Mamma Search Engine: How to Get the Most Out of it
Mamma! What is That?
Mamma was launched in 1996 and it was one of the web’s first tier 2 metasearch engines. A metasearch engine is a search engine that aggregates search results from several sources. Mamma retrieves search results from approximately ten major search engines and directories. It is quite similar to Google when we compare the user interface. However there are a few extra search features and differences in Mamma.
What Features Mamma Can Offer Me?
Mamma has a simple and plain interface like many other similar websites. Mamma displays each search result in a new tab page. Therefore it is easy to access to a web page with older search results. This is one of the unique features of Mamma.
Currently Mamma offers 7 types of searches including Web, News, Image, Video, Twitter, Jobs, and Local. This is sufficient for the majority of surfers. In terms of relevancy, Mamma search results are very decent compared to many other search engines. Speed of response is pretty good. In most cases results will be displayed within 2 to 5 seconds.
How to Search With Mamma
Mamma’s search results can be further improved by using proper search operators and techniques. Here are some of the tips and methods to improve the accuracy of search results when you use Mamma.
1. Use specific search terms instead of general terms
Always be specific for better search results. You can use “medieval history of Greece,” instead of a general term like “history.”
2. Use academic and professional terms
You can use academic and professional terms for accurate results. A search term like “domestic architecture” will give you closer search results than a generic term like “house.” These tips are valid for all search engines including Mamma. Before performing a search think a moment about “what do I need to get.” Then it’s easier to plan the approach for a better search result.
3. Phrase search for closer results
Phrase search will give you closer search results when you use Mamma.
Ex. “global warming”
This search term (with quotes) will give you web pages with that exact term. When you search for “Thomas Edison” (with quotes), you will miss web pages with “Thomas Alva Edison.” Therefore decide the best search terms for your needs.
4. Search within a website
Sometimes you may want search results only from a certain website. In this case use the following query.
Ex. site:Gamespot.com Call of Duty
This is particularly useful when we search large websites and directories. Also you can limit your search to domain extensions in the following manner.
Ex. site:.org African history
site:.edu mathematics differential equations
5. Using minus (-) sign to improve Mamma search results
By using minus sign followed by the search term, you can exclude that search term from the search result.
Ex. computer hardware -printers
Mamma will give you a list of web pages related to computer hardware that doesn’t include the word “printers.”
6. Using plus sign (+)
You can make sure that each search term is included in search results by using plus (+) sign between search terms. This is similar to performing a phrase search.
Ex. Best+search+engines
Mamma is a fairly simple metasearch engine that delivers quick and accurate search results compared to other search engines. It is not a powerful tool like Google but fairly sufficient to generate search results for most of the Internet users. If you use above tips you can make Mamma search engine a better tool for your daily usage.
This post is part of the series: Mamma Search Engine
The popular slogan of Mamma is the “mother of all search engines”. It is one of the oldest search engines on Internet and still a decent search tool that worth a try.
