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Concept Categorizing Search Engines
A concept categorizing search engine organizes results into topical categories. These categories are derived from the contents of your search results. This arrangement may be thought of as a horizontal layout of results, in contrast to a single, vertical list of results that you find on such search engines as Google. Most concept processing engines also offer a vertical list of results. The concept categories are an added bonus.
When you encounter concept categories, you can first review them to determine if the results are relevant to your search. If not, you can try another search. Or perhaps your results are fine, but the categories themselves could be better! If the categories look useful, you can select the ones of interest and examine their contents. Concept categories can also help you learn about your topic.
When to use a concept categorizing search engine
- When your search is a general one and you want to learn about the component concepts of your topic
- When you know very little about your topic and want help in identifying its scope and content
- When your topic is obscure
- When you are having trouble finding what you want when scanning a single list of search results
Examples of concept categorizing search engines
Here are examples of some of the concept categories retrieved from a search on "global warming" on Hakia and Cuil. Notice that the concepts are different in the two sets of results. This demonstrates the importance of trying out different search engines.
One interesting way to obtain categorized results is to use a visual search engine. Take a look at more results for our search on "global warming" from the visual search engine Kartoo. The concept list is on the left. A results map is on the right. In this example, the mouse was hovered over the concept "science", generating lines that connect relevant sites on the map. You can click on the term "science" to retrieve a new list of concepts and a new map. Bonus: Kartoo is also a meta search engine.
Let's move on to a consideration of vertical search engines >>.
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