See Google News Stories

Related Showdown Articles on Google:
* Google Database Components 3/02
* Google's Unindexed URLs 3/02
* Boolean Searching on Google 11/00
* Excite vs. Google: Contradictory Directions 6/00
* The Half Billion Crew: Google, Inktomi GEN3, & WebTop 6/00

Since that time it has made its mark with its relevance ranking based on link analysis, cached pages, and aggressive growth. Since its beta release, it has had phrase searching and the - for NOT, but it did not add an OR operation until Oct. 2000. In Dec. 2000, it added title searching. In June 2000 it announced a database of over 560 million pages, which grew to over 600 million by the end of 2000 and then 1.5 billion in Dec. 2001. The 2+ billion reported on their home page as of April 2002 includes indexed pages, unindexed URLs, and other file formats. By Nov. 2002, they moved their claim up to 3 billion, and in Feb. 2004 it went to 4 billion. Use the table of contents on the left to navigate this review.

Databases:

Web: Indexed Web pages (also includes URLs that it has not fully indexed) and additional file types in the Web database include PDF, .ps, .doc, .xls, .txt, .ppt, .rtf, .asp, .wpd, and more. See Google Database Components for more details.
Ads: Paid advertisements usually shown on the right side (or top) under a "Sponsored Links" heading
Images: Picture database
Groups: Usenet news database
News: Past 30 days of Web-based news sites
Directory: A version of the Open Directory with entries ranked in Google's PageRank order
Froogle: Shopping and product search (still in beta as of March 2004)
Catalog Search: Scanned were all still in beta as of Aug. 2003.
Google also has a PageRank version of the Open Directory, and above their regular results, hits from their own news headlines database, stock quotes, calculator/conversions, and a phone number database may display. In addition it offers several specialized subsets: a government database of the .gov and .mil sites; University searches; a Linux search; an Apple/Macintosh search; and a Microsoft search.

The Google database is used by AOL, iWon, at Netscape's Search site. Yahoo! dropped Google in Feb. 2004 after switching from Inktomi to Google in July 2000 and then reaffirming and more closely integrating Google results in Oct. 2002. BBCi used Google from May 2002 until March 2003 when they switched to Inktomi.

Strengths:
* Size and scope: It is now the largest, and includes PDF, DOC, PS, and many other file types
* Relevance based on sites' linkages and authority
* Cached archive of Web pages as the looked were indexed
* Additional databases: Google Groups, News, Directory, etc.

Weaknesses: See also the Google Inconsistencies Page
* Limited search features: no nesting, no truncation, does not support full Boolean
* Link searches must be exact and are incomplete
* Only indexes first 101 KB of a Web page and about 120 KB of PDFs
* May search for plural/singular, synonyms, and grammatical variants without telling you

Databases: On a search, a few categories from the directory and Inside Yahoo! content is shown followed by sponsored links (ads), and then the bulk of results labeled as Web Results come from Yahoo!'s own search engine database, introduced in Feb. 2004. It appears to be primarily (but not entirely) based on an Inktomi database.

Web Pages (from an Inktomi-derived database)
Sponsored Links (Ads from Overture)
Yahoo! directory
Images
Yellow Pages
Products
News
Other databases provide much of the information from the portal side of Yahoo!
Strengths:
* A very large, new (as of Feb. 2004) search engine database
* Includes cached copies of pages
* Also includes links to the Yahoo! directory
* Supports full Boolean searching

Weaknesses:
* Lack of some advanced search features such as truncation
* Only indexes first 500 KB of a Web page (still more than Google's 101KB)
* Link searches require the inclusion of the http://
* Includes some pay for inclusion sites