Comparing Search Engines

In the first run at comparing search engines for genealogical purposes, I found Yahoo had more hits (57, 300) than Google (22,600), and Excite! had the fewest at a mere 55. I used the same surname and the plus genealogy for the search comparison and saw many of the same sites repeated in the top 10 lists of many of the search engines. Ask Jeeves and Teoma both had exactly 9,920 which makes me curious to compare how closely their searches would mirror one another in other searches and in other disciplines. MSN came in at 5,262 and Dogpile at 74.

Of course, one must point to the "quality over quantity" argument and be more thorough in the analysis than mere number of hits on the search term. It could very well be that the 55 hits may be of better, more focused genealogical quality than the 57,000 hits which pick up every mention of the surname but not necessarily of a family history orientation.