The MetaFind FAQ

So, what's this "MetaFind" thing about then?
  With MetaFind, you'll be able to find what you're looking for on the internet faster and more reliably than ever before.  If you're like most people, you use one of the major search engines, because, after all, it's a major search engine.  So, that means you can always count on it to give you results that are accurate, timely, and complete, right?

  Wrong.  Did you know:

•    Search engines typically only cover between 3% and 50% of the visible web?

•    Search engines take weeks or months to complete a crawl, missing many changed and new sites?

•    The bigger the search engine, the more web sites try to "game" the system and achieve undeserved rank?

•    Each search engine uses its own methods to crawl the web and assign rank, so results vary widely between them?

  When finding the right answer matters, using any single search engine often leads to a long, spam-filled, frustrating hunt.  That's one reason so many "meta-search" web sites have sprung up over the last few years.  Their idea is to combine the results of several search engines, and to rank each result based on the consensus of all the engines involved.  That way, sites left out or changes missed by one search engine will likely be picked up by one of the others.  In addition, rank becomes more accurate, since SEO (Search Engine Optimization) strategies tailored for one search engine are less likely to fool the others.  Just like asking three people a question and then choosing the two who agree, asking multiple search engines always improves your chances of finding the right answer.

Ok, then all I need to do is use one of those sites instead, right?
  In other words, why pay for a meta-search program when  you can use a meta-search web site for free?  Good question, and the one most frequently asked.  It depends on your definition of "free."  True, you don't have to pay any money – but someone does, and that has a huge impact on the quality of your results.  Meta-search web sites have licensing arrangements with the search engines whose results they use.  There's no other way.  A meta-search site will pay several larger search engines for access to a limited slice of their data, planning to pay for that access – and their own servers, techies, managers, owners, lawyers, etc – by selling advertising.  If they mention this limitation at all, they tell you that you're getting "the best of the best."  You're not, and that certainly isn't why most meta-search web sites actually show far fewer results than any of their sources.

  Think about it – if you owned a major search engine, would you sell someone the means to effectively compete with you?  Of course not, and what you're really getting from these web sites is a sort of shell game.  You're not likely to see any results in this alleged meta-search that you won't also see at every single one of the engines used.  What you will see is ads, ads, and more ads.  Ads from the sources – all of them – and ads from the meta-search site itself.  Some carry almost entirely ads, and are almost entirely useless.  As with pretty much everything in life, it seems you get what you pay for.

  Meta-search web sites are at the mercy of the search engines they use as sources.  They all want you to believe that they are putting you in control, giving you the power to "use" those search engines all at once – but in reality, it's those search engines which are using the meta-sites.  At the cost of access to just a portion of their data, they get both money and another venue for their ads.  And absolute control over just how competitive their "customers" get to be.  Do you really think they're going to let such sites out-perform them?

  The simple truth is that Search is a business.  Let's say that again – Search is a BUSINESS.  You don't become a billionaire by helping the competition at your own expense, so it's really not surprising that typical meta-search web sites are just "outlet malls" for search results – just one more way to squeeze a few more ad pennies out.  No meta-search web site can ever be an honest broker of search results, because that would not be in the best interests of their sources.  The only truly reliable solution is an independent desktop meta-search program, owned by you, and beholden to nobody.

  In fact, programs like this have also been around for years.  Perhaps the best known are WebFerret and Copernic Agent, both fine programs.  All such software follows the same basic pattern – they forward your query to several major search engines, and when the result pages come back, they extract the actual search results, blend them to create composite results, and display the blended list.  As long as the right sources are chosen, and the results ranked by a consensus of those engines, any one of them can produce useful results.

So you're saying I should try WebFerret?
  Why not?  It's "free" – just remember the rule: you get what you pay for.  But it's a good place to begin, they've been around for a long time, and you can get a good feel for how these programs operate.  You can find it at www.webferret.com, and Copernic Agent can be found at www.copernic.com  As these programs go, either one is a good start – but only a good start.  So yes, you should try them – then compare them to MetaFind, and decide for yourself if the difference is worth your hard-earned twenty bucks.

Difference?  What's so different about MetaFind?
Quite a bit - here are just a few of the things you can do with MetaFind:

•    Find what you're looking for.  Most meta-searches give you the same four or five search engines – MetaFind gives you twenty.

•    View search results the way you want – select a single search engine's results, or the blended results of all the engines.  

•    Filter a search engine's results to show either search results or sponsored listings, or view their actual search web page.

•    Control the number of results requested from each engine, and how many blended results to keep when the search finishes.  

•    Save your searches (Simple and Advanced) and re-use them - even assign them to buttons and menus for quicker access.  

•    Keep search results automatically for a period you control, or save them permanently.  

•    Perform text searches within the entire list of search results.

•    Easily copy snippets and complete snapshots to the MetaFind ScrapBook for later review.

Ok, you have more engines and a few extras – is that all?
  Not by a long shot.  In fact, there's far too much to cover here, but let's go over some of the highlights:  

  If you shop at online retailers, no doubt you've noticed that most now have their own search engines, designed to search only their own database for items they have to sell.  This is exactly the information a shopper is looking for, and even the largest of search engines is unlikely to show you any of it.  Often called the "Invisible Web," it's believed to be 500 times the size of the "Visible Web" that can be searched by general-purpose search engines.

  Let's clarify that – even the most Gigantic Goliath of Search Engines can only show you a fraction of one five-hundredth of what's out there.  That may seem incredible, given what we all think we know about search engines.  Remember though, they can only search the text of web pages that exist, and are available, at the moment they crawl a particular web site.  Why is that a problem?  When you search at an online retailer's web site, it isn't simply opening an existing web page for you.  Instead, they send your query to their database, and build a web page on the spot to contain the results.  How could a general-purpose search engine find and index that page?  The answer is they can't, and so  yes, you really are missing that much when you rely on them.

So they can't get to all that information, but MetaFind can?
  In a word, YES.  To get to that information, a different way to search has to be created.  How do you shop online now?  If you're like most internet shoppers, you have a select group of sites that you know and trust, and will visit them one by one, searching each in turn.  Another common approach is to start with a general search engine, following their links to the retailers web sites – where you can then run the search all over again. That does take the legwork out of comparison shopping, but if you've seen how GasFinder works, you may be thinking there's still a better way.  You're right – there is, and MetaFind has it.

  With MetaFind, you will be able to query the search engines of over 5000 web sites.  These search engines are divided into 24 broad categories covering hundreds of topics.  They make up "Web Search Groups" for specific types of items, like the one used to power GasFinder.  You can create as many Web Search Groups as you like (over 400 have already been created for you) containing any of the 5000 search engines.  Using them to search is as easy as using GasFinder, with just one extra step – choose the Web Search Group you want to perform the search.  The rest works just the same – click the Find button, then sit back and relax as MetaFind sends your query directly to the search engines of the retailers themselves, then shows you the results from the retailers' own data.  There are over 60 groups devoted just to shopping, for everything from Cameras (33 search engines available) to Women's Clothing (101 search engines) to Garden Supplies (49).  If it can be bought online, MetaFind knows where to find it.

  But there's more to life than shopping.  Want to know what's going on in the world?  Choose from dozens of online and TV news sources, and over 1000 national and international newspapers, and search their archives directly from MetaFind.  Researching a paper or homework assignment?  Choose from dozens of sources on Math, Science, History - 50 research and information groups in all.

  In MetaFind you'll also find some useful specialty groups.  Are there young eyes you want to protect?  Tell MetaFind to display only the 15 groups in the "Kid-Friendly" category.  Find a mysterious number on your Caller ID?  Look it up with the "Who Called Me?" group.  Don't quite believe what someone just told you?  Check it out in the "Myths, Hoaxes, and Urban Legends" group.  If you somehow manage to find a question that doesn't seem to fit any of the groups, take it up with one of the Oracles.  And if you'd just like to have a little fun, there's always Search-o-Matic...


  The MetaFind Development Team