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Google has always been hailed as the topmost search engine. However, among the best search engines, Yahoo and MSN have also been innovating continuously. A Google vs Yahoo vs MSN analysis brings out several distinguishing features of the three search engines.

Google vs Yahoo vs MSN
Google holds the leading position in search and offers blog, book, catalog, directory, images, local, news, podcasts, shopping, usenet, video and web search services. However, Google may not be the most appropriate for all search requirements.

Search Results
Except for clustered search services, Google offers all search services provided by Yahoo and MSN. Other search-related features that distinguish the three search engines are:

• Query Processing: MSN processes queries for the meaning of the typed words rather than taking them literally and hence is better than Yahoo. However, Google has a much better algorithm.
• Crawling: Google can crawl and conduct a deeper search within websites than the other two search engines. The depth to which Google can crawl depends on the quantity and quality of the link.
• Emphasis on Page or Site: While Yahoo considers the authorization of a site before displaying its page, MSN skips this consideration. In contrast, Google does not display any site or its content until the sites have earned the minimum level of trust specified by the search engine.
• Reputation of Link: While the popularity of a link plays a role in the ranking of a page in Google, it is no longer a very critical factor. Due to its poor crawling ability and late entry into the market, MSN is the worst of the three in differentiating between low quality links and real citations.
• Site Age: MSN is also not good at determining trust scores related to age. While Yahoo gives some importance to older sites, the overall impact is not better than that produced by Google's SERPs.
• Paid Search: While Yahoo prices their ads in an open auction, Google and MSN both rank ads based on the maximum bid price and click-through rate.

Non-Search Related Services
These three best search engines, Google, Yahoo and MSN, have similar offerings of non-search related services, such as blogs, calendar, discussion groups, IM, email, maps, personal page and auctions.