I’m going to look at results for the same query across each one just as a comparison. I’ll use the classic “level 4 brain cancer” query that we’ve looked at on Google various times throughout the content farm/Panda update discussion this year.

We first used this example to show where non-authoritative information was being surfaced for important health-related queries in Google, prior to the launch of the Panda update.

Ask Jeeves

Ask Jeeves was founded in 1996, and eventually became Ask.com, although it’s still Ask Jeeves in the UK. While there was always an emphasis on Q&A, this is very much the case these days. Here’s what it looks like:

The results:

Alta Vista

AltaVista was founded in 1995. Eventually it was purchased by Overture, which was taken over by Yahoo. Last year, Yahoo indicated that it would be shutting AltaVista down, but so far it is still live, delivering Yahoo results with an AltaVista logo. Here’s what it looks like:

The results:

AlltheWeb

AlltheWeb came out in 1999. It was eventually bought up by Overture, which was taken over by Yahoo. It was just earlier this year that Yahoo simply started directing it to search.yahoo.com.

Excite

Excite was founded in 1994. Ten years later it was acquired by Ask Jeeves. Now it’s owned by IAC, which also owns Ask. Here’s what it looks like today:

The results:

Lycos

Lycos was founded in 1994. In 2000, it merged with Terra Networks to become Terra Lycos. In 2004, Lycos was sold to Daum Communications. In 2010, it was sold to Ybrant Digital. Here’s what it looks like these days:

The results:

HotBot

HotBot was launched in 1996 by Wired Magazine, and is now owned by Lycos. Here’s what it looks like these days:

The results:

Infoseek

Infoseek was founded in 1994, and was eventually bought by The Walt Disney Company. It then was rolled into Go.com, but has been replaced by Yahoo’s search, which is interesting, considering that Yahoo’s search has been replaced by Bing. Here’s what it looks like:

The results (they simply redirect to Yahoo search results):

WebCrawler

WebCrawler is a metasearch engine. It launched in 1994, was bought by AOL in 1995, and sold to Excite in 1997. Infospace acquired it in 2001. Currently its results pull from Google, Yahoo and Bing. This was actually my go to search engine before discovering Google. That seems so long ago. Here’s what it looks like today:

The results:

DogPile

DogPile is similar to WebCrawler, and is also now owned by Infospace. It was launched in 1996. Here’s what it looks like today:

The results:

Mamma.com

Mamma.com, a metasearch engine, was launched in 1996. The company eventually purchased Copernic, and changed its name to Copernic Inc. In 2009, Copernic sold Mamma.com to Empresario.

There’s currently a message on the Mamma.com saying that a new version is on the way. Here’s what it currently looks like:

The Results:

The moral of the story: a lot of search engines think eHow has the best result for “level 4 brain cancer”. That includes Bing and Yahoo. Google is going with Harvard’s MGH Brain Tumor Center for its top result for the query. Blekko is going with Cancer.org. DuckDuckGo is going with medical-answers.org.

When was the last time you used any of these old school search engines? Let us know in the comments.

Google especially (in part because nobody pays attention to Yahoo unless Microsoft tries to buy them) is known for spicing up its logo on special days, to commemorate artists, historic accomplishments, and often, national holidays.

Memorial Day hasn’t been part of that tradition either, to many’s dismay. (I stopped bugging them about more trivial things, but a couple of years ago a Google PR rep told me they didn’t want to take a chance on offending anyone by appearing to make light of such a solemn and reverent occasion like Memorial Day.)

If you believe that…you might also believe that perhaps they didn’t feel anybody cared about President’s Day except furniture stores. (That’s complete conjecture because, like I said, I stopped bugging them about stuff like this in general.) Heck, we don’t even get out of school for it.

That doesn’t keep the mail running, though, does it?

Anyway, while Google and Yahoo are ignoring the honoring of America’s great Presidents (notice I said great ones, not average or poor ones), Ask.com and Dogpile.com are eager to please. Ask sported a shot of Mount Rushmore, which depicts four great Presidents (even if Teddy insisted upon himself a bit—what do you expect of a rough-rider, anyway?).

Dogpile dogified Teddy, George, and Abe in solid cartoon perpetuity. (Scratching behind Dogpile’s ear and using my doggie voice: "That’s a good a citizen. Who’s a good citizen? You are! Oh, yes, you are!"
 

InfoSpace is best known for its ownership of the search engine Dogpile.  And given that Dogpile is (at least in some circles) valued more for its holiday graphics than its search abilities, we agree that a few changes are needed.  It’s a bit sad to see more people lose their jobs, though.

InfoSpace claims the layoffs, along with other cost-cutting measures, should save around $8 million.  Rafat Ali notes, "Also, the company has appointed Bruce Allenbaugh to the new position of Chief Marketing Officer.  Among other things, Allenbaugh served as VP-marketing for Avenue A (now aQuantive)."

So we’ll see what these changes accomplish.  For the time being, the market seems unimpressed – InfoSpace’s stock is down 17 cents from its opening price.  Yet, in one more good news/bad news sort of scenario, the Nasdaq is also down, so the drop may have been hard to avoid.