Data from March 5, 1999

Still little overlap!

Searches Used: Total Hits: Unique Hits:

4 small ones 202 97

Even with four Inktomi-based databases (HotBot, Snap, MSN Web Search, and Yahoo!'s Inktomi database -- Anzwers and Canada.com do find the same hits as HotBot and are not considered here), there was a low degree of overlap even among those four. Three of the Inktomi databases included unique hits not found by any of the other nine search engines.

See the more detailed analysis of unique hits to gain a sense of how the 47 unique pages were divided among the search engines.

Previous Comparisons:

• Jan. '99: Four search on ten search engines. 176 hits, 83 unique pages. None found by more than six search engines.
• August '98: Four searches on five search engines. 103 hits, 70 unique pages. None found by all five search engines.
• May 1998: Four searches on five search engines. 95 hits, 77 unique pages. None found by all five.
• Feb. 1998: Four searches on five search engines. 103 hits, 62 unique pages. Three found by all five search engines.
• October 1997: Four different searches on four search engines: 220 hits, 12 found by all four
• September 1997 and June 1997 found no pages in common among four small searches on the four largest search engines at those times. (No charts available.)

While decisions about which Web search engine to use should not be based on size alone, this information should be part of the decision. See also statistics on search engine size, unique hits, dead links, and the change over time.