Yebol utilizes a combination of patented algorithms paired with human knowledge to build a Web directory for each query and each user. Instead of the common “listing” of Web search queries, Yebol automatically clusters and categorizes search terms, Web sites, pages and contents.
Yebol allows for a multi-dimensional search result instead of the normal one-dimensional search seen by most web search engines today. This provides a more accurate summary of top sites and categories; a wider array of related search terms; a longer and richer expansion for query results; and a deeper base of links and keywords in search result pages.
Unlike current search platforms, Yebol provides hundreds of easily identified and accessibly categorized results in one easy to navigate page.
There are two ways to search on Yebol. You can search using the "smart" tab to get full access to Yebol's unique knowledge based search tools, or you can search using the standard "web" tab, as is used in Google and Bing.
First let's look at what using the "smart" tab does.
Smart Search
Query: I entered Video Business into the search query box. I made sure that the "smart" tab was highlighted on Yebol, I have a screen-shot below of the query and the results.
Page Layout
The page layout is very interesting.
On the left side are a list of possible related search query suggestions. Yebol separated both of my search terms, Video and Business, and gave two separate site topic sections, one for "Business" Magazines and one related to video searches, like home entertainment. This is a pretty cool feature because search query suggestions can be very useful when you can't think of all of the search queries that might be relevant to your research.
At the top of the site is a list of top Video Business sites. While Yebol did not get many relevant sites, I think the feature of this box of sites is to make it easier for you if you do not want to scroll down the page and look at each individual search result.
On the right side of the site is a list of more expanded search suggestions. These are much more specified search queries, and probably are pretty hit or miss for Yebol. It did have a related news topic, with Cisco to buy Denmark's DiviTech, which is a technological search, so I would say that it is a semi-successful tool. The right side also has a list of twitter updates from famous people or sources, which is just a cool feature where you can easily scroll through this new technology. It is more just for fun, and is a unique aspect of Yebol.
Search Results
Down the middle of the page are the search results, just like most of the big search engines. However, using the "Smart" search option (the first tab located at the top), they are more similar to search directory website results, where you get a list of search results that take you to individual websites, but instead of the search result description underneath, there are search directory categories. These are a little useful, however you probably already know what category your specific search query is in, so I don't think this is a good feature. The specific search results when searching Video Business were OK, with the typical VideoBusiness.com coming up as a result, and a Wikipedia search of Video Business came up, which is helpful for some background, but nothing new and exciting really surfaced.
Web Search
Using the "Web" search option (the second tab located at the top of the search box), I was able to get many more relevant results and descriptions of the websites. It is very similar to searching on Google or Bing, except for the additional information that you get on the sides of the page as described above. Here is the screen-capture of the "Web" search option.
Image, Video, and News Search
Currently, Yebol has not been updated to full speed on their image, video, and news search tools like it is for the smart and web search tools. The image search is very weak because it only shows a limited number of images (displaying only 15 per page) and does not have any additional filtering features to get the specific images that you want. The video search is also very poor because when you click on a video it takes you to the video site (most often youtube) instead of having an embedded video player so that you can stay on the same web page. Finally, the news search is very unhelpful because it does not seem to display very relevant news and only displays the most recent news stories, with no option to filter. I would not suggest to use Yebol as an image, video, or news search engine.
To view the analysis and comparison of Yebol with other search engines, go to the next tab on this page.
I compared Yebol versus Google and Bing on a multitude of factors (ratings based on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the best and 1 the poorest):
- Precision: how many relevant results were returned out of the first 10 results
- Overlap of Results: how many results did the websites have in common out of 10 the first 10 results
- Automation: how easy was it to search
- Content: The usefulness of all of the material presented on the webpage
- Quality of the experience: The overall quality of the searching experience
I did not compare Yebol on its Image, Video, or News search because it is vastly inferior to Google and Bing.
I searched and compared two queries, Video Business and Movie Distribution Industry, individually.
Here are the links to the results of the Video Business Query:
Video Business Query Rankings
| Yebol | Bing | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Precision | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| Overlap Yebol/Google | 2 | 2 | N/A |
| Overlap Yebol/Bing | 4 | N/A | 4 |
| Overlap Bing/Google | N/A | 5 | 5 |
| Overlap of All three | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Automation | 7 | 9 | 9 |
| Content | 5 | 4 | 4 |
| Quality | 5 | 4 | 4 |
Yebol only returned one relevant result, however Google and Bing did not do much better. I think the search query itself is too general for the search engines to give me my specified information. It was very easy to search in Yebol, however it does not have advanced search options like Google and Bing, so I gave it a lower rating. Yebol does have additional information on the page that could help your search, as I described in the Yebol Analysis on the previous tab. Google and Bing basically just have the search options, as well as a couple ads on the side that don't really help your search.
Here are the links to the results of the Movie Distribution Industry Query:
- Bing Movie Distribution Industry Query
- Yebol Movie Distribution Industry Query
- Google Movie Distribution Industry Query
Movie Distribution Industry Query Rankings
| Yebol | Bing | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Precision | 8 | 3 | 4 |
| Overlap Yebol/Google | 2 | 2 | N/A |
| Overlap Yebol/Bing | 2 | N/A | 2 |
| Overlap Bing/Google | N/A | 4 | 4 |
| Overlap of All three | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Automation | 7 | 9 | 9 |
| Content | 10 | 5 | 6 |
| Quality | 9 | 5 | 6 |
The Movie Distribution Industry query was a goldmine search on Yebol. It returned 8 relevant results, and 7 of them were really helpful and completely new websites and sources of information on the industry. Yebol really dominated the competition in this category, which is by far the most important one. Yebol also had great additional search query options on the left side of the page, which really helped try to find additional search queries. Overall, Yebol took the prize home with this query, I gave it a 9/10 on overall quality.
Comparing Web Page Layouts
I would rank Yebol's layout better than both Google and Bing because it offers you more useful suggestions for searching related items. Bing does offer a couple brief related search queries on the left hand side of its page, however not to the extent of Yebol. Google only has advertisements on its page.
Comparing Filtering Options
Yebol does not have any obvious filtering options unlike Google and Bing. This is a huge disadvantage because it does not allow you to search for results with a specified criteria. For example, Bing and Google both allow you to look for results that are filtered by domain, region, and other criteria, while Yebol does not offer any of these advanced filtering options.
Yebol's Positives
- Includes Smart Search Query Option that gives you a directory search, allowing you to search by category.
- Offers Web Search Query Option that gives you a normal Google type search that generally gives you spot on results.
- Results page layout is the most helpful layout compared to Google and Bing.
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- Displays useful alternative search queries that can be helpful and are related to your original search query.
- Offers search category box at the top of results page that gives suggestions to alternative or related categories.
- Integrates Twitter message updates from celebrities on side-bar, offering you entertainment while searching.
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Yebol's Negatives
- Does not include search query filtering option, which limits your ability to have more specific queries.
- Does not offer viable search tools for searching images, videos, or news.
- Smart Search Query Option gives you directory results that are not very accurate or related to your search query.
Conclusion
Yebol is a unique search engine that integrates a smart search engine with a regular search engine. However, because it is so new, it has many kinks that need to be worked out. Yebol needs to offer search tools that are on par with Google and Bing's search tools and also needs to refine its smart search engine to be more useful. Yebol does seem to succeed on its normal web search engine, and I do give Yebol praise on it's unique page layout that does give the user help when looking for alternative search query ideas. Overall, I would give Yebol a 6/10 because while it does not yet offer enough useful tools to really help the user, it does have many unique attributes that, when refined, could make it a top search engine.
