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Strategic
Alliances and Victories
By Danny Sullivan, April 17, 1996
The chart below shows how various search engines and directories
fare against each other in a variety of major arenas, ranging
from links off popular sites to magazine reviews. This information
is subject to change — and changes do occur often. Updates will
be done as time allows.
The Netscape Factor
Netscape Navigator is the most popular browser software
on the market. An estimated 75% to 85% of net surfers use it.
Netscape has two "buttons" that users can push to search
for web sites, a "Net Search" and a "Net Directory"
button. Each button makes a page within the Netscape web site
appear. On the page, users can directly enter a query to a select
group of search engines or directories.
Thousands of people push these buttons daily, making the search
engines and directories extremely important. At first, Yahoo was
the main directory surfers were pointed toward. Then in 1996,
the newly-launched Excite search engine became the preferred link.
Changes again occurred in April. Search engines and directories
had to pay $5 million each to be linked from the Net Search and
Net Directory buttons. Also, there is no longer any difference
between what appears on either page. Possibly this mean there
will be a single "Net Search" button in the future.
No doubt there will be more changes coming. I'll update information
as much as possible.
- Netscape Net Search
http://home.netscape.com/home/internet-search.html
Pushing the Netscape Search button brings up the Net Search
page, where users can then directly query one of five select search
engines or directories. The choice selected for the page appears
randomly, so there is an equal change that any of these choices
will be used. Thus, they are all ranked 1. There are also text
links at the bottom to the top choice plus assorted other directories.
These other directories are ranked in the position they appear,
from left-to-right, then top-to-bottom. Below these links are
even more links, which are not ranked.
- Netscape Net Directory
http://home.netscape.com/home/internet-directory.html
Pushing the Netscape Net Directory button bring up a page
that says Net Search, looks the same as the Net Search page, but
which has a different URL.
Microsoft Network
Those using Microsoft's Internet Explorer web browser get
the Microsoft Network home page loaded by default. From there,
they can easily click to a page (http://www.msn.com/access/allinone.hv1) allowing various search places to be queried. The same page appears
if the "Search the Internet" button is pushed. If Explorer's
market share rises (as many expect), links from the MSN search
page will grow in importance. Rank show the order different choices
are listed.
C|Net's search.com
Launched in March, search.com allows direct searches from
its home page to several major engines and directories. Given
C|Net's popularity, search.com will also likely become popular.
Ranks are the order different engines and directories are listed.
So far, it doesn't appear that orders are changed randomly.
Yahoo
Yahoo is an extremely popular directory, yet in a net-spirited
fashion of old, Yahoo still refers people to other sites at the
end of its own listings. Given Yahoo's huge number of users, outward
referrals are significant. Of course, Yahoo-partner Open Text
gets listed first, but when's the last time you saw a search engine
nice enough to link back to Yahoo? Rank show the order from left-to-right
that sites are listed.
Online Services
WebCrawler is owned by America Online, and it directs its
5 million users toward this search engine. CompuServe sends its
3 million+ users to its own search page (http://www.compuserve.com/search.html),
where Excite is listed first, then Yahoo second.
Internet World
There's an excellent article in the May 1996 issue. Top
picks are shown. A good review possibly means more users.
NOTE FROM APRIL 2026: If it sounds weird that a page written in April 1996 is referencing a magazine article from the next month, that's how print magazines worked (and I guess might still work). They'd arrive earlier than the published month date.
PC World
Had a review in the Jan. 1996 issue. Sites were ranked
by those returning the best results and the most results. Both
numbers are shown.
PC Computing
Featured a review in Sept. 1995 with reviews of various
sites, 5 stars being highest.
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