Top search engines are only compared to the best, Google.  They have optimal search results that will never let you down in your search. You will find precision search engine results with in the first page or two there is no question. The runners up constantly battling for Internet Supremacy are Yahoo and Microsoft.

Next in the top search engines line-up are AltaVista, Magellan, WebCrawler, InfoSeek, and HotBot.  But as well, there is good reason to include in the “top search engines” categorical imperative, if we must use such a method at all, the “others”.  What about DMOZ, for instance?  Or what happened to AOL?  And how many use or aware of Excite, PlanetSearch, BigWhat, CyberDirectory, SearchSite, DirectHit (Teoma), Search King, InfoMak, and so many others?  Have they gone the way of the information highway’s gutter?  Have they relinquished the notion of being considered and used as one of the top search engines? Does the common net surfer care which are considered the top search engines?

Maybe each of us regular guys finds their personal top search engine by trial and error. A search engine that works for us, that is most easily navigable, that is most user friendly, and sticks with it, regardless of its ranking is the best.  Or maybe we could forego the issuing of crowns and scepters to the so-called top search engines and use all of them as top search engines…each according to its most reliable function.

, according to Tracy Marks, web guru of Windweaver.com says that the way to use the top search engines is to access the engine that fits according to your purposes. For instance, browse a particular subject, use Yahoo! Or Magellan…or, for what Marks designates as top search engines, NetGuide Live or Lycos Pointcom.  To “include older gopher files in your search,” use Magellan, WebCrawler, or InfoSeek.  To “search as much of the web as possible,” use Alta Vista or, again, InfoSeek.  And evidently, Marks developed the helpful site for newbies long before Google was even a contender in the race across cyberspace…in 1997.

What I have found, as far as the “top” search engines go, is that you can test their “usability” by trying a search for the same subject in several top search engines and test the results.  You will find, typically, that the same results appear…maybe in a slightly different order and maybe in a different color, font, graphic configuration, but the same effort will produce the same results on umpteen different top search engines. 

Tracy Marks has the right idea for scholars or serious, dedicated surfers who want more than a standard commercial results that will pop up on search engine results. All we want and need are fast search engine results and information. If that means going to select crawlers for select tasks—then that is what we will do, in spite of Google or with Google’s help.

[tags] search engines, top search engines, best search engines, search engine traffic[/tags]