An Old Dog With A Few Tricks: The Dogpile Search Engine

Shawn DeWolfe
March 22nd, 2021
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Dogpile: a name that might conjure up images of the last time you and a half dozen friends were in elementary school, but the name has a rich history as a metasearch engine. It was established in 1996 by Aaron Flin, a research attorney. Frustrated with the search engines of the time. Flin was dissatisfied with the cluttered and often limited search results they provided, Dogpile was designed to aggregate multiple search indexes to present more organized and relevant results. Go2Net acquired Dogpile in 1999. They later merged with InfoSpace, making Dogpile the flagship engine of InfoSpace.

Dogpile continues its legacy by fetching results through its mascot Arfie. Arfie compiled search results from Google, Yahoo!, Bing, and other search engines. Users can conduct searches across various categories, including Web, Images, Audio, Video, News, Yellow Pages, and White Pages. The platform has also evolved to include new features that are keeping pace with the modern user’s needs.

Key Features of Dogpile:

Comparison View: Users could select which indexes to perform a search under, using the Comparison View. This feature highlights the sources of the search results, and Arfie ensured duplicates were removed for a more streamlined experience.
Pay-for-Inclusion Service: If you wanted your website to be listed on Dogpile, you could pay for inclusion. Dogpile fetched its results from other search engines, optimizing your site with SEO services can also get it listed for free. Listing your site with the pay for inclusion service ensured faster inclusion, typically within 72 hours.
Toolbar with Integrated News Feeds: Dogpile’s toolbar could be customized to include an RSS ticker, allowing users to stay up to date with the latest news feeds of their choice.
Popular Searches Page: This feature showcased the most popular searches on Dogpile, categorized as a directory. Categories included Arts and Entertainment, Computers & Internet, Games, and more.
Recent Searches Feature: Users could view their recent searches, with the option to clear or hide this history.
Advanced Search Options: To refine searches, users could use the ‘Advanced Search’ feature which allowed them to:
- Specify exact words or phrases.
- Set a date range for when the original content was published.
- Choose the language of the search results, including Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish, and Swedish.
- Filter specific domain names and set content filters to exclude or include adult content.

Even today Dogpile persists as a valuable metasearch engine for users looking to gather information from various sources. Website owners and marketers should consider optimizing their websites not just for the primary search engines but also for metasearch engines like Dogpile, as it can enhance visibility and reach to a broader audience.