Data from search engine analysis run on Aug. 4-5, 1999

New Fast Search moves into First Place
HotBot's back, but smaller.
Google's up to fourth
See Total Size Estimate page for actual database size estimates.

This chart compares the size of the databases of the Web search engines. For this comparison, I used 25 single keyword and phrase searches that should have been processed identically by each search engine. Since Infoseek and Northern Light automatically recognize word variants and plurals, those terms that could be pluralized were OR'ed together in search engines that do not support automatic plural searching. This and other inconsistencies between the search engines may skew the results slightly.

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:

	Older Charts with Largest Three at that Time
	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