Seattle’s meta search engine Dogpile, powered by InfoSpace, was the recent winner in the “Best Meta Search Engine” category for the Search Engine Watch Awards.
Search Engine Watch (searchenginewatch.com)is an internet.com site covering the search engine industry.
According to Search Engine Watch Editor Danny Sullivan, dogpile is unique among the major meta search services in that it presents results from each of the search engines it queries individually, instead of mixing them all together into a single list. This different approach seems to have given Dogpile a loyal following, causing it to win in the online voting.
InfoSpace Lead Program Manager Search & Reference Tasha Irvine, says that this is the first award that dogpile received since it was acquired by Go2Net (now InfoSpace) back in 1999.
For Irvine and her team, the award is just a confirmation of what they have known for a while now.
Dogpile’s traffic has been on the rise. “Internet users are a lot more sophisticated now and are looking for different solutions in their search,” says Irvine.
According to Irvine, dogpile has undergone recent upgrades, including a redesign. However, whatever is done to the site…one thing is clear: “Don’t touch Arfie the mascot,” says Irvine. That is a comment she continually receives from users.
Irvine reassures that “Arfie” is here to stay. Especially now that he brought home an award too.
“Arfie” came in first in the “Best Mascot” category. All but two voters put forth “Arfie” to win. The Lycos dog received 1 vote, as did Jeeves from Ask Jeeves.
