SearchBoth.com Split Screen Internet Searches

SearchBoth.com is a company that offers a service that can be a big help with everything from research to travel planning. SearchBoth provides technology that allows internet users to search two sites, such as Google and Yahoo, at the same time.

Included in the site’s reporitoir are 9 search engines, including Google, MSN, Ask, DogPile, MetaCrawler, Alta Vista, Look Smart, Web Search and Yahoo. If you, for instance, need to research a certain company with whom you have a meeting coming up, you can see what dirt each site digs up. And you wont even have to flip back and forth through different tabs.

Twelve travel sites are represented, including Expedia, Hotwire, Cheap Tickets, Cheap Flights, Travelation, Sidestep, Kayak, Travelzoo, Priceline, Orbitz and CheapOAir. With this site, you can search two sites at once. So, say you need to book a flight. You can search both Orbitz and Priceline to see which site will give you a better deal. That’s a fantastic tool for those of us who travel for a living. Especially if it saves you a buck.

In addition, you can search AT&T’s Yellow Pages and Verizon’s SuperPages simutaneously as well. I could see this being a big bonus for outside sales people who are researching the business prospects in a geographical area.

How does it work?

SearchBoth.com places websites side by side on one split screen in order to make comparing the results of any two websites simple and easy. The site started out with just Google and Yahoo but now offers Ask.com, MSN, DogPile, MetaCrawler, Alta Vista, LookSmart and WebSearch as well. Users can select any two search engines and view them side by side on one split screen.

What is the benefit of searching more than one search engine? Because they rank and value information differently. A fantastic page may show up on the second page of a Google search (and who really bothers looking at page 2?) but it may appear as one of the top entires on Yahoo. The same can happen conversely. If you need me to explain to you why it’s a good idea to search two travel booking sites, then you may need a good talking to.

For example, I searched the term “business travel” on both Google and Yahoo. The Business Travel Logue appeared as number 7 on Google and a lowly 19 on Yahoo. That’s a pretty big ranking gap. That being said, you can see how you could overlook a valuable resource (such as my website) if you were to limit yourself to one search engine.

The screen splits right down the middle with vertical and horizontal scroll bars in place for each side. I noticed I was automatically logged in to my Google and Yahoo accounts, which was interesting. You can’t, unfortunately, use this tool to view your Yahoo and GMail accounts side by side. What a shame.

SearchBoth.com offers a toolbar plugin for the FireFox browser (awesome!) and plans to offer a toolbar plugin for Internet Explorer in the near future. I had some trouble installing the plug in, but that may be a direct result of my crappy Jersey wireless connection.