Contents
[hidetoc]Quick Links
Search Engines
Automated "spiders" which search the WWW for a certain concept or site; good for specific searches.
Ranks relevant sites based on the link structure of the WWW, as well as the proximity of the terms. When searching the default connector is "and". Use capital letters for the OR search; use + for essential elements; there is no truncation search. Enclose phrases in quotation marks " ". "Feeling Lucky" takes you directly to the highest ranked site for the search and the Google Scout finds related pages.Also includes a directory, a huge image search, and a date-range search. Detailed Google instructions from UC Berkeley.
Google Scholar
Search the web specifically for scholarly literature, including peer-reviewed articles, papers, theses, books, preprints, abstracts and technical reports from all broad areas of research. A large fraction of scholarly literature is still offline, and until these papers are available online, citation-only results appear. Use Stout's Indexes and Databases for more full text coverage of scholarly journals.
Google Labs
Google labs showcases a few of their favorite ideas that aren't quite ready for prime time.
Ask
Search engine and directory that ranks relevancy based on word order and "popularity", that is, it comes back with a short list of similar questions with answers identified by the sites that previous searchers found most useful. Uses "plain English" in question form or in phrases.
Yahoo!
Yahoo! offers many specialized, customizable services, such as Local Yahoos, Yahoo! Kids, stock quotes, a personal pager service and even your own My Yahoo!. The Yahoo! Search offers specialized search options for images, video, shopping, etc.
Excite
Search engine and directory of reviewed and rated sites. The Excite search engine is very common on the Web, since it is often the software used for site specific searching. Hints: The default operator is OR--in the Basic search mode, use a + before a word to make sure it is included or use the Advanced Search with menus. Boolean operators must be capitalized. Excite does not offer truncation or field limiting; has a stopword list. Features personalization capabilities.
Hotbot
A directory and very fast, comprehensive search engine that indexes the full text of Web sites and Usenet newsgroups. Boolean search options (all, any, boolean phrase) included as options in the pull down menu. Customize your search by using "Advanced Search" (date, domain, language, media type) form. Enclose phrases in " "; use * for truncation; case sensitive; default search operator is AND.
Lycos
A directory and search engine with a number of specialized features. The Advanced Search allows any, all, and phrase searches through pull down menus and +, -, and "" for phrases. Limits by content (books, cities), page field (URL, domain), language, and link referrals. No truncation is available; has no stop words. Lycos Advanced Search.
AllSearchEngines.com
Includes a list of major search engines by topic. Features Foreign Search Engines with links to 100+ search engines in Europe, Asia, South America, Africa, and Australia. Most are in non-English languages and users may need to download programs for reading non-Roman alphabets.
Subject Directories
Selected WWW Resources arranged by topical subject categories; good for browsing.
WWW Virtual Library
A distributed subject directory which has been built by volunteers in a wide variety of specialized areas. Many of the subjects are academic and research oriented.
Yahoo! Directory
The Yahoo! Directory is an online guide to the World Wide Web. It is catalog of sites created by a staff of editors who visit and evaluate web sites, and then organize them into 14 subject-based categories and several sub-categories. Includes both browse and search features.
Meta Search Engines
Search multiple databases simultaneously, often eliminate redundant listings.
Dogpile
Includes the largest number of search engines. Search customization is available. A sequential list is included for each search tool queried. The search default is AND. Use " " for phrase searching. Advanced searching syntax (AND or +; NOT or -, OR) can be used, but then Dogpile will search only the engines that supportthis feature.
Ixquick
Searches 14 engines returning results by evaluating how relevant each of those tools considered the results. It supports regular searches, natural language searches, and advanced boolean searches and knows which engines can handle which types of searches.
MetaCrawler
Searches Google, FAST, Ask.com, Inktomi, About, Looksmart, FindWhat, Overture, and Teoma. Consolidates results into one list. No boolean logic, but can choose between all, any or exact phrase. Customizable advanced search.
Search.com
Is a subject directory of search engines which you can use to find all kinds of information. Includes some "invisible web" sources.
Turbo10
In addition to connecting to the Deep Net, Turbo10 makes browsing faster with its Search-o-meter™ (allows flicking through results without scrolling) and Turrbo10 Topics™ (a new search engine clustering technique that helps you 'home in' quickly on a relevant topic. For example, if you search on 'salsa', Turbo10's algorithm identifies 'dancing' and 'recipes' as two distinct topics.
Vivisimo
Searches Ask.com, Yahoo!, Lycos, Hotbot, and others. Clusters results. Use +, -, " ", AND, OR, NOT, ( ),... to specify your search. Vivisimo will query only those engines that support your chosen syntax. Advanced search.
WebCrawler
Good for photo searches. Advanced Search allows you to change default settings.
Deep Web Services (aka Invisible Web)
Although the services don't actually search the contents residing in tables of databases or nontextual files such as multimedia, graphical images, software, pdf files, which are often not indexed by search engines, they make these databases more visible as alternative sources of information. Journal articles in subscription databases are also considered deep web resources; use Indexes, Articles Databases to access full text journal databases.
CompletePlanet
Includes summaries for results. Use natural language or Boolean searching. Search tips.
The Invisible Web
Links to 10,000 web databases
Special Features
| Domain and site searching | |
|---|---|
| AllTheWeb (Advanced Search) | Google Search: unclesam (gov) |
| HotBot (Advanced Search) | SearchEdu.com(com) |
| SearchGov.com (gov) | |
| Language searching | |
| AllTheWeb | Google (Advanced Search) |
| HotBot (Advanced Search) | |
| Images searching | |
| AllTheWeb | |
| Ixquick | Picsearch |
| TimeLife Pictures | |
Additional Information
Scout Report
Offers high quality information about online resources. Experts locate, research, and annotate resources; site is updated weekly.
Search Engine Showdown
Use this guide to assist in determining which search engine is most appropriate for your search--features, size, speed, content, reviews, search strategies.
Search Engine Watch
Learn more about WWW search tools, how they work and how you can get your site indexed. Specialty Search Engines assist in searching limited resources such as official government sites, newsgroups, databases, software online and more.
Search Tutorial
From UC Berkeley
ZDNet Search Engine Reviews
From PC Magazine
Last Updated: 04/13/2008 and Last Revised: 2005-11-15
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