From Wendy Boswell,
Your Guide to Web Search.
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MyStanky - We Don't Stink

MyStanky is a metasearch engine that has been around since 2001. I recently had the chance to shoot some questions back and forth about MyStanky with Steve Stankiewicz, creator and founder, who pretty much has put this search engine together by himself and has the sleepless nights to prove it. While MyStanky isn't the most known metasearch engine in the world, I love that ANYONE with enough knowledge, moxie, and sweat can put something like this together. Here's the MyStanky scoop (and can you tell that I love the name?).

Interview with Steve Stankiewicz, MyStanky Creator

What exactly is MyStanky?

MyStanky is a metasearch engine with a free directory built into it. We allow all businesses (no free host) a sub-category directory listing with an 80x60 logo included free.

How did you come up with the name MyStanky?

The name MyStanky was derived from the owner’s last name and was more of a joke among friends. After installing our first search system back in April 2001 we noticed a heavy spike in traffic and user interest. Over the years we have installed various search engine system to help user’s find what they need. In Early of 2003 we spiked at Alexa to rank in the top 32K traffic sites online. We have partnerships with many online search companies to offer targeted search related results.

How do you search at MyStanky?

Basically you can use the tabs at the top to search different channels. Metasearch & network search both have advanced searching features. Recently we added some new tools to the site like the Show One Site search, job search back-end, product shopping, news, weather, games, dns tools, search & webmaster tools and more. In 2006 we are looking to implement a local search technology and would like to get more involved in pay per call technologies that are heating up.

What search engines and directories do you pull your results from?

MyStanky's metasearch tool pulls web results from major engines like Google, Yahoo, MSN, AltaVista, Dmoz, Teoma, Looksmart & Netscape. It grabs the top 40 listings from each site and re-ranks them to display by link popularity online. If you use the advanced search function in the Metasearch section we also have powerful shopping, news & image results. Our image engine currently pulls from Google images, Netscape Images & Picsearch. In our news search we pull from ABC, BBC, CNN, Fox News & Yahoo News, although the homepage news section pulls top headlines from moreover.com. In shopping you browse the top selling Amazon products via our site and if the price is not right, use our comparison tool powered by Nextag. Also if you are an e-book lover, we pull the entire Clickbank digital marketplace into our site as well. In our network search listings you can browse top bidding pay for performance advertisers from leading companies like 7Search, Searchfeed, Enhance, Revenuepilot & our internal sponsor listings. In our jobs network we pull results for AccessQuery.com job network. We have been speaking to a few other leading job searches to start dislaying their feeds by early next year.

This MyStanky interview is continued on page two.