GiveYourself a Little More Reach

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It's common knowledge among search engine optimization (SEO) experts and do-it-yourselfers that job one is to get listed in major search vehicles, such as Yahoo, Google, Inktomi, dmoz, and LookSmart. But other, lesser-known search engines are growing and can give you additional reach.

One of these, AlltheWeb.com, recently relaunched with significant changes, making it more usable and relevant. AlltheWeb is part of Fast Search & Transfer (FAST), a search services software company founded in 1997 by scientists from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. FAST provides search capabilities in three environments: Internet (AlltheWeb.com), enterprise (Site Search, Intranet Search, and PartnerSite), and mobile (Mobile Search).

I'd like to highlight some of the features and benefits of AlltheWeb and touch briefly on the benefits of enterprise and mobile search. I'm not affiliated with FAST, nor did the company approach me to do a story. I simply feel that this information would be of value to those who are not yet aware of it.

What's Unique About AlltheWeb?

In the Internet environment, AlltheWeb indexes over 625 million full-text pages and crawls over 1.6 billion URLs. It also indexes 70 million multimedia files, 2 million MP3 files, and 150 million FTP listings. It receives approximately 8 million queries per day. Below are a few key differentiators that distinguish it from competitors:

• Web page and multimedia results in one search. Instead of having to conduct multiple searches to find Web pages, images, video, MP3s, and FTP files, one search turns up multiple results on the same page. Try "Aerosmith," for example, and you'll get Web-page results along with a sidebar (on the right) listing images and videos. Click "MP3" at the bottom, and those results appear.

• Automatic search tips. AlltheWeb is the first to leverage a set of artificial-intelligence algorithms to analyze user behavior in real time, providing tips to help users modify and narrow their searches (tips appear in a sidebar on the right).

• Language capabilities. Visitors can search in 46 languages, more than any other search engine.

• Fresh search index. AlltheWeb is fully refreshed every 9 to 12 days, about five times as often as other search engines.

This search tool seems to be a step forward for helping users find what they want quickly and easily. AlltheWeb is a search engine that will be used more and more by business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) users, so here's how to get your site listed.

Submission Information

The submission process is easy. Go to the submit page and fill in the URL and your email address. You only need to submit one page from each site/host. Submitting multiple pages per site will neither reduce indexing time nor increase ranking.

The time it takes to be indexed varies, depending on factors such as the number of pages in the site and whether the site has already been visited recently. Normally, sites are indexed within a couple of weeks. There is no guarantee that pages will be indexed when submitted, but resubmitting on a regular basis will not affect indexing time.

A complete Webmaster FAQ is available.

Enterprise and Mobile Services

FAST also offers search services of interest to B2B andB2C marketers. Its enterprise and mobile search tools are described below.

• FAST Site Search is based on the same core technology as AlltheWeb. Site Search allows Web visitors to easily find the information they seek. It can be used to good advantage by portals, vortals, application service providers (ASPs), corporate Web sites, online publishers, and consultancy firms. The frequency of indexing can be set by the site administrator to allow for the most up-to-date and relevant catalog of information. Documents added within the last few minutes, hours, days, or weeks can be available to customers immediately. Through Site Search hosting, FAST can maintain a company's site index, greatly reducing infrastructure costs.

• FAST Intranet Search is based on the same core technology that powers AlltheWeb. Intranet Search allows companies to provide employees with easy access to critical corporate data. Intranet Search supports over 250 document formats and 46 languages. The interface works like a search engine, requiring little or no user training. It allows for 10 queries per second, the fastest available, according to FAST.

• FAST PartnerSite is a new service. The idea is that you be found by the right visitors and that you let them find what they want on your site or the Web. This is the first service to combine guaranteed Web search inclusion with hosted site search services, using a pricing structure that is attainable for small business as well as large corporations. PartnerSite is now in beta testing. Its members are fully integrated into the FAST Web Search index, enabling sites to gain visibility through its network of portal partners and search destinations, including Terra Lycos, LookSmart, and AlltheWeb. PartnerSite members are also re-indexed daily to ensure the most up-to-date Web search results.

• FAST Mobile indexes over 20 million wireless application protocol (WAP), i-mode, Handheld Device Markup Language (HDML), and personal digital assistant (PDA) documents for access over wireless devices. FAST claims it to be the largest mobile index available today.

So there you have it. AlltheWeb is an excellent database to get indexed in, it's free, and it claims to maintain the freshest index on the Web. Its revenue streams appear to come from the FAST enterprise and mobile environments, not from Internet paid-placement or paid-inclusion business models.