NBCiSearch -- It's Paid Links, A Directory And A Search Engine All In ONE.
Written: Jun 11 '01
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The Bottom Line
This engine is a mixture of directory, paid links and engine, but it helps you find what you're looking for...so it passes the test.
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| Full Review |
From my title you can see that there's a lot underneath the hood at nbci.com.
NBCi Power Search is more of a directory than a search engine. This isn't necessarily a bad thing. Directories and engines have much in common, but have some differences as well. Both kinds of sites exist to structure the chaos of information available on the web into some kind of coherent, browseable form. However, the key thing the user must do when using these sites is to understand when to use each site to find what they're targeting.
As I said, NBCi is a directory. NBCi took a page from the folks at Yahoo and put together a site that organizes the WWW quite neatly. They've hired a team of editors to look at sites and categorize them in hierarchical fashion. This is great for general terms like Air Travel. Air Travel is a subset of travel. All Air Travel websites (Travelocity, priceline.com, travelscape.com, etc.) A nice navigational touch within each category is the A-Z alphabetical bar that is posted on each page of their directory. If you need to find specific topics or sites within a category or subcategory, you can use this to drill down faster. However, directories fail when the information the user is searching for has not been covered by the editors behind the site. If the query information isn't in the hierarchical database built by the editors, the user can get a bad taste in their mouth. This is why search engines and directories exist side-by-side. At Yahoo, if the result is not found in the content produced in house, they roll to google to find the information for the user.
It's the same at NBCi. If you put in a term that is fairly specific, you'll see results from several sources in the returns.
Let's take a specific example. I'm looking to find the lifetime stats for Dave Kingman, a prolific homerun hitter for the A's, Orioles, Cubs and Mets. Type 'Dave Kingman' into the search box at nbci.com.
The page that comes back is separated into three parts. The first is a sponsored link section, administered by goto.com. For information about how pay per click engines like goto.com work, please check my review on that site... For the purposes of this review, lets just evaluate the content that comes back. Goto only comes back with commerce links -- where to buy Kingman memrobilia...not what we're looking for in this case.
The second part of the page is the NBCi power directory results. Surprisingly, the folks at NBCi get it right on this count -- a site was submitted and reviewed by their editors that match our query. The official Dave Kingman site at http://www.davekingman.com/ is
Dedicated to the home run slugger of the 1970s and 1980s. Get a year-by-year breakdown of his career, a collectibles checklist, a look at his pre-majors career and life after the Big Leagues plus more. Lots of good information here!
The last part of the page is served by a real search engine -- Inktomi. The search results here provide deeper information on the slugger and would be where I would start my search. Interestingly, the fan site that has been declared the Official site for Kingman is the number one search return as well.
Overall, we asked a question and were directed to a site on the web that answered it. That makes NBCi a good engine for me, even though it's a directory at heart.
Recommended:
Yes
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About the Author
Member: Brian H
Location: Northeast
Reviews written: 297
Trusted by: 108 members
About Me: I'm an Internet GEEK.
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