About Yahoo! and engines that use its content

[Decius]

Okay, something doesn't make sense to me (aside from the fact that the search engine world now seems to belong to Google or Yahoo!)

I tried one of those SERP checkers that queries different search engines to see what rank your site shows up in in different search engines. Well, here's a few questions:

1. Why are there different results on Alltheweb, AltaVista, MSN, and Yahoo! if they are all sourced from Yahoo! and/or Overture?

2. Why are there different results in AOL, Google, and Netscape if they are all sourced from Google?

3. What is the point of having all these search engines if they source information and technology from the same engines?

4. Are they simply tweaked in a simple way in order to depict the illusion of uniqueness?

5. Are the difference in results the result of delayed updates in the partner search engines from the main ones?

That's all for now...

[fiestagirl]

1. Each one likes to put their own spin on the algo.

2. same as above.

3. to give the illusion that there is more than advertising on the page and keep the money coming in.

4. yes, pretty much.

5. sometimes. But they are usually pretty timely.

[Warren]

3. What is the point of having all these search engines if they source information and technology from the same engines?

Well there is the revenue to be gained from having multiple search destinations, which is aimed at slightly different demographics.

Not only that, it does provide (especially Yahoo!) a place to test various parts of their algorithms in a live enviornment.

[Decius]

I meant from a user's perspective. If everything is available in Yahoo, then why use Alltheweb?

[Warren]

The user probably has no idea who supplies the results in many instances.

It is about brand recognition. Many reasons why a user would choose one search destination over another:

Previous satisfcation
Comfort and farmilarity
Lack of knowledge of alternatives
etc

An ex-GF of mine still uses AltaVista because it was the first SE she had ever used. Despite the fact that her home page is Google.

At the end of the day, the user won't really care where they get the results from, as long as they get a result which meets (or exceeds) their need.

[cgrantski]

>>> 4. Are they simply tweaked in a simple way in order to depict the illusion of uniqueness?

I've got to believe that each sub-engine's staff thinks they can improve on the algorithm from the mother engine, and their tweaks cause a lot of the differences. Also, a lot of the sub-engines get their data from more than just one source, so their attempts to balance the mix causes variation too.

It can't be entirely crass.