I know all of you are busy using (and enjoying) Google's SE as your favourite one, but you would "think again" after reading this post...

The Meta-Search Technology
Profusion.com is one of the free meta-search engines available on the internet. Basically, here's what it does - "Profusion.com searches multiple Search Engines (like Google, Yahoo, MSN etc.) simultaneously for the search query you enter. Then it compares all results from the various Search Engines and then sorts the results according to thier matches in MOST search engines."

For Example -
When you search for "games" on Profusion.com, IT searches for "games" on Yahoo!, Google, MSN (and many others) at the same time. Then it compares the results. The result that has matches on MOST search engines come up. i.e. If "Microsoft Games" was the first result on MSN,Yahoo and Google BUT "XYZ Games" was the first result in Yahoo! and MSN ONLY, and NOT on Google, then it drops DOWN the list.

Hence, you get the 'genuine' results at the top and not those who PAID MSN or Yahoo or any other SE to show up their result first!

I sincerely urge you to try this great Meta-SE out, and you'll be impressed (at the speed)!!!
Really, its !!!

-Omkar Ekbote

Nice theory, but as long as google's results stay relevant I won't be switching off. Upon looking at profusion I can say even if I did switch off I WOULDN'T switch to it, sorry. The theory is sound but the execution isn't my style. I like Google because of the lightweight super fast access page/search and relevant results.

Profusion took longer then average sites do to load... JUST to load the main page haha. Then the actual search took a long time... like 30+ seconds or the site keeps timing out. I don't care if I can get slightly better results if it takes that long. And if its not taking that long for you and just isn't working for me... another reason I wouldn't want to use it, I want a reliable search engine.

Like I said, great idea. Even though officially it just steals from the other guys who have created well programmed search engines, it would still be a useful tool especially if you couldn't find your result on your usual search engine. However after 10!!!!!!!!!!!! Tries it has not returned me any search results and keeps saying to try again. I'll check the site again later if I remember, but right now I'm sorry to say a non-functional search engine just won't be winning any awards from me

Sorry Jeigh, cause this one didn't work out for you. Maybe you're getting routed to a (literally) remote (i.e.far away) server, hence timing out and getting slow results! But personally, Profusion works just fine for me. Its average search time (for me) is 3.42 sec. (Counted on Firefox timer). So, if you can get to it using its ns1 IP or something, try that out. Not compulsive though - I just want you to see that it DOES give more satisfactory results!!!

-Omkar Ekbote

Well, I use Firefox, too, but I get the same message as Jeigh. If they want a good service those MUST NO happen! What do you think would happen if Google showed a message "You are too far away from the server, please move to another country and then try again"? Whatsmore, even though the idea is good, I think it is rather unnecessary. Googling will bring you the best results without mixing them with other search engines.

Take this for an example. Let's say both MSN and Yahoo were payed to put some advertisement on top of their search page, even though it is irrelevant and would probably appear on the second or the 3rd page. And Google wasn't paid, so it serves the ad on the third page. According to you, the paid ad will now be on top, even though it is irrelevant. Think of it

I've tried this search engine in both AOL and IE6, both resulted in the same response

Now I'm not very bothered what search engine I use, as long as I get some sort of result back, so obviously a search engine which yields no results on numerous occasions regardless of the browser is a waste of time, effort and bandwidth.

Sorry, but I will definitely not be using this search engine in the future, unless I can have assurance that it will show any results, let alone possitive ones.

Rebecca x

pyost has a very good point there.

I think at the end of the day, it is which search engine that gives you the best results... and maybe connectivity, in this case. I think the earliest primitive search just indexes how many of the keywords(search words that you typed) were in a certain document. If there are more keywords in that document, it should be more relevant than a document with less keywords in it. And it progresses and then came Google with their complex calculations based on page links, instead of just keywords in the document. Somehow, that seems to work better and since then, Google is the search engine No. 1.

Personally, I have doubts about the method of aggregating the results from several search engines. Unless all the search engines uses the same algorithms and the only difference between their results is the payment by companies to the top search engines, then it might work. If there is a company with a far superior search technology compared to the rest of the pack, then aggregating the results from several search engines would mean basically adding noise to the final result.

A far better approach would be to personally search on 2-3 different search engines. I usually search on Yahoo and Google. Contrary to all the hype on Google, there are still some moments, even though brief, when what I want can be found on Yahoo but not Google.

This is kind of too bad, I was hoping at least some other people would be able to get in to try it out. Seems like we're bashing the tech now but really not being able to try out a search engine does imply its got some downfalls I also agree with yeh on how it'd probably be better to simply try to different SE's by yourself rather then using a multi-engine such as profusion.

If you can actually access it though and it works great for you, our opinions should be irrelevant and hopefully some others who can actually access it will show up and give it a shot.

Hey guys, I'd like to conclude this topic now..

It seems that none of you got fairly satisfactory results with profusion (well, actually, not even remotely satisfactory..) So, I was the only (lucky) one to reap the benefits of this SE. Anyways, you guys have a good time Googling and getting good enough results, while I stick to Profusion and search multiple SE(s) simultaneously.

But even before I give up on this, I'd like to see why you guys are not getting it! I'm using this server from India and that quite far away from UK, I guess! What exactly could be the problem?! Well, everyone has his/her luck, and maybe there is someone who can share my luck. Keep trying, new ones...

Thanks to Google for monopolizing the Search market and not giving others a chance (not even simultaneously!). Three cheers! (And one more from me)

-Omkar Ekbote

Have you used DogPile (http://www.dogpile.com) ?? It's quite similar to what you've described and is a meta-search engine too. And always accessible from all corners of the world...

For those who haven't tried - you should give it a shot. It's almost as fast as Google itself... almost

YES DOGPILE! I knew I knew one of these types of sites but I couldn't remember the name (and you know me, too lazy to actually...uh...google... for it) haha. But yea, dogpile is pretty cool I've used that before. I always come back to google tho