After Infoseek.com metamorphosed into an impotent search engine, I had to find a specific site finding engine to help me not only at home but at work. I tried many of the other search engines, but one seemed to be better for me than the others—Dogpile.com.
A friend of mine recommended it to me after Infoseek changed (now the orange color) and became less effective in producing correct hits from my search conditions. I liked being about the search within a condition, and that ability made it a powerful search tool.
Features
Dogpile.com does not quite do what Infoseek did; however, it does search out more than one search engine at a time and returns the values of your search. One can pick from a drop down menu to narrow the areas of where Dogpile searches such as: The Web, Images, Sounds and MP3s, Auctions, News, FTP, Discussions, Small Businesses, and Streamlining Media.
There is a link to click on Local Search, and you can specify the city and state and return local news, weather reports, and local businesses. Unfortunately, at this time it is only available for the United States.
There is a great Map function for the US, Canada, and parts of Europe that allows one to type in their starting address and destination address and the driving directions. Step by step instructions along with have many miles each step (point 1 to point 2) will take. I do not like Dogpile’s version of this feature. The map is broken into several pieces instead of one with a line showing you the way. I think it is confusing to use, but the written instructions is clear if you have your own larger map.
One can listen to the radio through Dogpile, pay bills online, go online shopping, find discount air fares, and even read the Joke of the Day. There are many opportunities that await a person with the time to go through all the different areas and use them as needed.
I mainly use this search engine for its ability to scan several search engines at one time. The search engines used are:
LookSmart
GoTo.com
FindWhat.com
Dogpile’s Top Barks
Direct Hit
Dogpile Web Catalog
Sprinks By About
Real Names
Lycos
Google
Yahoo
Alta Vista
Bay 9
Should you find links that seem to be what you a looking for in a particular search engine, you can continue to go through the links with that particular engine. This is a great tool when needing to weed out the hundreds of thousands of sites that are out there today when looking for that one specific site.
I recommend starting with this search engine at this time since it can return many close values of the search condition and you can further your search from there.