Search Engine Overlap and Divergence - So Dogpile is Better?
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In publishing the results, Dogpile is doubtlessly trying to show the usefulness of meta search. Their service compiles the top results of the four major search engines (Google, Yahoo!, MSN Search, and Ask Jeeves) into one result set, ranking overlapping results higher and dropping unique ones to the bottom. It sounds like a good idea. So is Dogpile a superior service for finding the most relevant sites?
Hardly. First, picking crossover results and compiling top ranking sites will not automatically deliver a better result set than any singular search. It doesn’t actually mean the search is displaying popular links for searchers, just ones that the different program algorithms like rather well. It will treat those that play the SEO game especially well. It still has a selective first page of results, and potentially relevant links still get shoved down to subsequent pages. In fact, with giving favor to sites that all engines agree on, the area of the internet that you are effectively searching decreases in meta search to only what is most indexed. Trusting a compilation of all search algorithms is not better than trusting one.
Dogpile did claim they delivered more relevant results, though. The study used click-throughs to gauge result relevance of results, showing:
- 62.9% of Dogpile searchers clicked something on the first page
- 55.6% of Google searchers clicked something on the first page
- 50.0% of Yahoo! searchers clicked something on the first page
This actually speaks very poorly of their results when you consider Dogpile displays 20 results per page and all the other searches show 10. They would rank far more poorly if their front page was half the size, like Google’s and Yahoo’s. Scientific results need fewer variables, and this does not succeed. This also doesn’t even address how click throughs are not indicative of relevance, just the appearance of the SERPs.
Moreover, the idea of meta search is by no means a holy grail, but it may prove to be useful if Dogpile can iron out problems. Dogpile seems to have a problem searching for phrases. Phrases are very important to a targeted search, and Dogpile results from phrase searches sometimes lacked any semblance to the search criteria.
Perhaps the site’s biggest sin is mixing sponsored links into the organic results, something other search engines rightfully avoid. Dogpile should take a hint from Google and Yahoo! in this regard and display them separately. Thankfully they did mark them in light print as sponsored, but it will be hard to claim relevancy when combining organic results with those that paid to be there.
Because of the low amount of pages common to all engines, this study still shows the difficulties in optimizing a site for multiple search engines. It does not prove meta search is superior, but it does show SEOs that you need ways to gauge how well your site is doing across the board.
Next: Thumbshot Ranking, Cross-Search Engine Gauge >>
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