Data from search engine analysis run on April 25, 2000.

Fast continues in first
AltaVista makes significant gains
Only top six compared.

For 28 specific, single word queries, Fast, (at either AlltheWeb.com or Lycos advanced search) still found the most hits, followed very closely by AltaVista with its new, recently enlarged database. Northern Light places in third. On individual searches, Fast ranked first on 16 of the searches, yet on some searches other search engines found more (with one tie for first):

	Fast		Found most 16 out of 28 searches
	AltaVista		Found most 10 out of 28 searches
	Northern Light		Found most 1 out of 28 searches
	Google		Found most 1 out of 28 searches
	Excite		Found most 1 out of 28 searches

This comparison is based on the reported number of hits from each database, verified by visiting the last page of results when possible. This is not a measure based on precision, recall, or relevance but only on the raw database size. As such, it provides an important measure of database coverage. For earlier comparisons see below:

More details on the study's methodology provide an example of the comparison process used here.

	Older Reports with Largest Three at that Time
	Feb. 2000:	Fast, Northern Light, AltaVista
	Jan. 2000 (supplement):	Fast, Northern Light, AltaVista
	Nov. 1999:	Northern Light, Fast, AltaVista
	Sept. 1999:	Fast, Northern Light, AltaVista
	Aug. 1999:	Fast, Northern Light, AltaVista
	May 1999:	Northern Light, AltaVista, Anzwers
	March 1999:	Northern Light, AltaVista, HotBot
	January 1999:	Northern Light, AltaVista, HotBot
	August 1998:	AltaVista, Northern Light, HotBot
	May 1998:	AltaVista, HotBot, Northern Light
	February 1998:	HotBot, AltaVista, Northern Light
	October 1997:	AltaVista, HotBot, Northern Light
	September 1997:	Northern Light, Excite, HotBot
	June 1997:	HotBot, AltaVista, Infoseek
	October 1996:	HotBot, Excite, AltaVista

While decisions about which Web search engine to use should not be based on size alone, this information is especially important when looking for very specific keywords, phrases, and areas of specialized interest. See also the following statistical analyses:

• Total Size Estimate
• Overlap between the search engines
• Unique Hits hits from each
• Dead Links comparison
• Change Over Time