Spanish-Language Search Engines
Editor's note: This article was originally published on Feb. 1, 1999. It is extremely outdated and is not being updated; it is retained here primarily for those interested in Internet history.The search engine with the most Spanish-language Web pages indexed may be in Paris.
Voilà, a search engine operated by France Telecom, claims to have indexed 6 million pages in the Spanish language. That may sound like a lot, but it's not much compared with the figures the major English-language engines claim.
Voilà is just one of the search engines competing for the Spanish-speaking audience. As would be expected, it is joined by Spanish-language and/or country-specific versions of Yahoo!, Infoseek, AltaVista, and Lycos. (Although Excite lists pages written in Spanish and is accessible in seven non-English languages, Spanish isn't among them.) A number of other regional search engines both big and small round out the list. Among the larger ones are Euroferret, Euroseek, and QuePasa.com.
According to Infolatina, about 2 percent of the World Wide Web is in Spanish. It trails English at 71 percent, Japanese at 5 percent, and German at 4 percent. In most cases, therefore, searches won't yield the number of results that they would in English.
Even so, with the exception of Yahoo!, which technically isn't a search engine but a searchable index, the major search frequently will yield hundreds of listings for common search terms. Databases among the sites vary considerably, so if you can't find what you want at one engine — that's buscador or motor de búsqueda in Spanish — it's worthwhile to try another one. And if you're doing a boolean search (a search using terms such as "and" or "not" to narrow the search) check the engine's help page first; some of the search engines are based on English-language software, and you still would use the English terms "and" and "not," not the Spanish ones y and no.
Here's a quick look at the major Spanish-language search engines:
| AltaVista | Both simple and advanced searches are available from the extensive database. Quick links are provided to online translations. |
| Euroferret | The place to look if you don't want to find sites based in the United States. |
| Euroseek | Emphasis is on European sites. A Spanish search may yield results in other languages. |
| Infoseek | Extensive listings. Results can be limited to sites from a specific country. |
| Lycos | Sites can be found either by search engine or by browsing through categories. |
| QuePasa.com | Miami-based portal uses the Inktomi database. |
| Voilà | European site features advanced search capabilities on the front page. |
| Yahoo! | Sites are listed by category. Available in six country-specific versions. |
A list of regional buscadores can be found on the Search Engines page. Chris Sherman at The Mining Co.'s Web Search site also does an excellent job of providing search tips and keeping track of new searching resources, including those in foreign languages.
Happy hunting!
