HotBot

HotBot provides easy access to the web's three major crawler-based search engines: Yahoo, Google and Teoma. Unlike a meta 
search engine, it cannot blend the results from all of these crawlers together. Nevertheless, it's a fast, easy way to get 
different web search "opinions" in one place.

HotBot's "choose a search engine" interface was introduced in December 2002. However, HotBot has a long history as a search 
brand before this date. 

HotBot debuted in May 1996, it gained a strong following among serious searchers for the quality and comprehensiveness of 
ts crawler-based results, which were provided by Inktomi, at the time. It also caught the attention of experienced web users
and techies, especially for the unusual colors and interface it continues to sport today.

HotBot gained more notoriety when it switched over to using Direct Hit's "clickthrough" results for its main listings in 1999
. Direct Hit was then one of the "hot" search engines that had recently appeared. Unfortunately, the quality of Direct Hit's
results couldn't match those of another "hot" player that had debuted at the same time, Google. HotBot's popularity began to drop.

Even worse, HotBot also suffered by being owned by Lycos (now Terra Lycos). Lycos had acquired HotBot when it purchased Wired
Digital in October 1998. Lycos failed to make search a priority on its flagship Lycos site as well as HotBot through much of
1999 and 2000, as it focused instead on adding "portal" features. The company refocused on search in late 2001, making significant
improvements to the Lycos site and, as noted, reworked the HotBot site at the end of 2002.

Getting Listed: For the main editorial listings at HotBot, you need to be listed with the three major crawlers that it can 
query. Follow the links for these crawlers on this page, where they are mentioned.