| Feature |
Google |
AllTheWeb |
AltaVista |
| URL |
Basic Search,
Advanced Search,
Google Toolbar |
Basic Search,
Advanced Search |
Basic Interface,
Advanced Interface,
Search Assistant |
| Help |
Google Help |
AllTheWeb Help |
AltaVista Help |
| Size (as of 12/11/01) |
1.5 billion |
625 million |
550 million |
| Update Frequency |
Monthly overall but daily for a few million time-sensitive pages |
Entire site every 9-11 Days |
Approximately every 45-60 days but more frequently for News |
| Depth of Crawling and Indexing |
All pages are crawled and indexed up to 110k of content. After that, any
remaining content is not searchable. All pages in cache are also limited to 110k. |
Entire content on a web page is crawled and indexed. |
All pages are crawled up to 100k of content. After that, any remaining
content is not searchable. Up to 4MB of links are crawled and indexed. |
| Default Search |
AND |
AND |
OR (in Basic Interface), Phrase (in Advanced Interface) |
| Phrase Searching |
Yes, put terms inside "quotation marks" |
Yes, put terms inside "quotation marks" |
Yes, put terms inside "quotation marks" |
| Stemming or Truncation |
No |
No |
Yes, use * (asterisk) in middle or at end of term. Can also use * to
represent an entire word inside a phrase. |
| Stop Words or Common Terms |
Yes, by placing a + (plus) sign in front of term. Example: to search
the phrase Vitamin A, enter "Vitamin +A". |
No Stop Words (all words searched). |
Stop Words cannot be searched in Basic Interface but all words are
searchable, including Stop Words, in Advanced Interface. |
| Case Sensitive |
No |
No |
Yes |
| Boolean Logic |
Yes. Use - (minus) sign to exclude a term. Use OR to search either term.
AND is default so don't need to use it between terms. The + (plus) sign is used only to
search Stop Words. |
Yes. Use + (plus) sign, - (minus) sign or Boolean (AND, OR, NOT) |
Yes. Boolean (+, -, AND, OR, AND NOT) in Basic Interface. Boolean
(and, or, and not) in Advanced Interface. |
| Proximity |
No |
No |
Yes, NEAR (Basic Interface), near (Advanced Interface) (10 words in
either direction of term). |
| Nesting Search Terms (in Parentheses) |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
| Search by Field |
Yes. Use Advanced search form to specify: language, file format, date,
where terms occur, domain, filter for adult content, find similar pages, and links to a page. |
Yes. Use Advanced Search form to specify language, where terms occur, domain,
date, and filter for adult content. |
Yes. Fields include: (1) anchor: (2) applet: (3) domain: (4) host: (5) image:
(6) like: (7) link: (8) text: (9) title: (10) url: For more details, see
Advanced Search Syntax.
Also limit search by language and date (in Advanced Interface only) |
| Directory |
Yes, Open Directory Project |
No |
Yes, LookSmart |
| Other Databases or Directories Available at Web Site |
Image Search, Google Groups, and Google Web Directory. From Advanced Search
page search: U.S. government and military sites, university sites (such as Stanford), mail
order catalogs, Linux, BSD Unix, and Apple Macintosh. |
News, Pictures, Videos, MP3 Files, and FTP files plus Scirus (Elsevier scientific
information) and Soccer Search. |
News, Comparison shop, Yellow Pages, People Finder, Maps, Education Search,
Government Search, Text Only Search, Images, Video, and MP3/Audio. See:
AltaVista Tools |
| Special Features |
Google is the only search engine to crawl and make the content of 12 main file
types, including PDF, PostScript, and Microsoft Office, searchable. Translation of web documents.
Telephone Search (U.S. Home and Business Numbers), Address Search (for Maps). Results include
cached versions of web pages, Dictionary Definitions (for underlined terms), and Similar pages. |
Customize search, language, filter, intelligence, results, search tips, and flash
in results. Note that News, Pictures, Videos, MP3 Files, and FTP files are all searched
simultaneously. At bottom of results page, click on tab to view. Folders grouped by category as
well as suggested terms to narrow a search result are also available near the top of the results
page. |
Ticker symbols provide direct links to stock quote, news, SEC filings. Translate
web documents. |
| Sorting |
Results are sorted by relevance which is determined by Google's PageRank analysis,
determined by links from other pages with a greater weight given to authoritative sites. Pages
are also clustered by site. Only two pages per site will be displayed. |
By default, sites are sorted in order of perceived relevance. Only one page per
domain is displayed unless the Customize option for site collapsing (in results) is turned off.
Sites clustered under the one page per domain are not marked, and most users will not realize
more hits from that domain might be available. |
In Basic Interface, results are ranked by Alta Vista's relevance ranking formula.
Results are also clustered by site and only one record per site appears on the main results page.
In the Advanced Interface, results are NOT sorted unless one or more terms is in the
"sort by" box. In Basic Interface, only 200 records can be displayed. In Advanced
Interface, up to 1000 records can be displayed. |
