Search wars - which is the best?

By Tom Geoghegan
BBC News Magazine

As Microsoft enters the internet search engine market, users find themselves overwhelmed with options. We compare the big players on five key areas.

Google The world's most popular internet search engine that works hard to hold on to its pole position MSN Microsoft's home-grown site is the new kid in town which it hopes will knock Google off top spot A9 Online retailer Amazon's search tool with results from within the books it sells and Google

Yahoo! Yahoo! supplied the technology for MSN's old search tool but the new version is a major rival Ask Jeeves The iconic butler who answers questions and searches the web has just had a makeover The verdict Having hitched a ride and road tested each search engine, how did they fare?