What Are Meta Search Engines And How Do They Work?
Most of us use the search engines as a part of our daily Internet activities. Be it Google, Yahoo or Bing all search engines have different algorithms and thus they show varied results. But have you ever wondered what would happen if you could get a search result which takes the best results from all these search engines into account at the same time? Meta search engines just do that for you, combining data from various search engines and giving you a comprehensive search result. These results are much more refined and utility oriented as compared to search on single search engines.
It is easy to understand the working of the meta search engines. When an user sends a search query to the meta search engine, the query is automatically redirected to several search engines and the databases. The results are first aggregated and then displayed in order of their sources. The biggest benefit of the meta search engine is that it sends the results of all the search engines with only one search query and you do not have to repeat the search again and again. As the web is the largest database of information and there are millions of new websites pouring in everyday thus a simple search engine won’t do now. Thus meta search engines were integrated, they not only save time but also give better user oriented results.
The meta search engines create a virtual database and do not compile a physical database like the normal search engines. When you as a user type a search request it is sent to many heterogeneous databases and then the results are compiled in a homogeneous manner based on a specific algorithm. This helps in saving a lot of time and duplicate search results are often removed by the meta search engine. Some meta search engines also give you the option to select from a list of search engines that can be searched with the meta search engine.
It is a fact that there are many little known search engines that have some advantages and meta search engines take into account results from all these websites. This makes meta search engines advantageous as it searches more of the web than a traditional search engine. In some of the meta search engines the results of the same type are clustered into groups helping the users to find what exactly they are looking for.
As like search engines the results of different meta search engines also vary as they use different algorithms to compile the results from various search engines. Since the search will be carried out on many search engines simultaneously simple queries yield better results than complex ones.