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Enter Big Search's New Offerings

Savvy Web users are ready for a better way to search, and the Web's giants have been quietly testing new search tools. The are quietly setting up satellite search engines that say nothing about their parent affiliation.

SearchMash, launched by Google in September, is the Google search engine. But it also contains a series of tabs, which allow users to filter by "video," "image," "blog" or even "Wikipedia." Yahoo and Microsoft are testing the same functions through AlltheWeb.com and MsDewey.com, respectively.

The latter is a strange take on the search engine host, recalling the days of the now-deceased Ask Jeeves. Ms. Dewey uses a high-resolution interface with video and audio, delivering snappy comments along with search results, though she needs to be loaded, which is pain, and she's also annoying.

Barry Diller's Ask.com in December launched satellite engine Ask X, which also filters by video and image, but it also applies Ask's unique ability to categorize results, allowing users to search for related terms from the same page. Ask X also displays an actual encyclopedia or dictionary blurb for terms requiring definitions or explanations; the IAC/InterActive Corp. offering provides the richest experience so far.

Read the whole story at The Wall Street Journal »

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