by Muhammad Ridzuan Mohd Noor Zaidi





























This is an update to get you to know another search engine that exists in internet. You might get attracted to use Lycos in finding information after knowing some facts regarding this search engine. Lycos is one of the oldest search engines. Lycos was originally developed at Carnegie Mellon University to calculate the size of the web using a "spider" robot program that walked around the Internet from site to site through page links.

The name Lycos comes from Lycosidae, the scientific name for the "wolf spider". Wolf spiders are excellent hunters that catch their prey by running after it instead of catching it in a web. They are named "wolf" spiders because people once mistakenly thought that they hunted in packs.

Lycos offers a Web search engine, a subject directories, and several other services. In April 1999, it made its main directory a version of the Open Directory. In terms of general searching, Lycos made significant changes during the summer of 1997, tossing out their old search system for a new one. Then in January 2000, their advanced search switched again, this time to the FAST database. With the demise of the FAST (AlltheWeb) database in March 2004, Lycos switched to Yahoo!'s Inktomi database.

Databases:

• Ads (Sponsored Links): Overture and Lycos' own AdBuyer
• Web Results: Lycos Network Content, 10 LookSmart Ads, then FAST (AlltheWeb) database
• News: Lycos and FAST News databases
• Directory: Open Directory (but only accessible from link, not in regular search results)
• Images: Available under "Multimedia." This is a FAST database.
• Audio & Video: Available under "Multimedia." This is a FAST database.

Lycos has several databases from which it delivers search results. The Web Results section can be confusing. For common queries, the first listing under "Web Results" is a collection of links from inside the Lycos Network and specific advertisers. Then, for about 50,000 keywords, there are ten listings from LookSmart. These are called "commercial listings" and are basically ads. Then come the results from the FAST Web search database.

References:

http://www.livinginternet.com/w/wu_sites_lycos.htm

http://www.searchengineshowdown.com/features/lycos/review.html