Part 6
Meta Index/Ask Jeeves

The Meta Index

The third type of Search site is the Meta Index. This type of site performs a search, usually using keywords, using its on Web Index, as well as the Index of other sites. You get the ease of using one site, but the benefit of searching several!

For example, MetaCrawler (now go2net.com) at http://www.go2net.com or http://www.metacrawler.com, searches Excite, Lycos, ThurderStone, InfoSeek, WebCrawler, and DirectHit all at once.

Meta Sites were very popular in 1997 and 1998, but their numbers have dropped off in 1999. Still, a Meta Site can save a person time searching. MetaCrawler even weeds out duplicate hits!

Ask Jeeves

Ask Jeeevs (http://www.ask.com) is a Meta Site with a twist. Most sites have you enter a series of keywords, but Ask Jeeves instead has you ask "him" a question in plain English. It's called a Natural Language search and it has revolutionized the way people search the Web.

The Ask Jeeves engine can parse out your question, locate keywords, and figure out what you are trying to find.

When you first arrive at Ask Jeeves, you enter a question in the search box, and click the "Ask!" button. Questions usually are along the lines of "Where can I get..." or "Where can I find about...", but you can even tell Jeeves "Get me information about..." or "Tell me about..."

Ask Jeeves then takes you to a second page, where "he" tries to answer your question, either by telling you what "he" knows, or what information "he" was able to get from other search engines. Here's what it looks like...