Universal Search On Content Networks …

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In the early infancy of my internet experience, I stumbled upon Dogpile.com. Ten years ago Dogpile was my favorite search engine. When I first started teaching computer training, my “Introduction to the Internet” students always loved Dogpile. They liked Mamma.com also, but they loved Arfie.

The Dogpile mascot “Arfie” was born in January 1996, and Google entered the game in 1998. Working in the technology field I quickly moved over to the Google side of the table and forgot (almost) all about Dogpile.

With all the recent hub-bub flapping around Google’s move to Universal Search I wondered what was going on with the MetaSearch engines such as Dogpile. It also occured to me to wonder what the search network results were doing. Never one to sit and wonder without looking for an answer, I went looking.

Baseline

I searched Google for a broad match for 1988 Honda Accord. The first page had 11 results, the first result was three images. That’s what we’re comparing all our other results against.

Search Network

Are they showing the universal results? Here is a sample of what I found:

• AOL: Ten results match the ten at Google. No images, no Universal Results. (Sponsored ads did show)
• Ask: Ten results did not match ten at Google. No images, no Universal Results. (Sponsored ads did show)
• Earthlink: Ten results match the ten at Google. No images, no Universal Results. (Sponsored ads did show)

Meta-Search

Same phrase, again a sample of results:

• Dogpile: Twenty Sponsored links on the first page. Not until reaching result #34 did natural results come up.
• Mamma: Six sponsored links and 15 natural results.
• Ixquick: Two sponsored links, Ten natural results.

Conclusion

The Universal Search seems to only apply to Google search. Meta-Search engines still do what they’ve always done, although I did notice that Dogpile and Mamma specifically look very similar in layout and design as Google. Someone is doing something right?

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Tags: Search & Marketing
Posted in Search & Marketing