What is Search.com?
Search.com, owned by CNET Networks, is a truly excellent meta search engine. Search.com retrieves results from Google, Ask Jeeves, LookSmart, AltaVista, MSN Search, and more. Search.com, being part of the CNET network, also gives you instant access to their stable of technology sites, which include CNET.com (obviously), Download.com, and ZDNet.com.Search with Search.com
Navigate to the Search.com home page and you'll see the search bar squarely in the middle of the page. Enter in any term you'd like, and click on "Search the Web." Your Search.com search results will look like this:- Results From: You'll see which search engines Search.com retrieved results from at the very top of your screen.
- Related Searches: Search.com comes up with related searches for you, or search suggestions. These are also at the top of your browser window.
- Sponsored Links: Ads.
- Search Results: Here's where it gets interesting. Search.com gives you the link, then annotation (looks like they just lift text from the page containing the original search word or phrase), then it tells you which category you can find this particular search query in Search.com's directory listings, powered by the Open Directory. You can search within search results by clicking the link that says "More from widgets.com", and you can also see similar pages by clicking on - you guessed it - "similar pages."
You can also use Search.com to find downloads, specifically Windows software downloads. Just click on the Downloads text link and you're in. You can search for downloads from four different sites: Download.com PCWorld, RocketDownload, and Simtel. If you would like to only search one or two of the sites, all you have to do on the Download page is uncheck or check which sites you'd like to include.
Search results from Search.com's Downloads are nicely divided by whatever site that they come from. You also get the same search page features that I detailed in Search.com's regular Web search; that is, related searches, where the results come from, and the ubiquitous sponsored links (gotta pay the bills).
Search.com also offers a pretty good news meta search. Simply select the text link for News and type in a query. Your results come from a wide variety of sources, including Slate, the Chicago Tribune, ESPN, Fortune, BBC, Yahoo News, and many, many more. Again, Search.com's news results (just like Downloads) are nicely separated into whichever news category that they fit into; for example, Breaking News, Business Publications, and Tech News, to name a few.
