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Comparison Of Google to Teoma

randomErr writes "SearchEngineWatch.com was compared the good and the bad of both engine. They wrote the cool thing about Teoma is that its community-seeking behavior is both query-specific, and happens in real time. Whenever you type in a query, we're actually looking for the communities after you type the query. Teoma's approach differs from Google's, which uses a similar, but more static ranking system. It's also unlike the approach taken by Northern Light that classify web pages based on pre-defined categories."

36 of 151 comments (clear)

  1. Here's my evaluation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Google rules. Teoma sucks.

    But, seriously, Google has all sorts of features (cache, newsgroups, api, etc, etc) that Teoma doesn't. It's not just the size of your index, it's how you let people use it. There's a reason Google is my (and many other people's) start page.

  2. Google Labs by Nept · · Score: 5, Informative

    How many people know about google labs? It's got a lot of other cool stuff like sets, voice search, and my favorite, the keyboard shortcuts :)

    --
    "Teachers leave us kids alone ..." - Roger Waters, Pink Floyd
  3. google by crazney · · Score: 4, Funny

    google has two great things:

    a) pigeon rank
    b) linux

    Teoma has:

    a) no animal employement
    b) windows.

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    stuff
    1. Re:google by bilbobuggins · · Score: 2

      wait, are you talking about what makes them better search engines or better /. stories?

    2. Re:google by _generica · · Score: 2, Insightful

      how is this funny?
      damn moderators on crack

    3. Re:google by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny
      how is this funny? damn moderators on crack

      Ahh, finally some1 who sees my side of things! I have always known that the moderators are wasted, thats why my highest score is 0, and all my posts get marked either "Flamebait" or "Troll"

  4. Teoma's innovations won't benefit most by Sheetrock · · Score: 5, Insightful
    But as the article says, Teoma will probably never replace Google.

    In some ways, Teoma is more innovative. It's using an extension of an algorithm designed a few years ago by researchers, HITS, that actually goes beyond just searching an index based on a keyword into utilizing the idea of social networks to try to get you closer to what you want. However, this probably impacts search speeds, which I'm guessing is a lot of the reason why their searchspace is so much smaller than the ones used by more contemporary search engines like Yahoo! or Google.

    People don't really dig that far with search engines, and I think Teoma's features will be wasted because of this -- most people are just using it to look up the domain for an organization rather than exhaustively researching every page they can get their hands on.

    --

    Try not. Do or do not, there is no try.
    -- Dr. Spock, stardate 2822-3.




    1. Re:Teoma's innovations won't benefit most by Have+Blue · · Score: 2

      I disagree. Yes, most people are looking for something that may be "obvious", but what if you aren't? There are some things that every website on the planet doesn't mention.

      Even with Google your search results tend to get less and less relevant as you continue through the list you got back. If a search engine could somehow reverse that trend (say, a "remove pages like this one" button)...

  5. scribled not writes by WillSeattle · · Score: 4, Funny

    writes "SearchEngineWatch.com was compared the good and the bad of both engine. They wrote the cool thing about Teoma is that its community-seeking behavior is both query-specific, and happens in real time. Whenever you type in a query, we're actually looking for the communities after you type the query. Teoma's approach differs from Google's, which uses a similar, but more static ranking system. It's also unlike the approach taken by Northern Light that classify web pages based on pre-defined categories

    In clear English, that would be:

    writes "SearchEngineWatch.com has compared good and bad aspects of multiple search engines. They wrote that the cool thing about Teoma is that its community-seeking behavior is both query-specific, and happens in real time. Whenever you type in a query, we actually look for the communities after you type the query in. Teoma's approach differs from Google's, which uses a similar, but more static ranking system. It's also different from the approach taken by Northern Light that classify web pages based on pre-defined categories."

    Sigh. Sure hope you're not writing any Open Source documentation ...

    -

    --
    --- Will in Seattle - What are you doing to fight the War?
    1. Re:scribled not writes by Popocatepetl · · Score: 2, Insightful

      In clear English, that would be:

      I am a pedant.

    2. Re:scribled not writes by qslack · · Score: 2

      Actually, Hemos ran this story by CmdrTaco before he posted it. Malda edited the submission to make sure there were no mistakes. As you can see, he changed a lot. :)

  6. Google rules because... by SoCalChris · · Score: 2, Funny

    Google groups (Newsgroups) and the page caching. The page caching has been great for all of those sites that keep getting /.ed. Also, finding Googlisms are fun. That is trying to find two words in the same search query that where the query only returns one result.

    1. Re:Google rules because... by echucker · · Score: 2, Informative

      Also, finding Googlisms are fun. That is trying to find two words in the same search query that where the query only returns one result.

      Swing and a miss. The term you're looking for is googlewhack. "oligotrophic" and "festering" is a good example, for one.

  7. Edit! Dear God! by Wrexen · · Score: 5, Insightful

    SearchEngineWatch.com was compared the good and the bad of both engine.
    And so it begins

    They wrote the cool thing about Teoma is that its community-seeking behavior is both query-specific, and happens in real time.
    Quotes here anyone? Is this a quote? Are they summarizing? We'll never know

    Whenever you type in a query, we're actually looking for the communities after you type the query. Teoma's approach differs from Google's, which uses a similar, but more static ranking system.
    Google's approach or Teoma's approach??

    It's also unlike the approach taken by Northern Light that classify web pages based on pre-defined categories.
    Last time I checked, "the approach" was singular

    I'm not trying to be a troll or a grammar_nazi here, but is just a little proofreading too much to ask for? This write-up is nearing the 1.0 sentence-to-error ratio

  8. Search engines.... by josh+crawley · · Score: 2

    So Google's static but Teoma's a HeisenBUG. Now that's a sarch engine to (or not to) watch.

  9. Submission by fuerstma · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Google - easy to submit to.
    Temoa - PITA to submit to.

    Google wins.

    (not to mention the other goodies, such as Google owning Deja. All of a sudden I'm pitchin a tent in my roos)

    --
    www.jackasscritics.com
  10. Google Might inlcude "community-seeking" in future by Discoteck · · Score: 4, Informative

    Here is a article on TechTV's site concerning Google's programming contest winner. Hey look I found the /. thread concerning the contest. I can't find the original thread, but I am sure someone out there started one.

    I would imagine that if they awarded this guy $10,000 plus expenses for his trip out to visit them, that they would have serious thoughts about adding this feature to their website.

    I wonder why Mr. Dan Egnor decided to release all his source code for this project under the GNU liscene when google is paying him all this money to essentially act as a consultant for them.

    I wonder how long it takes for the other search engines to integrate this source code into their engines. Is this Teoma Google's closest competitor? They have the Teoma search bar and their site seems to be reasonably fast.

    I certainly see no reason to switch.

    Oh and by the way the Google Toolbar has been updated apparently since (6/7/02) if you haven't downloaded it since then you might want to check it out again. I think they added some new buttons.

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    /.................../ \\ /...................../
  11. No, it's working fine by GuyMannDude · · Score: 4, Funny

    I typed in a computer query and 5th on the result list was someone from Entertainment Tonight.

    You too? I thought it was just me:

    query: whois failure
    result: John Tesh

    GMD

  12. In clear English, that would be: by oliverthered · · Score: 2


    Hey maybe he's foriegn,

    Maybe he's got better things to 'THINK' about than grammar.

    In clear English, that would be:
    Cheers for posting a reasonable ./ story.

    It's a good job he dosn't do Web pages

    --
    thank God the internet isn't a human right.
  13. Re:Google Might inlcude "community-seeking" in fut by GigsVT · · Score: 2, Informative

    I think they added some new buttons.

    OOOO, shiny.

    Seriously though, Opera integrates search bar functionality right in the browser, and if you want to try a different search engine with the same query, just pull down the menu and pick another. Google is the default though.

    --
    I've had enough abrasive sigs. Kittens are cute and fuzzy.
  14. Self-serving results by rjamestaylor · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Teoma's results for "Google sucks" and "Teoma Sucks" Google's results:Notice, too, that Teoma is an ASP=based system. *PeeYew!*
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    -- @rjamestaylor on Ello
  15. Relevance of results to search by Dr_LHA · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Type "Slashdot" Into Teoma, here's what I got:

    1. Article about Andover IPO
    2. Slashdot.net domain placeholder/squatter
    3. USGS article detailing the Slashdot effect on it's web site.

    ...and so on. Slashdot itself isn't even in the top 10. Unscientific I know - but the reason I use Google is that the most relevant like is almost always the top one (and certainly in the top 10).

    1. Re:Relevance of results to search by soboroff · · Score: 2

      If you just wanted to go to Slashdot, why not just type the hostname in your browser navbar?

      There is a big difference in navigational searching ("Take me to Slashdot") and informational searching ("I want to learn everything there is to know about Slashdot"). And it'a really hard to figure out which you want from a single query term. But you'll note that the Teoma results are much more on the "informational" slant.

    2. Re:Relevance of results to search by William+Tanksley · · Score: 2

      I disagree. Typing 'slashdot' in my browser bar is how I get here once I know the URL; until I know it, Google is _far_ more reliable, and utterly certain to not dump me onto a squatter site.

      Of course, I knew slashdot's URL before I ever used Google, but the point is still valid -- there are many other sites to be found that way.

      Google isn't the all-in-all, of course; but Teoma doesn't come close. I like using alltheweb when Google isn't enough.

      -Billy

  16. Teoma misses the obvious stuff... by EchoMirage · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Teoma misses the obvious stuff. Like "Slashdot," which does not bring one to slashdot.org within the first ten hits.

    Teoma's technology is cool, and I'm glad to see Google getting challenged - I think it will make Google a stronger search engine.

  17. its more of a CITH submission method by sh0rtie · · Score: 4, Interesting



    Teuma is not so much PITA (pain in the ass) to submit to
    but more of a CITH (cash in the hand) method of inclusion, meaning no cash = no listing

    basically charging people to fill Teuma's database for them,
    not a lot of difference from those awful search sites you find , you know ,when you happen to mispell a well known url and find yourself at a domain squatters site with popups and a search engine with "finance" and "loans" the most prominent links (as they are the most desperate they tend to pay the most) and when looking at the submission process it directs you offsite to a paypal https:// payment method paying some holdings company $29.99 in Guyana

    Teuma is doomed for failure as soon as the cash runs out, and seeing that its a joint venture of ask.com (who no-one uses willingly) and themselves , it just seems a re-branding exercise for ask.com and a chance to promote their lame marketing tactics

  18. LOL Yahoo, the best index from the 90's :) by Archfeld · · Score: 2

    I like my pages to have been updated in this century..Yahoo's index is SOOO outdated often the top ranked page will be from 1998..great search engine if you want outdated incorrect or just plain wrong information, or you only really want results from Yahoo premier partners :)

    Do you Yahoo ? I used to but my palms started getting hairy so I had to stop.

    --
    errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
  19. Teoma toolbar by jesser · · Score: 2, Informative
    Teoma now has a toolbar for IE/Win, similar to the Google Toolbar. Here is a quick comparison of the toolbars:

    The Teoma toolbar is missing a lot of features that the Google toolbar has.
    • Teoma's toolbar does not have a "Search Site" button.
    • Google adds "Google Search" to Internet Explorer's context menu for selected text. Teoma does not. (This feature is built into Mozilla, by the way.)
    • Shift+Enter doesn't open the search results in a new window like it does in the Google Toolbar.
    • Alt+Enter doesn't go straight to the first hit like it does in the Google Toolbar (I'm Feeling Lucky).
    • Alt+D (focus address bar) and Alt+G (focus Google toolbar) do not work while the Teoma toolbar has focus. Furthermore, CLICKING on the Google toolbar does not work when the Teoma toolbar has focus.
    It does, however, have Alt+S to focus the search field in the toolbar (Google uses Alt+G). This is good because the first thing you're going to do after focusing the search field is type a search phrase using the keyboard.

    The Teoma toolbar makes it easy to add and remove toolbar buttons. I like that.

    The "Email this page to a friend" feature is useless. It creates a message that advertises the Teoma search bar and almost hides the information you were trying to send. Unlike the "Send Page" feature in IE and Mozilla, Teoma only sends a link to the page (like IE's and Mozilla's "Send Link"), but it doesn't tell you this.

    Problems with BOTH toolbars:
    • Neither Google nor Teoma makes their toolbar Search button search for selected text. (Same with the search buttons built into IE and Mozilla.) You can drag the selection into the search textbox, but that's awkward.
    • Clicking search brings you to a page with a search box but does not focus the search box for you. In contrast, the front page for each search engine focuses the search box automatically, saving you a mouse click.
    • Pasted Japanese text comes out as a bunch of question marks, and clicking search actually searches for question marks (%3f).
    • The only version available is for Internet Explorer for Windows.
    --
    The shareholder is always right.
  20. Future slashdot article: by gad_zuki! · · Score: 2

    Slashdot crew buys OfficeXP

    After years of grammatical and spelling errors we decided to spend a fraction of our millions and buy some MS software. OpenOffice is great, but Hemos insisted on a grammar checker. Hey we still hate Microsoft. Really we do! Aww, this little dog assistant is sooo cute.

  21. Self-reference? by Quixote · · Score: 3, Funny

    Search for the term "search engine" on Google, and Google is ranked first.
    Search for the term "search engine" on Teoma, and Teoma is ranked nowhere in the results! (On the first page, at least). Lycos ranks tops there.
    You decide.

  22. YOU are the product not the technology ! by sh0rtie · · Score: 3, Informative


    i went there and i wanted to see their privacy policy before i used the engine, but i had to actually use their search engine before able to see a link, this was after the site had tried to place 2 cookies on my system,
    one from teoma and one from a 1x1 gif webbug from askcm.com, after performing a search the webbug transmitted what i had searched for and a GUID to the askcm.com address as well in the form of a hash.
    nearly every way of tracking your behaviour has been implemented on their site.

    Of course it does finaly provide (after using) it mentions they will take if they can personally identifying info and they share it with 3rd partys (with permission) (yeah right like yahoo/hotmail did)

    On using Internet Explorers "privacy report" feature (which uses the webstandards w3c p3p privacy method) it came up as not supporting that either

    pretty un-professional if i cant view a privacy policy before using their service, isnt that what its for ?

    not that google is any different of course as it too doesnt support the w3c privacy standard and tries to set a cookie, but it doesnt use webbugs to thirdparty sites and set 2 cookies so i guess thats an improvement.

    Looking at the toolbar they offer i have to agree to the the same terms as their website!, which seems strange as they expect me to install software without a explanation of what its gonna do to my system (spyware anyone ?).

    Teoma (ask) is yet another classic venture of YOU are the product not the search engine so selling you to the highest bidder takes more importance than the technology ever will.

  23. Teoma Sucks...here's why: by peterdaly · · Score: 2

    A search for "slashdot" returned slashdot.net as #3. Have you been there lately?

    It is a placeholder page (in german) for the domain from a registar.

    Yeah, that's crappy logic. I do have to say though, I read through the usgs page and it was interesting.

    -Pete

  24. Google sucks lately by nebbian · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I don't know why, but just lately (in the past month or so), Google has gone completely nuts and won't show pages that it used to show. For example, my father has a site that's all about little historic stone statues, and you used to be able to do a search for "Venus Figures" on google and get his site. No longer! Even a search for the title of his site doesn't return his site. Even a search for the URL doesn't return his site anymore! It returns some pages with links to his site, but not his site! For my money, the balance of power of the web search engines is shifting. I now use teoma and www.alltheweb.com when I want to do a search, and then try google. If we can make a decent operating system, web server, proxy, etc open source, why can't we make a decent open source search engine? Surely the geekier members amongst us can figure something out... Ben

  25. What about Altavista? by Daetrin · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Altavista has a very nice feature that was lacking in both google and and teoma last i checked. Altavista will search for _exactly_ what you typed in, caps, punctuation, and all.

    I can not even begin to count the number of crappy links google has tried to give me because it decided that some similar word was "close enough" to what i was searching for.

    That might be a useful feature for when i'm unsure of what i'm looking for, but most of the time i _know_ what i want to find, and i don't appreciate Google cluttering things up with other "likely" variants. Using the "exact phrase" in the advanced search option returns the same inexact search results.

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    This Space Intentionally Left Blank
    1. Re:What about Altavista? by tunah · · Score: 2

      And a dot (.) matching anything. Impossible to search for files!

      --
      Free Java games for your phone: Tontie, Sokoban
  26. Teoma gives me good placement by Animats · · Score: 2
    "Downside" and "Deathwatch" both bring up my site as #1 on both Teoma and Google.

    I do absolutely nothing to achieve that placement, other than trying to provide useful content and not putting ads all over the place.