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BBC Magazine's Search-Engine Shootout

Posted by timothy on from the asanine-suggestions-from-jeeves-the-idiot-butler dept.

An anonymous reader writes "On BBC Online's excellent Magazine, there is a shootout between Google, MSN, Yahoo! and Ask Jeeves. Search tests were conducted on five criteria: an obscure fact; multiple meanings of "raleigh"; speed; and current time in Sydney. Yahoo! is the fastest of the lot. Google has the cleanest interface. MSN Search fared worst of all. Jeeves is the apparent winner for features like related search. (Author claims to be a Google nut.)" This may be the nicest thing anyone's ever said about Jeeves.

7 of 187 comments (clear)

  1. I smell a conspiracy... by vudufixit · · Score: 3, Funny

    I find it highly suspicious that Incredifind and Lycos Sidesearch were left out. I mean, c'mon, search "helpers" that install themselves automatically and lead me to fascinating products I never knew I needed deserve some mention, right???

  2. One, Two, Fou..., Thr..., ...Damn! by gregux · · Score: 4, Funny
    Search tests were conducted on five criteria:
    1. an obscure fact
    2. multiple meanings of "raleigh"
    3. speed
    4. current time in Sydney.

    If somebody involved with this story can't count to five, how seriously should we consider it?

    Sponsored by SILA -- Search for Intelligent Life in America
    --
    The three most important words in a relationship are "I love you." The two most important are "Humor me."
    1. Re:One, Two, Fou..., Thr..., ...Damn! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition! Our chief weapon is surprise... surprise and fear... fear and surprise... our two chief weapons are fear and surprise... and ruthless efficiency... our three weapons are fear, surprise and ruthless efficiency... and an almost fanatical devotion to the Pope... our four... no... amongst our weapons... amongst our weaponry... are such elements as fear, surprise... I'll come in again.

  3. Re:How long until relevance engines are commoditie by paretooptimum · · Score: 3, Funny

    I think Google is already in trouble.

    I didn't need a team of British reporters and weeks of research, I just typed "Who has the fastest search engine" into the search engines. Duh! And the results are...

    Google says "AlltheWeb"
    Yahoo says "Ixquick"
    MSN says "Ixquick"
    Jeeves says "AlltheWeb"

    To break the tie I asked the winners:

    Ixquick said "AlltheWeb"
    AlltheWeb said "Ixquick"

    So there you have it: A tie.

  4. Re:Since when.. by October_30th · · Score: 2, Funny
    Christmas Island to nuclear talks with North Korea.

    Well, the Christmas Islands could always have the mighty goatse-guy as their envoy...

    "You will either accept our terms or I will show..." ;)

    --
    The owls are not what they seem
  5. Not surprised the Beeb chose Jeeves & Wooster by michaeldot · · Score: 3, Funny

    Those snobby brits... Any tenuous connection to their fading culture and they're all over it!

    On a completely relevant note, I have a whole playlist of P G Wodehouse audiobooks on my iPod.

    Inspired, I'm going to start my own search engine called AskWooster. It will search for send its agents, called Gussie Finknottle, Tuppy Glossup and Bingo Little, out to seek for interesting stuff and return 3 cats, a fish and a size 14 top hat.

    Whoosh...! The sound of all this going completely over the heads of the /. crowd.

  6. Self condemnation by leonbrooks · · Score: 3, Funny

    Want to find an evil corporation?

    How about a monopolist?

    Or, for something a little different, the greatest threat to innovation in our world?

    All straight from the horse's mouth. (-:

    --
    Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing