The Straight Story on Search Engines

Let's say you're interested in digital cameras. So you search for exactly that--"digital cameras"--on MSN. But when the results come back, you find yourself saying, "What is all this stuff?" One set of matches at the top of the page is called Featured Sites. Below that is a set of links labeled Sponsored Sites. Below those is still another group called Web Directory Sites.

So what's going on? Many of these results are links that advertisers have paid MSN to put in front of you, and many others are links to sites that haven't paid a dime but that provide good information on digital cameras. Which ones are which? Even if you study MSN's explanatory boxes closely, you can't know for sure.

Featured Sites, according to MSN, are a mix of Web pages from three sources: advertisers who have paid to be there; other sites that, like MSN, are owned by Microsoft; and sites that are just plain useful. MSN doesn't identify which links come from which category. Sponsored Sites consist entirely of spots paid for by advertisers. Once you get to Web Directory Sites you might think, "Finally--I'm past the ads and down to the links that will help me." Not so fast. The first link, labeled "10 Most Popular Sites for Digital Cameras," leads you to a page from Ask Jeeves. The first ten spots on that results page are also bought and paid for. Talk about an overwhelming response--and a lot of confusion.

The fact that search engines have put parts of their results pages up for sale can shake your trust in these gateways to the Internet. But it starts to get even more troubling when you examine the listings themselves. We believe that some sites alter the "real results." (Note: In this story, we use the term real results to refer to search engines' main body of listings that--in theory--advertisers don't pay for in any way.) Plus, some observers are concerned that small sites and nonprofit groups might get bumped off the listings altogether because they can't afford to pay to be included.

We went behind the scenes to find out how search sites operate. We put the engines through their paces and found that while some sites clearly label paid links, others, like MSN, do a poor job. We also suspect that some sites adjust the results to improve their corporate bottom line--the sites deny this, however. And even though it's becoming more common for companies to pay search engines a fee in return for cataloging their Web pages, small sites and nonprofit groups aren't going to be left in the dust anytime soon. But the practice could pose a future threat.

Despite our misgivings, the situation is not completely hopeless. There's always Google. Not only does Google deliver exceptionally relevant matches, but it's also the best of the bunch at identifying ads. In fact, we like Google so much, we gave it two awards this year. Turn to "PC World's 20th World Class Awards" to read Google's accolades.

In this article, we've got the best advice on how to decipher the search results at major sites. We also offer some handy search tricks (see "Super Search Tips"). On top of that, we've discovered some useful sites you may not have stumbled on before (see "Sites for Special Searches").