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The Mamma search engine
Mamma
- a look at this search engine
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Mamma is a metasearch engine, which queries many engines for your search term and then collates the results. They claim to return fewer results but with a higher degree of relevance than any individual search engine, and they further claim their ranking system eliminates spam from the results. Though their 'About' page suggests that they utilize Google as one of their results sources (there is an image of a Google page in the diagram) in fact they only use Ask, Gigablast, Wisenut and Entireweb, plus the ODP, Business.com and About.com directories, and the Findwhat and Kanoodle PPC engines. This immediately limits the effectiveness and range of their results listings. Its interface is in the fashionable Google-like stripped down style, and they offer news, picture, and yellow and white pages searches too. Have a look at their Search tips page (available from the About these results link on any search results page) which is an excellent introduction to successful web searching.
1. Commercial product - digital cameras Sponsored results appear at the top of the results listings, and are geo-targeted. A set of suggested related terms appears at the right. The Engines from which the 'pure' results are taken are always listed. The results for this search were good, with a mix of commerical stores and information and review sites, though there were hints that some of the sites included had not been spidered for months. This is something Mamma could improve in its ranking.
2. Commercial product actual model - a product brand + model name We used the term Canon Powershot G7.
While most of the results were worthwhile news and reviews
sites, there was an obvious spam site at number five, with the
description - "winner.com.ru - Shaw Industries Dalton Ga
- deliquium employment crown There was another spam site at listing 14 - "Canon powershot g7 canon powershot g7 canon powershot g7 altar all together in determination can be these interconnections are extinguishes her proper account and because I am hereby enabled or counters, out ...". So much for the elimination of spam, Mamma.
3. Commercial purchase - buy CDs While there was a site in the Danish language in the sponsored results (have to work on your targetting there) the pure results were very accurate and useful.
4. Entertainment - Naomi Campbell The results for this search were fairly good, but bizarrely included sites and descriptions in German and Polish. As there is no language selection preferences, users are stuck with this sort of anomaly.
5. Entertainment - games cheats Results here were accurate, with most of the top games cheats sites featured on the first page. Even the sponsored results were relevant.
6. Precise requirement - Berkeley sociology Since all the engines they use for their results came up with the correct site at the top of their listings, it was no surprise that Mamma did too.
7. Precise requirement - Dublin Ireland hotel Both the sponsored and pure results were very useful and accurate.
8. Precise / Travel - New York London airfare While the selection of their results from the Gigablast engine had no relevance to the search, the rest were good and useful.
9. Research - asthma information Again one of the results pages was from a German site, but apart from that the search was successful and produced a good range of web resources about asthma.
10. Research - Iraq maps Again a blatant spam site which redirected to an insurance affiliate page appeared in the results; apart from that, good listings.
11. Searching - Dogpile.com How would Mamma.com cope with a search for the domain of its main metasearch rival? Pretty well, giving the correct site at the top of the listings and suggesting a range of other related search terms.
12. Searching - Ask Jeeves All the top Ask.com pages were listed here.
Summary: Mamma.com is a solid and well implemented metasearch resource, giving good results over a wide range of subjects. The glitches within the results pages (the presence of obvious spamming sites and the strange inclusion of sites in various languages for a search which was clearly in English) may be an acceptable price to pay for the convenience of meta searching, or not, depending on how your own searches go.
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