It was the equivalent of a bare-knuckle fight – a recent search engine comparison test made the contestants operate without the aid of Boolean commands, quotation marks, and other such common, semi-advanced search strategies. Unsurprisingly, Google won the overall contest, but the search engine giant did suffer some losses.
In a “Text-Search Blanket Finish” chart, for example, PC World found that AlltheWeb actually came in first, and second place went to AltaVista. King Google only managed to capture third (although in terms of points, Google fell just slightly behind the other two). The interestingly named “Dial Into The Local Scene” test also didn’t finish in Google’s favor; it placed second, after Live Search for Mobile.
Still, things could have gone worse for the Mountain View-based company – PC World included all of its major competitors (Yahoo, Ask, and Microsoft Live) in the comparison, as well as some lesser-known (or less popular, as the case may be) rivals (AlltheWeb, AltaVista, Blogdigger, Picsearch, and Tubesurf).
But the final verdict certainly favored Google: “If you use Google and are happy with it, you have no reason to switch engines,” wrote Jeff Bertolucci.
The testing itself appeared to be aboveboard, and, in fact, very well designed. It “avoided some of the incorrect assumptions and conclusions that others have fallen into, and generally offers a pretty good snapshot of the state of search today,” wrote Search Engine Land’s Chris Sherman.
As for the restrictions placed upon Boolean commands and other “tricks,” PC World pointed out that search engines are, for the sake of their least savvy users, trying to make those unnecessary.
So, somewhat bruised and bloody, Google still wins. Long live the king.
