Who won the Kentucky Derby?
After the huge upset at yesterday’s Kentucky Derby I decided to check in on the major search engines to see how well each one handles the question “who won the Kentucky derby.” My list of search engines included Google, Yahoo, MSN/Live, and Ask.com. All of these searches were performed the morning of May 3rd, 2009. I wanted to point out the date of this test as we all know that the search engines are constantly evolving.
Google.com
I must admit that (Update: I’m a little surprised at the lack of a ‘one box’) I’m a little surprised at how poorly Google performed for this particular search. By combining relevancy of time into the algorithm I would have expected to see results dated 2009 listed higher than all others, or at least some sort of a call-out at the very top of the page indicating the winning horse. As you can see, the first mention of the winning horse in the 2009 Kentucky Derby was in position #5 if you included the news results into the mix.
Google results - May 3, 2009
Yahoo.com
Yahoo.com did a very poor job of providing me with an immediate answer. Not a single listing on page 1 gives me the information I’m searching for. If you want to know who won the 2008 Kentucky Derby you came to the right place. But for 2009 the answer is nowhere on page 1. Again, just like Google time in the algorithm seems to be elusive.
Yahoo results - May 3, 2009
Live Search
Live.com the search engine from Microsoft does an excellent job of answering my question “who won the Kentucky derby.” As you can see in the image below they provided me with timely and relevant information. Now there is a search algorithm performing as it should.
Live results - May 3, 2009
Ask.com
At this point I must admit that I’m a NASCAR fan. As a NASCAR fan in 2009 I’m being exposed by the marketing efforts of Ask.com. Ask.com is now the official search engine of NASCAR. Almost every commercial from Ask.com is asking you see to type a question into the search engine and they will present you with a relevant answer. So did Ask.com pull through with an upset against the giant search engines of Google and Yahoo? You bet they did! Have a look at the image below.
Ask results - May 3, 2009
The Winner
Mine that bird! Oh wait… I’m here to pick the best search engine for the search phrase ‘who won the Kentucky derby.’
The winner is Live Search from Microsoft by a nose. Ask.com was definitely #2. Not only did Live Search present me with the most recent winner of the Kentucky Derby, but the additional info presented alongside the results were spot on.
Just like Mine that bird had 50/1 odds, those with the most money don’t always win!
The Winner!
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Interesting, but looking at the images above, neither Ask nor Microsoft appear to have the answer in their algorithmic/crawled search results. Instead, both search engines appear to have hard-coded “one box” results above their regular search results. I give credit to Microsoft and Ask for creating “one box” results manually for this sporting event, but if you judged purely by the algorithmic/crawled results, Google had the answer earliest, according to these snapshots.
Also, both Ask and Microsoft appear to have off-topic ads; why is a domain name ad showing for a Kentucky Derby query?.
Interesting comparison, but the Google is still viewed as “the best” search engine and therefore most popular one. It will take years for another engine to overtake Google.
That’s an interesting point. I’ve noticed that often when I search Google for technical queries I get results from 2002-2004. I like that Google gives more weight to information from older sites, but I’d like to see more up-to-date technical, news and pop-culture information.
Perhaps old sites + fresh content = relevant results?
Good on Live Search for thinking outside the box (or inside the One Box as Matt points out), but with such a low market share not many people will get to use it.
Bottom line is a user explicitly declared what they wanted and only one search engine was able to put the answer above all else: ask.com
Nice Job Microsoft, pity about the ad and dont forget the importance of algo.
Matt, before pointing the finger at Microsoft for the hard-coding, did Google really do everything they possibly could, or is it still okay to say it was the computers fault, but we weren’t as guilty as the rest?
Yahoo… lift your game or I’ll be taking you out with the trash.
Love this post!
I am an SEO guy, but if I wasn’t – would I care how the results came from, only if it answered my question. Google has too much of an monopoly and as someone else said, it would be a long time before anyone else can catch up -I was privately hedging my bets on Ask, but as thats my default SE in Google it hasn’t yet impressed me …
What did Woflram Alpha think …
Hi Matt, thanks for stopping by.
You bring up an interesting point that puzzled me and caused pause in my analysis. From what you’re saying, the ‘one box’ is not a part of anyone’s algorithmic/crawled search results. I was not aware that the ‘one box’ was a manual process/placeholder where a search engine can place relevant/timely data such as sporting events, award shows, or other hot topics from current events. Does Google plan to offer this functionality in the near future?
Based upon the user experience and finding an answer to my question as quickly as possible, I have to stand by my original decision and go with Microsoft & Ask.com.
Based upon algorithmic/crawled results Google clearly wins!
-Rick