Web-based searched services are playing increasingly important roles i
n helping people use network resources. An investigation of the curren
t state of search services was conducted by comparing three popular We
b-based search services: InfoSeek, Lycos, and OpenText. A taxonomy of
service features was first created to do a descriptive comparison. Sec
ondly, a set of five questions were used to conduct searches with the
three services. Each service offered some advantage for specific queri
es although Lycos and OpenText showed better results for the different
precision metrics used in this limited study. There was a surprisingl
y tow level of result overlap among the three services. None of the se
rvices provide good output control for users. Recommendations for impr
ovements in display, indexing, and updating are made.