General Information

Ask
Teoma

Google

Lycos U.K.
(T-Rex search engine)

Fast Alltheweb  & Lycos US

Direct Hit

AltaVista

Inktomi

<title> character
length used for listing

94

83

61

147

79

79

111

Keyword in title is important

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Character length used for  description in listing

147

144

390

257

181

148

-

<meta> description  supported

Yes

No

No

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

<meta> keyword supported

-

No

No

?

?

Yes

?

<meta>keyword important

-

No

No

?

?

No

?

<meta> redirect problems?

-

Likely

Yes

Likely

Likely

Likely

Likely

<meta> robot tags support

-

NOINDEX
NOFOLLOW

NOINDEX
NOFOLLOW

NOINDEX

NOINDEX
NOFOLLOW
NOIMAGEINDEX
NOIMAGECLICK

Indexes all visible text on  page

-

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Searches are Case Sensitive

No

No

No

No

Yes

Yes

No

Word Stemming (hawaii=hawaiian)

No  (Teoma)

No

Yes

No

Heavy
Tries to match words that are  spelled similar or sound similar

No

No

Word Capitalization (Is  toy=Toy?)

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

No

Yes

Keyword Order
(Is "paris hotels"="hotels paris"

No

No

No

Yes

Yes

Yes(?)

No

Plurals
(Is toy=toys?)

Yes

No

No

No

No

No

No

Looks for keywords in domain  name
(http://keyword-keyword.com)

Yes

Yes

No

No

No

Yes

Yes

Looks for Keywords in URL's (on  page)

-

Yes

No

No

No

Yes

Maybe

Pages score higher based on  alphabetical order of domain name?

No

No

No

No

No

-

No

Do newly submitted
pages score better?

-

No

Yes

No

-

No
(older is better)

No

Link Popularity

Yes

Yes
(major influence)

Yes

Yes

Click
Popularity

Yes

Direct Hit

Reviewed sites
score higher?

-

Yahoo / ODP  Preference

-

-

-

-

-

Preference for big sites? (lots  of pages)

Yes

Yes

-

No

No

Yes

No

Will the spider accept a cookie  and use it while indexing your site?

No

No

No

No

No

No

No

"Click" popularity influences  page score?

No

No

No

Yes

Future?

What text is
indexed?
(and can be  found during a default search)

Google

Lycos U.K.
(T-Rex search  engine)

Fast
Alltheweb.com & Lycos US

Direct Hit

AltaVista

Inktomi

Words in  <title>

1129  characters

Yes

1129  characters

Yes

417  characters

Yes

Words in  <style>

No

Yes

No

Yes

Yes

Yes

Meta Keywords
<meta name=
keywords...

No

No

No

?

1017+
characters

1129  characters

Meta Description
<meta  name=
description...

No

No

No

?

1017  characters

1129  characters

<no frames>  Content

Yes

Yes

Yes

?

Yes

Yes

Dublin Core
Meta Data

No

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

<!-- comment -->
tag text

No

No

-

No

No

Hidden Input
form text
(Trick #14)

-

No

-

No

No

Form  <option> text

Yes

N/A

Yes

No

N/A

No

Link Descriptions
<a  href="www.your

server.com">
keyword</a>

Yes

Yes-

?

Yes

Yes

No

Text within url link
<a  href="http://www
.yourserver.com/
keyword.html>

Yes

No

?

Yes

-

No

Indexes .asp  files

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Indexes pages  with "?","=","&" in the URL?

Yes

Yes

Yes

YES

Yes

Spidering (how deep will they  go and how long does it take?)

Google

Lycos U.K.
(T-Rex search  engine)

Fast
Alltheweb.com & Lycos US

Direct Hit

AltaVista

Inktomi

How many different pages can  you get indexed?

No  Limit?

No  Limit

No  Limit?

400

No  Limit

Submitted Pages

1-2  months

Varies - Months

Around 15 -30 days

2+  Months

2-30  days

48 hours
to three weeks

1 level deep

Monthly-Excellent

1  month

Excellent

Poor

2-4  weeks

2-4  weeks

Multiple levels deep

Yes!  - Excellent

Poor

Excellent

Poor

Poor

Poor

Supports Robots.txt

Partial

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Supports <meta> robot tag

Yes

No

Yes

No

No

Frames Support (noframes tag)

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Follows Frameset  links

Yes

-

-

Grabber follows  href links. Grabber also follows framed pages to index the content  of pages containing frames, but does not create separate index  entries for individual frames.

No

Yes - Will index  content of framed page and list URL of frameset

Follows Image Map Links

-

-

-

-

-

-