1.Because
different search engines search different
parts of a Web site
2. Because each search engine has its
own unique
database of Web pages
3.Because each search engine
interprets your search
strategy its own unique way.
Let's try the
witchcraft search in MetaCrawler(http://www.metacrawler.com) and DogPile (http://www.dogpile.com).
It may go by too
quickly for you to see, but MetaCrawler does list which engines it's
searching as the search is being completed.The results page ranks the hits (1000 = high relevancy and so on).The results page also indicates from which
search engine the hit was found.MetaCrawler also provides the annotation from the original search
engine.At the end of every
annotation, there is a link back to the original search engines, which can be
used if you want to go back to that search engine and see the results for the
search you've entered.
Dogpile provides
the annotations and ranked hits, but it doesn't indicate from which engine
each hit came.