All rights reserved. The Infoseek search engine is clearly superior to all others on the basis of several test measures. The ease of use and simplicity of the Infoseek user interface also make it the strongest candidate for recommendation as the default search engine especially on public access workstations with Net access in college settings. The power of the artificial intelligence behind the engine makes using almost natural language queries possible. The search form is eminently configurable and supports very advanced search features.
Online help is detailed and easy to follow and supports searching from the help pages.
A very nice feature. Also a surprisingly strong contender is the relative newcomer to the search engine scene, HotBot from Inktomi. The relatively complex search interface, however, would require considerable end-user training and support in public access situations. The simplicity and flexibility of their interfaces would also make them useful in public access areas. AltaVista has the unique feature that it allows users to key in terms for sorting search output.