Defined:
MetaSearch Engines cheat the system a bit. Instead of having their own database of web addresses to search like regular search engines, MetaSearch Engines search the databases of other Search Engines (up to 10 others) and bring the results in and format them so they're alike.
Advantages:
- Allows you to look in multiple Search Tools at the same time
- Looks in Search Tools you may not even know about
- Teaches you new Search Tools
Disadvantages:
- If the topic is too broad, you will get too much information
- Generally will only bring back a limited amount of results from each engine
- As different Search Tools handle Boolean operators differently, some engines may be excluded only for this reason
Examples:
MetaCrawler (www.metacrawler.com)
DogPile (www.dogpile.com)
Inference Find (www.infind.com/)
SavvySearch (www.savvysearch.com/)