LookSmart is one of the larger and better-known directories. It is used by AltaVista, AltaVista Australia, Anzwers, MSN Search, and Go2Net. Use the table of contents on the left to navigate this review.
Databases: LookSmart, LookSmart Live, Direct Hit, AltaVista, RealNames.
In addition to the LookSmart database which is available here and at the LookSmart partners, Direct Hit results are also available via a "Top 10 Most Visited" link.
If no hits are found in LookSmart, results from AltaVista are shown, and these may include RealNames results as well. LookSmart Live is a service more than a database that offers personalized email responses to questions. For the list of partners who use the LookSmart database, see the LookSmart Alliances page. It is not a complete list. Some prominent search services that use the LookSmart directory include AltaVista, Anzwers, MSN Search, Netscape, Excite, and Go2Net.
Strengths:
* One of the larger directory databases
* LookSmart Live's personal answers
Weaknesses:
* No advanced search features
* Seems to have gaps in some areas
Default Operation: Multiple search terms are processed as an AND operation by default.
Boolean Searching: LookSmart automatically combines all terms with a Boolean AND. It does not support use of the + or - symbols, any Boolean operators, or nesting.
Proximity Searching: No phrase or proximity searching is available.
Truncation: LookSmart search terms are automatically searched as a stemmed search. In other words, the results should include all forms of the term including plural, singular, and tense.
Case Sensitivity: LookSmart has no case sensitive searching. Using either lower or upper case results in the same hits.
Field Searching: No field searching is currently supported.
Stop Words: Common words are ignored.
Sorting: The sites appear to be sorted randomly, but they may be ordered by relevance. If a LookSmart search fails to find any hits in LookSmart, the search is automatically passed on to AltaVista. While this can be handy, it is rarely as effective as a well structured search run directly on AltaVista.
Display: LookSmart first displays categories which contain matches. Then sites are displayed with their title hyperlinked to the URL, a two line description, and a linked connection to the category in which the site is listed. After the sites, results from AltaVista are displayed.
Selection Criteria: Entries are all selected by the editorial team of almost 200 editors.
Size of LookSmart : LookSmart has over 2,300,000 unique URLs according to the company with 250,000 categories and 200 editors, as of Oct. 2000.
Ratings: LookSmart does not include ratings.