Search Engines and their Provider Relationship

Search Provider Relationship

There are thousands of search engines available on the internet. Since it’s not possible for all of them to create, maintain and update their own database, most display results from major search engines on their SERP (search engine results page).

It is not necessary that all primary and secondary results be provided by a single search engine. Different search engines can provide different results to other engines. Directories can also be used by a third party. The supplier and receiver relationship is demonstrated between many different search engines. These relationships are very important to understand if you want top rankings for your site.

Now let’s check out the relationship between the top 10 search engines and top 2 directories i.e. which search engine is a supplier and which is the receiver.

Search Engines:

1. Google:

• Google's main search results are provided solely from Google's search technology, offering results from no other engine or source.

• The Google Directory is comprised of listings from The Open Directory Project (ODP, DMOZ).

• Google provides results to AOL, Netscape, IWon, Teoma, AskJeeves and Yahoo! Web Results.

2. Yahoo!:

• Paid and free submissions (currently includes Inktomi's results till April).

- Paid results come from Overture.

- Provides main results to HotBot, Excite, Go.com, MSN, Excite, Infospace.

• About and backup results to LookSmart, and Overture.

3. MSN:

• MSN provides sponsored results from paid advertising sources.

• MSN provides primary results from LookSmart.

• Secondary results are provided from Inktomi.

4. AOL:

• AOL results for "Recommended Sites" are listings that have been hand picked by AOL editors.

• AOL "Sponsored Sites" are supplied by Google AdWords.

• AOL "Matching Sites" are supplied by Google results. The results in AOL may not always match the results in Google as Google often updates their database more frequently.

• AOL directory listings are provided by the ODP.

5. Alta Vista:

• Alta Vista receives sponsored listings from Overture and Alta Vista's own advertisers.

• Alta Vista will use results from their own database for the main search results.

• Alta Vista obtains its directory results from LookSmart.

6. HotBot:

• HotBot results contain three categories: Top 10 Results, Directory Results & General Web Results.

• Top 10 results include popular sites and searches.

• Directory results are hand-picked by human editors.

• Web Results are provided by Inktomi.

• HotBot offers the capability to search the HotBot database, Lycos, Google and / or AskJeeves all from one location with the click of a button.

7. IWon:

• IWon Spotlight results are comprised of web pages found within IWon or web sites that IWon has a direct business partnership with.

• IWon Sponsored Listings are provided by a variety of paid advertisements through third party pay for performance listings including Google, AdWords and Overture.

• IWon Web Site Listings are powered by Google.

• IWon Shopping Listings are provided by Dealtime.com

8. Lycos:

• Lycos provides directory results from The Open Directory Project.

• Lycos provides sponsored listings from Overture.

• Lycos provides Web Results from Fast and from the Lycos network.

9. Netscape:

• Netscape's sponsored links are provided by Google AdWords.

• Netscape's matching results include sites that are handpicked by ODP editors mixed with results powered by Google.

10. AllTheWeb:

• AllTheWeb crawls and index ODP results.

• AllTheWeb powers the main search results in Lycos.

• AllTheWeb provides results from Lycos.

• AllTheWeb also powers the Lycos advanced search feature, the FTP search feature and their MP3 specialty engine.