Search Engines by Search Features
Last updated Apr. 07, 2004.
by Greg R. Notess.
Compare the search engines by their features. This page lists search features and the search engines that support them. Click on the search engine name for a link to that section of its reviews. See the Search Engine Feature Chart for a tabular presentation of search engines and their search features.
NOTE: The new (2004) Yahoo! Search is not yet included on this page.
Listed Features:
Defaults - Boolean - Proximity - Truncation - Case - Fields - Limits -File Types
- Stop Words - Sorting - Family Filters
Defaults:
Default AND: HotBot, Google, MSN Search, Teoma, WiseNut
Default OR: Gigablast
Default Phrase Search: AltaVista Basic, for common phrases only
Boolean Capabilities and Constraints:
and, or, nesting: AltaVista, Gigablast, HotBot, MSN Search
not: HotBot, MSN Search
and not: AltaVista, Gigablast
Operators must be in UPPER CASE: AltaVista Simple, Gigablast, HotBot, MSN Search
OR only: Google, Teoma [both must be OR in uppercase]
Implied Boolean (+, -): AltaVista Simple, Gigablast
Dash - for NOT: AltaVista Simple, HotBot, Gigablast, Google, MSN Search, Lycos,
Teoma, WiseNut
Proximity
Phrase Search: Gigablast, HotBot, Lycos, MSN Search, Teoma, WiseNut
NEAR: AltaVista
within: AltaVista Advanced
before: AltaVista Advanced
before near: AltaVista Advanced
after: AltaVista Advanced
after near: AltaVista Advanced
Truncation & Stemming:
Truncation: AltaVista
Represent Single Word within Phrase: AltaVista, Google
Automatic Truncation: Yahoo!
Word Stemming: MSN Search
Beginning Truncation: None (HotBot used to, but not as of Sept. 2002; NBCi,
iWon, & Anzwers all used to, but was defunct as of Fall 2000)
Case Sensitivity:
Yes: AltaVista Advanced, AltaVista Simple if term is in quotes
Unusual mixed case only: HotBot, MSN Search
No: AltaVista Simple (unless in quotes), Gigablast, Google, Lycos, Teoma, WiseNut
Field searching: For more details on
title searching, see the Title Searching Showdown Page
title: AltaVista, Gigablast, HotBot, Lycos, MSN Search
intitle: Google, Teoma
allintitle: Google
url: AltaVista, Gigablast, Lycos Advanced
inurl: Google, Teoma
allinurl: Google
link: AltaVista, Google, Gigablast, Lycos Advanced, MSN Search
host: AltaVista (same as site: at others)
ip: Gigablast
domain: HotBot, MSN Search
site: Gigablast, Google, Teoma, (use host: at AltaVista)
anchor: AltaVista
image: AltaVista
related: Google
others: AltaVista, Gigablast, Google, HotBot, MSN Search
Limits:
Date (User Specified): AltaVista Advanced, HotBot, Teoma
Date (Specific Choices): Google, HotBot, MSN Search, Teoma
Language: AltaVista, Google, HotBot, Lycos, MSN Search, Teoma, WiseNut
Domain: Gigablast, Google, HotBot, MSN Search, Lycos, Teoma
Containing a media type: HotBot, MSN Search
Document Directory Depth: MSN Search
File type: See below
Page Depth: Gone. Formerly at HotBot
File Types:
PDFs: AltaVista, Gigablast, Google, MSN Search, HotBot (Inktomi) includes PDFs
but no limit
MS Word (.doc): Gigablast, Google, MSN Search, HotBot (Inktomi) includes DOCs
but no limit
PowerPoint (.ppt): Gigablast, Google, MSN Search, HotBot (Inktomi) includes
PPTs but no limit
Excel (.xls): Gigablast, Google, MSN Search, HotBot (Inktomi) includes PPTs
but no limit
PostScript (.ps): Gigablast, Google
WordPerfect (.wpd): Google
Stop Words:
No Stop Words (all words searched): AltaVista Advanced, Google (if + used or
in phrase), Gigablast, Lycos, Teoma (if + used)
Common words not searched (stop words): HotBot, Google (if + not used or not
in a phrase), MSN Search, Lycos, Teoma (if + not used or not in a phrase), WiseNut
(if + not used)
Stop words only if searched alone: HotBot, MSN Search
Stop words searchable with +: Google, Teoma, WiseNut
Sorting:
Sort by relevance: All
Sort by date: Gigablast (used to, no longer available as of Oct. 2003)
Sort by size: Openfind
Clustering by site: Google, Gigablast, HotBot, AltaVista, Teoma, WiseNut,
Family Filters:
AltaVista's Family Filter (password setting available)
Google SafeSearch (available on the preferences page), is on by default for
image searching.
Lycos Search Guard (password setting available)
MSN Search has a filter on by default with no way to turn it off.
WiseNut has WiseWatch, an adult content filter which is off by default. It can
be turned on in the preferences.
Used to have Family Filters:
iWon has none as of 7/01, but its Simple Search used to exclude sites which
were "highly pornographic or offensive in nature." The Advanced Search
did not have that limit.
Magellan used to have a Green Light content filter, which became defunct even
before Magellan died
Excite had none as of 7/01, even before it ceased having its own database, but
it used to offer an adult content filter at the bottom of their Advanced Search
Page
AlltheWeb's "Offensive Content Reduction" filter used to be on by
default.
