Sometimes web page results would appear with full summaries, then other times only titles would appear. Directory listings, news headlines or information from other data sources would pop up almost whimsically. But far from whimsical, Excite was purposely varying its results format depending on the context of the search in an attempt to better serve users. Being predictable is now the watchword. Some users really liked the different results, but it did have the untended expect of unsettling users.
Simplicity is also a key aim.
Other information, such as human-compiled directory listings, news articles and multimedia results will only appear if you specifically request them using links at the top of the results page. Doing so will rerun your queries against those search offerings, described further below. The only exception to this is if you search for something popular or which falls into a category where Excite editors have produced some programmed results. It has links to related information within the Excite portal. Excite also says it has upgraded its use of link analysis to improve the quality of its results.