Search Engine Summary
Introduction -- May 1997
Years ago (before there was a World Wide Web) I had a unique term I used "Ethesis." Then, I had an account on GNN -- a premier internet service provider. When GNN was merged with AOL, my GNN screen name SRMarsh was unavailable (someone had used it within the last six months even though it was currently not in use), so I used the term Ethesis for my screen name. Having a unique term turned out to be useful for doing web searches to check how search engines are doing in indexing my pages since a search for the term turns up only my pages or those linked to them.
Following the merger, the site dropped off of many search engines. I
then began a project to determine just how well my account, now at
http://members.aol.com/Ethesis/, was doing in being indexed by search engines.
The original essay is found at
http://members.aol.com/Ethesis/search.htm
May of 1997
| Excite | Lycos | Alta Vista | Hot Bot | Webcrawler | Infoseek |
| 31 hits claimed 28 hits displayed |
46 hits claimed 46 hits displayed |
36 hits claimed |
12 hits claimed |
25 hits claimed |
89 hits claimed |
| 18 site | 39 site | 7 site | 0 site | 6 site | 13 site |
| 7 links | 6 links | 9 links | 8 links | 18 links | 3 links |
| 2 typos | 1 typo | 20 garbage | 4 typos | 1 typo | ..garbage.. |
Over time the amount of garbage dropped dramatically. Every site that reported fewer hits also had more relevant material. Lycos was a strong number one, with Excite, Alta Vista and Infoseek all showing strong improvement.
The Bottom Line Revealed
I then started a new project with its own domain name and discovered something very interesting when I took a look at search engine results prior to doing any publicity or submitting the site.
| Yahoo | Excite | Lycos | Alta Vista | Hot Bot | Webcrawler | Open Text | WWWW | Infoseek | |
| adrr.com | 0 | 1 hit 3 references |
0 | 7 hits | 6 hits | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 hits |
| ethesis | 4 | 6 | better! | 8 hits | 1 hit | 8 | 0 | 0 | great |
After I did the submissions, I checked back 45 days later. This is
what I found. (Note that I dropped Open Text and WWWW and added Northern
Lights).
| Northern Lights | Excite | Lycos | Alta Vista | HotBot | WebCrawler | Yahoo | Infoseek | |
| adrr.com | 249 | 35 | ?? | 24 | 0! | 2 | 1 | 5 |
| ethesis | 0* | 18 | 22 | 7** | 0! | 12 | 4 | 20 |
* found 74 items, including gnn pages. No aol pages found.
?? Lycos does not support searching for urls.
** There were 54 entries, 48 were links to the aol url. The fact that
a site is popular (as shown by the number of links to the site) will not
get it listed on search engines if it is an AOL site.
! HotBot has been dropping sites every so often. They usually reappear
in a few days -- though not always.
<Note, HotBot seems, now in 1998, to have solved all of its
problems>
For more, see my study at links1.htm.
On the day in question, HotBot found my site and put it near the top.
Today, nothing at all.
Conclusion
Because 78% or more of all traffic to a web site comes from indexes and search engines, they matter. [search1.htm]
If you are currently using free (e.g. GeoCities) or incidental ( provided with your internet service e.g. web space on members.aol.com or ourworld.compuserve.com or ...) web space, you need to seriously consider domain issues and which search engines you use and recommend to your clients and friends.
©1997 Stephen R. Marsh All Rights Reserved
http://adrr.com/search/search1.htm