Does Cartoon Network Have Their Own Search Engine?

One of my clients sent me the following e-mail today, and
asked me to check out the following search engine:

"Your site is missing from Azoos.Com's Internet search
engine! To submit it, simply click the *ADD URL* button
found at www.azoos.com.

As one of the Internet's 20 most visited unique search
engine databases, Azoos offers sites like yours valuable
traffic that only your competition is enjoying! Submitting
your site to Azoos takes only ONE minute and GUARANTEES
INCLUSION .... TODAY!

Thousands of users visit Azoos EACH day but can't find YOUR
site. With a simple look and an easy-to-use search tool,
Azoos appeals demographically to the NOVICE INTERNET USER - a
targeted group likely to make purchases from sites like your
own! Featured in a recent issue of SEARCH ENGINE WATCH,
Azoos is one of the Net's hottest up and coming search
engines for end users -- Make sure YOUR site is included
TODAY!

If your company's website can't afford to miss out on even a
few thousand potential hits, it can't afford NOT to be
listed with Azoos!

Goto www.azoos.com and click "ADD URL" -- let the traffic
flow....!"

Sincerely,
Joanna R. Heth
Internet Position Analyst
http://www.azoos.com/

The Internet's COOLEST Search Engine!
Why should we crawl the web...when we can RUN it?

***Add YOUR Company's Web Site To Azoos.Com TODAY!!!***

I have to admit, that e-mail got me more than a little
curious about Azoos, so I did a little digging and I found
the following press release:

Not only has Azoos.Com managed to remain one of THE fastest
services of its kind when it comes to including user-
submitted URLs in its vast database, it’s now also one of
THE fastest search engines on the ‘net! Thanks to the
implementation of new technologies developed & improved by
its software engineers during the last six months, Azoos has
joined the ranks of those search engines capable of
returning results in less than 1 second!

But unlike other high-end search engines who boast
comparable speeds, Azoos.Com goes one step further by
guaranteeing instant placement for webmasters who submit
their company’s webpage via the engine’s "add url" feature.
Combined, these elements make Azoos the ONLY key player
online capable of speedy search results AND speedy spidering
of user-submitted sites!

In an age where so many sites have given up their
individuality to become "meta" search engines; pooling the
databases of other engines to produce unoriginal search
results,--Azoos.Com remains true to traditional search
engine format by selecting its own data, spidering URLs from
its own database, & producing its own unique search results.

And while so many other successful engines have gone on to
charge fees as high as $300 or more for website "reviews,"
Azoos still bills its instant-add submission service at only
$69 for a guaranteed listing and site spidering.

As Azoos representative Andrew Greenstein says, "We
originally set out to create a search engine that offered
something unique not only for the end-user but for the site
submitter as well. Now that our search technology has
improved so dramatically, it’s clear that our initial vision
has become a reality and our primary goal has been
achieved."

And although the bright yellow search engine may still have
a long way to go before it can compete with the "big boys"
in terms of audience size, Azoos.Com may very well be one of
the most promising prospects on the debt-riddled Internet
today.

Well, I can certainly agree with them on one thing. They do
indeed have a long way to go, before they can compete with
the big boys--a very long way!

Here's the problem as I see it with Azoos. They want $69.95
to add you to their database. This despite the fact that not
one of the top search engines charges money to spider your
website. And those colors are brutal on the eyes! Whose
brilliant idea was that? Blue text on a screaming yellow
background? When I first saw it, I thought the Cartoon
Network had developed their own search engine.

I wasn't impressed to say the least. And I certainly wasn't
interested in spending $69.95 to be included on some
cartoonish looking search site.

While I was there I figured I'd check out their search
function. But something interesting happened when I typed in
a particular keyword. The following disclaimer appeared on
the right hand side of the search engine:

"Remember! Azoos.com contains millions of web pages in its
database, but our categorical listings (that's where YOU are
NOW!) feature only a handful of our hottest picks and user-
submitted sites.

Unlike other search engines who expect their users to
navigate through dozens of categorical links to find
relevant subject matter, Azoos.Com keeps this section of our
site short, simple, and to the point...listing only a few
thousand reviewed and user-submitted links.

If you have a more specific topic in mind and need to
conduct in-depth research, please enter your query in the
search box above for complete results. Use these categories
only when looking for general lists, containing today's most
useful sites to bookmark!"

Allow me to decipher the above jibberish. In essence,
what Azoos is saying is this: Unless you perform a number of
inconvenient search procedures, the results you receive will
more often than not be those of businesses that have paid to
have their sites listed in the Azoos database!

Also, their traffic count is low, comparatively speaking,
for a search engine.

In conclusion, I can't recommend Azoos. There are just far
too many superior, free alternatives!