Many of the big search engines have complex trading relationships. They may share data, the answers to common queries, or the results of a specific search on behalf of a Web browser. Understanding these relationships can save wasted hours of research on different search engines which mysteriously provide the same final answers!

The picture is constantly changing, but here is a snapshot of the position in mid 2002. The information is gathered and consolidated from a number of sources which we believe to be reliable, however if you need confirmation of details please contact the company concerned.

Search Engines	Relationship
AltaVista	Uses LookSmart and the Open Directory Project. They are also taking their "Sponsor Listings" from Overture. Referral link at Google.
AOL Netfind	Uses Inktomi for US & Canada and Uses Lycos for Europe & ODP
Ask Jeeves	Own index, search results are then manipulated by Direct Hit with meta data from Alta, Excite, WebCrawler, and Overture.com (now owns AskJeeves)
Direct Hit	Own database with supplemental results from ODP, and AskJeeves. Influences searches on HotBot, AskJeeves, iWon, ZDNET, and MSN. Some "popular" results at Lycos.
Excite	Uses listing from Looksmart directory. Main results at Webcrawler. Referral link at Google.
Fast (alltheweb.com)	Feeds Lycos. Main results at AllTheWeb, some main results at Lycos.
Go2Net	Formerly called Metacrawler uses a variety of search engines including (AltaVista, DirectHit, Excite, Google, Overture, Infoseek, Lycos, Looksmart, WebCrawler, and the only Meta search to use Thunderstone.
Google	Used by Netscape Netcenter, gets from ODP, and feeds non-directory results for Yahoo.
HotBot	Uses ODP Primary results from Inktomi, ODP Directory, with results manipulated by Direct Hit
InfoSeek	Uses own directory. Data is used by Search.com and GO.com.
Iwon	Uses data from Inktomi and Looksmart, manipulated by Direct Hit.
Inktomi	Own data used by Hotbot, iWon, AOL search, Snap, GOO.jp, Looksmart, MSN Search and Overture. Also has many private customers.
Magellan	Uses WebCrawler
Netscape Search	Uses, Google, ODP, About.com
Northern Lights	Own data.
Webcrawler	Part of Excite
Search.com	Gets data from Infoseek
Directory Search Engines
Yahoo	Uses Google for non-directory matches Referral link at Google.
Open Directory Project	Feeds Netscape Search, AltaVista, Hotbot, Lycos, Direct Hit, and many smaller sites.
LookSmart	Gets Search results from Inktomi and serves AltaVista directory, Excite, Iwon, and Search.msn.
NBCi (Snap)	NBCi, formerly known as Snap, uses search results from Inktomi and Overture.com (GoTo.com)
Lycos	Uses ODP Directory and Fast (AllTheWeb) search results. Some "popular" results from Direct Hit.
Search MSN	Directory results from LookSmart. Search results from Inktomi and Direct Hit.
Pay Per Click Search Engines
FindWhat	FindWhat.com entries appear in Excite.com and WebCrawler.com results.
Overture.com (GoTo.com)	Gets from Inktomi for non-paid results.