Strengths

• one of the largest search engine on the web (claims 150 million web pages)
• covers 47% of the Web
• wide range of searching capabilities
• title, date, URL, link-to, language searching
• truncation
• case sensitivity
• supports Ask Jeeves for natural language queries
• directory listings from LookSmart
• image directory
• supports Full and Boolean searching

• Interface is not as intuitive as HotBot
• Misses some matching records
• NOT requires "AND NOT"

Northern Light
http://www.nlsearch.com/

• Claims 125 million web pages indexed
• covers 39% of the Web
• supports Full and Boolean searching
• the ability to cluster documents by topic into "Custom Folders"
• title, date, URL, link-to, language searching
• truncation
• has a "special collection" from thousands of sources, including newswires, magazines and databases.

• Not case-sensitive

HotBot (Inktomi)
http://www.hotbot.com/

• 110 million web pages indexed
• covers 34% of the Web
• very easy-to-use search interface
• supports Full and Boolean searching
• directory listings from LookSmart
• title, date, URL, link-to, language searching
• truncation
• case sensitivity
• supports Ask Jeeves for natural language queries
• integrated "popularity" retrieval by Directhit.com

• Records occasionally disappear

When?