irrelevant-8 , spam-1; AOL - highly relevant-2 , some relevance-0 , irrelevant-3 , spam-1; Excite - highly relevant-5 , some relevance-0 , irrelevant-5 , spam-1; Google - highly relevant-9 , some relevance-0 , irrelevant-1 , spam-0; Lycos - highly relevant-2 , some relevance-0 , irrelevant-8 , spam-3; MSN - highly relevant-1 , some relevance-0 , irrelevant-13 , spam-1; OpenDirectory - highly relevant-2 , some relevance-2 , irrelevant-21 , spam-0; Yahoo! categories - No results! Not bad at all, actually! Better nothing than irrelevant.; Yahoo! Web pages - highly relevant-18 , some relevance-1 , irrelevant-1 , spam-1; Yahoo! Web Sites-category - highly relevant-2 , some relevance-0 , irrelevant-18 , spam-0; Yahoo! Web Sites-relevance - highly relevant-2 , some relevance-0 , irrelevant-18 , spam-0
Best search results: Yahoo! Web Pages and Google

2) Keyword "power supplies" was chosen because we consider it to be highly relevant to the industry in which we are doing business. It is a keyword for which we are working hard to earn top positions in search engines by improving the quality of the site and advertising. At this time, our assessment, based on the content of our website is that we should be on average in the top 5 positions on all major search engines. Our goal is to earn a top 3 position.

AltaVista - highly relevant-8 , some relevance-3 , irrelevant-1 , spam-5; AOL - highly relevant-5 , some relevance-0 , irrelevant-0 , spam-3; Excite - highly relevant-8 , some relevance-2 , irrelevant-0 , spam-3; Google - highly relevant-10 , some relevance-0 , irrelevant-0 , spam-1; Lycos - highly relevant-10 , some relevance-0 , irrelevant-1 , spam-8; MSN - highly relevant-5 , some relevance-6 , irrelevant-3 , spam-1; OpenDirectory - highly relevant-20 , some relevance-4 , irrelevant-0 , spam-1; Yahoo categories - highly relevant-1 , some relevance-18 , irrelevant-1 , spam-4; Yahoo Web pages - highly relevant-20 , some relevance-0 , irrelevant-0 , spam-4; Yahoo Web Sites-category - highly relevant-10 , some relevance-6 , irrelevant-3 , spam-5; Yahoo Web Sites-relevance - highly relevant-10 , some relevance-6 , irrelevant- 3, spam-5
Best search results: Yahoo! Web Pages and Google

3) Keyword "PSpice" was chosen because we consider it to be relevant, very important, but somehow neglected in the industry in which we are doing business. At this time, our assessment, based on the content of our website, is that we should be on average in the top 10 position on all major search engines. Our goal is to earn a top 5 position. Our present assessment for the position and the future estimation, is based on the facts that we address a relatively narrow aspect of Spice-PSpice simulation, yet, we have very interesting models and templates for an entire power supply to be simulated, with unique and spectacular results. One example, the Bode plot simulation for the inner current loop in a PFC, to the best of our knowledge, is the first to be published online or on paper. If there are other articles, which we are not aware of, please send us the URL, and we will place a link on our website. This is the reason, in our opinion, why reputable universities placed a link to our site.

AltaVista - highly relevant-6 , some relevance-1 , irrelevant-1 , spam-3; AOL - highly relevant-5 , some relevance-0 , irrelevant-0 , spam-0; Excite - highly relevant-8 , some relevance-2 , irrelevant-0 , spam-2; Google - highly relevant-9 , some relevance-0 , irrelevant-0 , spam-0; Lycos - highly relevant-14 , some relevance-0 , irrelevant-0 , spam-5; MSN - highly relevant-8 , some relevance-3 , irrelevant-0 , spam-4; OpenDirectory - highly relevant-6 , some relevance-2 , irrelevant-0 , spam-1; Yahoo categories - No results! Not bad at all, actually! Better nothing than irrelevant.; Yahoo Web pages - highly relevant-17 , some relevance-3 , irrelevant-0 , spam-0; Yahoo Web Sites-category - highly relevant-3 , some relevance-0 , irrelevant-0 , spam-0; Yahoo Web Sites-relevance - highly relevant-3 , some relevance-0 , irrelevant-0 , spam-0
Best search results: all search engines

4) We chose also to query the search engines for the name of our Director of Operations. Reason: to evaluate the real search capability of a search engine, within a page or site already indexed. The combination of the first and last name we estimated that is likely to be unique.

AltaVista - Cannot find the page containing the keyword (site already indexed); AOL - Cannot find the page containing the keyword (site already indexed); Excite - Cannot find the page containing the keyword (site already indexed); Google - Cannot find the page containing the keyword (site already indexed); Lycos - Correctly identified the site AND the page containing the keyword; MSN - Correctly identified the site containing the keyword; OpenDirectory - Not indexed; Yahoo categories - No results; Yahoo Web pages - Cannot find the page containing the keyword (site already indexed); Yahoo Web Sites-category - No results; Yahoo Web Sites-relevance - No results
Best search results: Lycos and MSN

Some preliminary statements, assumptions, definitions:

We did not consider as search results, the clearly identifiable ads, such as those placed on the left or right of the actual search results. Also those placed on top or on the bottom, if there were no possibility of being considered as search results.
We used the word "spam" to characterize results similar with: "click here for hot deals on alternating current", "bid now for power electronics", etc.
For the search results characterized as "highly relevant" we did not question the actual position of a site.

Some conclusions:

Google and Yahoo! Web Pages gave the most satisfying overall results.
Confusing words, such as "direct current" confused most search engines/directories, but not Google/Yahoo! Web Pages. This demonstrates that Google/Yahoo! Web Pages have the best search algorithm relative to relevance. Open Directory, who invented the "Direct Current" category, provided one of the most irrelevant search on those words.
Very unique, but well known word PSpice, did not confuse any search engine. All performed unexpectedly well.
Quite surprising were the results when we searched for the name of our Director of Operations. The name is on a page on our website. Only Lycos and MSN were able to provide the correct results. Lycos identified not only the website containing the name, but also the webpage itself, that is normally open within a frame! This demonstrates that Lycos and MSN have the best extensive search algorithm within the indexed sites. Also suggests that other search engines, with big databases, may not perform a full search of their database. This may be both a strength and a weakness. By performing a selective search, they can handle a bigger database, and provide the results faster. But also, they may skip sites already indexed, or miss words, when somebody is looking for a unique piece of information, or doing a search on a very narrow subject.
Only the following search engines are worth to be considered (at this time) by someone looking to find information over the Internet: AltaVista, AOL, Excite, Google, Lycos, MSN, Yahoo! Web Pages. You have already 7 search engines. Time is very precious for everybody, nobody wants to waste it. It is also unrealistic to believe that other "search engines" may give you better results, already not found in at least one of the above mentioned search engines.
A final word about meta search engines, those that are searching other search engines. They can not give you better results compared with ALL, combined, above mentioned search engines. What they can do is to "average" the results, so that if a search engine is "customizing" the database to fit its objectives, (and therefore becoming less objective), the results of a meta search engine could be more objective. Also, in order for a meta search engine to be considered, this should provide, similar with a "distributor", some sort of a "value added service". We found one that we recommend to be used: Vivisimo. It is organizing the search, and is giving the visitor an opportunity to find more sites relative to a keyword within a particular category. A meta search engine that we valued in the past, Ask/Ask Jeeves, is becoming less and less objective, suggesting that the results are what "people have found helpful", when in fact were paid results, identified as such on the real search engine used by Ask Jeeves.

SMPS Intellectual Property: This article contains information for which SMPS Power Supplies and its partners may claim Copyright and/or Trademark rights and may be subject of a Patent application. Also SMPS Power Supplies and its partners may claim the status of "First to be published", relative to ideas published in this article. Reasonable parts of this article may be quoted by any third parties, without contacting us, assuming that the source is clearly identified and a link to the full article is included. If you wish to incorporate information from this article within a commercial product, you should contact us for permission.

First Revision: 28 Jul 2001
Web first published: 5 Aug 2001
Last Revision: 5 Aug 2001

Comments and suggestions are welcomed and encouraged!

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