search.onramp.net   M
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Configure Weights:            
   Select Hits:    Max Delay: In Seconds Per Engine

This is a very slick and quick multiple simultaneous metasearch engine. search.onramp.net bills itself as the "Net's Easiest MetaSearch Engine". It is easy, but it is still powerful. It allows you to select which search engines to use (set to zero to eliminate a search engine) and to configue the amount of weight for results obtain for each search engine relative to the others. The intial setting of 1 makes them all equal. You can also set a time limit for the maximum number of seconds to wait for each search engine to reply. There is also a control that limits the maximum number of hits (results) you will get from each search engine. search.onramp.net provides the results of the search in a nicely formated table that includes the Rank, Score, Count, Top, Delta, and URL for each result. The score is the weighted value of the results and determines the rank. The Count, Top, and Delta are all returned in the same column. The count is the number of search engines that returned a result anywhere in the top ten. The top is the number one search engine to return that result. It is also a hyperlink to the cached results of that engine that search.onramp used to determine the rankings. When multiple seach engines return the same results, they are all listed in this top section. The Delta is the time in seconds it took the top engine to respond. If a search engine exceeds the maximum time you have allowed, that is reported on the bottom or the page and you can retry the search for that engine just by clicking on it. The URL column returns the name of the page and it's URL. This is about as terse a response you are going to find in a search engine. But it's not a major handicap, you simply click on the top engine and you will get the description that the searched engine returned. Not a bad design. There is no help or FAQ page, all the information you need is right on the main search page. It includes an explanation of how the results are scored and how to interpret them. This service is brought to you by OnRamp Technologies. (5/28/96)