From Wendy Boswell,
Your Guide to Web Search.
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This article about meta search engine Dogpile is continued from page one.

Dogpile Meta Search Features

You're going to want to check out Dogpile's Comparison Engines demo, a nice and friendly introduction to how metasearch engines work, with a real-time Venn diagram to demonstrate how three different search engines (Google, Yahoo, and MSN; but you can switch these), retrieve results, and how few of them actually do overlap.

Dogpile Advanced Search

Advanced Search gives you the option to narrow your searches by exact word phrases, language filters, date, domain filters, or adult filters. You also have the option to set your search preferences, with the ability to customize your Dogpile default search settings.

A couple of things stood out here that I haven't noticed in other search tools: first, the "Bold Search Terms" option, that lets you "Use this to make your keyword(s) stand out on all results pages." There's also the ability to track and display your 15 most recent searches for those of us who might need a bit of help in the memory department.

In addition, you can learn how to search more efficiently with Dogpile's Tricks of the Trade, take a look at the Dogpile Site Map, and last but definitely not least, check out the many moods of Arfie.

Dogpile Toolbar

The Dogpile Toolbar comes in Internet Explorer flavor only at this time. Some of the cool features of the Toolbar include a popup blocker, automatic News Ticker, and SearchSpy, "Watch scrolling terms to see what people are searching for in real-time."

Why Should I Meta Search with Dogpile?

The ability to search several big search engines and directories at the same time is not only a time-saver, but it's fun to compare results. My personal favorite feature of Dogpile was the search suggestions, because quite frankly, the Suggestions were a lot better than what I came up with, and it was nice to get a hand up.

Note: Search engines change frequently, so the information in this article can and will get outdated as more information or features about meta search engine Dogpile are released. Be sure to check About Web Search for more updates as they become available.