Guide to the Major Players

By Danny Sullivan, April 17, 1996

With a dozen-or-more search engines and countless web directories, which ones really matter? Obviously, those that are well-known and well-used. A search engine or directory that promotes itself well, or has good strategic alliances, is more important to the webmaster than others.

For example, InfoSeek's strong tie to Netscape guarantees that many people will use the service (as explained below), while Inktomi has no Netscape tie and no major commercial backing, so fewer people probably use it.

Does the world come to an end if your site can't be found easily in any of these directories? Not necessarily. If you want worm farmers, then getting a link to your site from an obscure worm-farming web site may bring in much more meaningful traffic than by being indexed by all the search engines in the world.

On to the major players. Please see the Strategic Alliances page for more detailed information about what makes those listed below major players.

Search Engines

Often called "spiders" or "crawlers," search engines constantly visit web sites on the Internet in order to create searchable catalogs of web pages. It requires no work on the part of webmasters for their sites to be included in the catalogs. Major search engines:

AltaVista
http://altavista.digital.com/
Opened in Dec. 1995, AltaVista is run by Digital and a relative newcomer to the search engine club. However, it is much talked about and has links to it from significant sites.
Excite NetSearch
http://www.excite.com/
Launched in late 1995, Excite has quickly grown in prominence, has key links and seems to spend a lot on advertising. Excite also runs a directory, below.
InfoSeek Guide
http://guide.infoseek.com/
Around since early 1995, InfoSeek is well-known, well-reviewed and well-connected.
Lycos
http://www.lycos.com/
Around since late 1994, Lycos is probably the oldest of the major-league search engines, Lycos is well-known, well-used and has key links. Lycos also runs the A2Z directory and the Point rating service.
Open Text
http://www.opentext.com/
Open Text has a partnership with Yahoo and is the first search engine users are referred to at the end of Yahoo search results, sometimes much more prominently than other engines listed.
WebCrawler
http://www.webcrawler.com/
Around since early 1995, America Online-owned WebCrawler is the search engine that AOL points its 5 million users toward. That many people make WebCrawler important. WebCrawler got its own associated directory, GNN Select, in mid-April 1996.

Directories and Rating Services

Unlike search engines, directories are created by humans. Sites must be submitted, then they are assigned to an appropriate category or categories. Because of the human role, directories often provide better results than search engines. Rating services are directories with select listings and sometimes reviews. Webmasters can usually submit a site to be reviewed by a rating service, but they have no control over whether or how their sites will be listed. Major directories and ratings services, in reverse-alphabetical order just for fun:

Yahoo
http://www.yahoo.com/
Around since late 1994, the oldest major web site directory. Yahoo is well-known, well-used and well-respected. Yahoo also began a directory for kids called Yahooligans in Mar. 1996.
Point
http://www.pointcom.com/
Owned by Lycos, Point is one of the oldest rating services. It claims to list the top 5% of all web sites. Point used to much-talked about, but the hype has seemed to die down. Editors take submissions, but sites are added at their discretion.
Magellan
http://www.mckinley.com/
Editors visit sites, write reviews and then rate sites from one to four stars, with four stars being highest. Sites are also given a "green light" if deemed fit all audiences, rather than mature ones only. Submissions are added to the directory at the discretion of the editors. Before April 1996, Magellan used to refer people to the Magellan Web-Spider at the end its reviewed listings. Web-Spider was the Magellan search engine, which had a catalog of unreviewed sites. Now there are no longer links to Web-Spider.
InfoSeek Select Sites
http://guide.infoseek.com/
InfoSeek also runs a directory separate from its search engine. Sites can be submitted, but acceptance is up to the editors.
GNN Select
http://www.webcrawler.com/
Sites are picked by editors from those submitted to the GNN NCSA What's New page. It used to be that only those going to the GNN site would find this directory, but now its listings can be found directly on the WebCrawler page.
Excite NetDirectory
http://www.excite.com/
NetDirectory is a catalog of reviewed sites. Editors surf the net to find new listings, and they may also add sites based on submissions. Getting in here is good, because its far more likely a site will be found. However, NetDirectory is not the default that appears when visitors reach Excite, so fewer people are probably checking the reviews.
A2Z
http://a2z.lycos.com/
Begun in Feb. 1996, this Lycos-run directory lists picks from the most popular web sites, as estimated by Lycos. There is no way to submit a site directly for consideration.