What is metasearch technology & its offerings?
A meta-search engine is a search engine that sends user requests to several other search engines and/or databases and aggregates the results into a single list, or displays them according to their source. Metasearch engines enable users to enter search criteria once and access several search engines simultaneously. Metasearch engines operate on the premise that the Web is too large for any one search engine to index it all and that more comprehensive search results can be obtained by combining the results from several search engines. This also may save the user from having to use multiple search engines separately.
The term Metasearch is frequently used to classify a set of commercial search engines, but is also used to describe the paradigm of searching multiple data sources in real time. The National Information Standards Organization (NISO) uses the terms Federated Search and Metasearch interchangeably to describe this web search paradigm.
How do metasearch engines function?
Metasearch engines create what is known as a virtual database. They do not compile a physical database or catalogue of the web. Instead, they take a user's request, pass it to several other heterogeneous databases and then compile the results in a homogeneous manner based on a specific algorithm.
No two metasearch engines are alike. Some search only the most popular search engines while others also search lesser-known engines, newsgroups, and other databases. They also differ in how the results are presented and the quantity of engines that are used. Some will list results according to search engine or database. Others return results according to relevance, often concealing which search engine returned which results. This benefits the user by eliminating duplicate hits and grouping the most relevant ones at the top of the list.
What benefits can organizations derive from Metasearch technology and related offerings?
In terms of business solutions, InfoSpace Private-Label Search develops, delivers, and hosts a white label Web search product for its business partners. This ensures that the partner s brand identity takes center stage and the company s solutions generate both revenue and brand equity with brand-free Web search product on the site. InfoSpace Private-Label Portal is a turnkey private-label solution that enables ISPs (Internet Service Providers) to provide a wide variety of integrated content and services to their subscribers. An Ajax-based personalized start page offers ISPs a vehicle for communication and provides users a portal dashboard experience for easy access to news, weather, stocks, personal e-mail, and more.
While designing the site we customize sections like toolbars, vertical searches, are you looking for, recent searches, advanced search, search preferences, Web site match, etc.
How different is InfoSpace s technology vis- -vis Google, Yahoo, Ask Jeeves, MSN, etc?
A study by IDC (2008) found that the average time spent by internet users online is 32.7hrs per week. This is almost one & a half days in a week and 6.5 days in a month wherein they just surf the net searching for the required/ relevant information.
However, searching in all these respective search engines & spending so much of time can prove to be quite cumbersome and time-consuming when the user does not find appropriate results for his search. Being a Metasearch engine, InfoSpace provides users the best of the best search results. InfoSpace s metasearch technology enables it to transmit the search of the end user to several individual and leading search engines like Google, Yahoo!, Windows Live Search and Ask, to provide the accumulated result from all of them.
To elaborate the same, InfoSpace has tied up with Google, Yahoo!, Windows Live Search, etc. to provide its users the best search results. So when a user does search on Infospace s search engine the search query is automatically sent to Google, Yahoo, MSN & Ask .While all the above search engines provides the results to Infospace, Infospace s unique metasearch technology selects the best of the best results/ the most relevant results from each of these engines & provides the same to its users. With Infospace s metasearch technology, the users get the most relevant results while not spending hours together surfing the net.
What is the search engine scenario in India like? What are some of the trends and challenges?
As of 2008 November, there are around 55 -60 million internet users in India and the numbers are growing by the minute. India has witnessed a 26% increase in domain registrations in Q1 2008 as compared to 2007. Domain registrations have grown by 46% in Q1 of 2008. Internet penetration in India has increased by 30% when compared to the internet penetration in 2007. Additionally, the Internet users in India represent approximately only 3 percent of the population, this indicates significant potential for continued strong growth.
India ranks fourth amongst the countries that have highest number of internet users. The top three are China, United States & Japan respectively.
These statistics reiterate the depth of internet penetration in India and the subsequent increased usage of search. Because 85 percent of all website traffic is generated by search engines and it has become the second most preferred online activity after email.
