Web Searching Tools
Search Engines,Meta-Search Engines and Subject Indexes/Directories
Search Engines are tools used to search databases for keywords that you enter. Each search engine works differently, gathers information from different Web sites, searchs different fields, and produces different results. The most effective way to use a Search Engine is to study the Help screens to become familiar with its techniques. Search Engines are always changing as is the Web, so what you find today may be different from what you find tomorrow.
AltaVista | Ask | Excite | Fast Search | Google | HotBot | Go | Lycos | Vivisimo | Web Crawler | Wikipedia | Yahoo
- AltaVista
http://www.altavista.com- One of the most comprehensive, Alta Vista will usually give you thousands of hits in your results if you don't refine your search. Many advanced search features for the expert searcher. Includes a translation function, and an excellent image search tool.
- Ask
http://www.ask.com- Answers natural language questions from its database of about 7 million questions. Also does a simultaneous meta search offering results from WebCrawler, Infoseek, Excite and Alta Vista.
- Excite
http://www.excite.com- Good for news and international sites. Comprehensive list of people finders.
- Fast Search
http://www.alltheweb.com- World's biggest and fastest search engine. 300 million web pages searched in under one half second with highly relevant results.
- Google!
http://www.google.com- One of the newest search engines, Google! offers a unique ranking system which provides remarkably relevant
- Hot Bot
http://www.hotbot.lycos.com- Wired Magazine's search engine has some unique searching features and is easy to use.
- Go
http://www.go.com- Easy to use; excellent description of sites retrieved.
- Lycos
http://www.lycos.com- Begun as one of the earliest search engines, Lycos is now a comprehensive subject directory.
- Vivisimo
http://vivisimo.com/Automatically categorizes textual information into crisp, meaningful, hierarchically sorted category folders
WebCrawler
http://www.webcrawler.com
Simple search provides single-line list of items retrieved.
- Wikipedia
http://en2.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page- Wikipedia is a multilingual project to create a complete and accurate free content encyclopedia. We started in January 2001 and are currently working on 192569 articles in the English version. Visit the help page and experiment in the sandbox to learn how you can edit any article right now.
- Yahoo
http://www.yahoo.com
- One of the oldest and easiest to use, Yahoo uses only simple search techniques. It is more useful as a subject index/directory as it has categorized thousands of Web sites under user-friendly headings.
Meta-Search Engines
Meta-Search Engines allow you to do your search in many search engines at once. In most of them you lose the ability to use sophisticated search techniques, but it’s a quick way to do simple searches to gather as much information as possible. They are also useful tools for comparing search engines.
- Dogpile
http://www.dogpile.com- One of the best of the meta-search engines, Dogpile presents your results in a very organized fashion.
- Ixquick
http://ixquick.com/- A unique new meta-search engine that supports complex search queries by running only on the search engines that can support the modifiers you use. Prioritizes results nicely.
- MetaCrawler
http://www.metacrawler.com/- MetaCrawler, now owned by Go2Net, is one of the oldest meta searchers.
- Savvy Search
http://www.savvysearch.com- Queries multiple search engines simultaneously and a variety of resource types.
Subject Indexes/Directories
There are a variety of lists of Web sites by topics that are created by public libraries, academic libraries, individuals and commercial companies. Several of the search engines also have very good subject listings by broad categories, including Yahoo, Lycos, and Hotbot.
About.com
http://www.about.com Web sites are selected and featured by expert "Guides" whose pictures, qualifications and e-mail addresses are readily available. Very comprehensive and user friendly.
- Britannica Internet Guide
http://www.britannica.com- Subject categories for over 65,000 Web sites, rated and reviewed by Encyclopaedia Britannica staff.
- Infomine - Scholarly Internet Resource Collections
http://infomine.ucr.edu/- One of the first and best comprehensive guides to the Internet for academic research. Developed by librarians from the University of California and other California academic institutions, it now includes over 115,000 academically valuable resources.
- Internet Public Library
http://www.ipl.org/- A virtual reference collection of over 13,000 Web sites, cataloged by subject.
- Librarians' Index to the Internet
http://lii.org- One of the first indexes produced by librarians, this outstanding site is now quite comprehensive and easy to use.
- Washington State Librarians' Index to the Internet
http://wa.lii.org/
"Wally"--is Librarians' Index to the Internet for Washington State, a joint project funded by the State Libraries of Washington and California. Wally is based on a parent project, Librarians' Index to the Intern.
- LookSmart
http://www.looksmart.com- Puts Web sites into over 12,000 easy to use categories; daily updates.
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