Many sites provide unique customization options, but only a few provide truly useful returns.
Our script included general queries for evaluating how well each site handles various syntaxes and how well customizations work, and daily topical queries for evaluating the site's utility as a news source. The general queries included both single and multiple terms and used proper nouns, punctuation, and numerals. Terms were first entered as simple searches, then modified using each site's customizations. We examined the first ten returns of each search for the number of relevant hits, dead links, and duplicates. For the daily queries, we abstracted three searches from that day's top news and tested them both as simple searches and, if available, using news-specific databases or options.