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Meta search engines are search engines that do not have their own search database, instead they pull their primary search results from two or more sources. Examples of meta search engines would be Ask Jeeves, Hotbot and Mama.com.

What Makes a Meta Search Engine Different?
The main distinction between a meta search engine and a "regular" search engine is that meta search engines do not have their own search databases. They also do not review websites nor do they index websites. Instead, a meta search engine will perform a query on many different search engines simultaneously and produce results based on their criteria. The results pulled from the difference search engines used are merged together and presented as one unified set of results.

Do Meta Search Engines have an advantage over Regular Search Engines?
There is not a universal answer due to user preference dictate which search engine is the best for that application. If you perform your search in Google, for example, you will only receive results of websites in Google's database. Conversely, meta search engines return results from multiple databases and the results often produce more varied results.

The success of your Meta search query will depend on several factors. The status of each individual search engine will affect your query. Busy servers, timeouts and slow responses can all contribute to poor results on your search. Also, you cannot refine a search on a meta search engines since they do not handle complex search queries intelligently. They do not recognize search terms such as "and", "or", and "not".

How to List Your Website on Meta Search Engines
To get your website listed in a meta search engines your website needs to have been indexed by the other search engines it pulls its results from. A good ranking in one search engine can thus do double duty by getting you good ranking on meta search engines too.

Below are links to some popular meta search engines, and their main source(s) of their primary results:

Ask Jeeves (Teoma)
HotBot (Inktomi, Lycos, Teoma, Google, AltaVista)
DogPile (Google, Yahoo!, AltaVista, Ask Jeeves, About, FAST, FindWhat, LookSmart)
MetaCrawler (Google, Yahoo!, AltaVista, Ask Jeeves, About, FAST, FindWhat, LookSmart)
Mamma (AltaVista, FAST, Lycos)
IXQuick (MSN, Teoma, Go, Netscape, LookSmart, Overture, Open Directory, Kanoodle, FindWhat, Wisenut, Gigablast)

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Jerry West is the Director of Internet Marketing for Web Marketing Now. He has been consulting on the web since 1996 and has assisted hundreds of companies gain an upper-hand over their competition. Visit Web Marketing Now for the latest in marketing tips that are tested and proven.

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