Search Engines and Directories
Not finding what you’re looking for?? Try using these tips to improve your search.
Read the help/tip sheets.
If you are searching an exact phrase, put the phrase in double quotes (“ “).
Use the advanced search screen or filters for more precise searching (if available).
Search Engines and Directories
Google – ranks search results by how often other pages on the Web link to the page with reference to the term searched. Links along the top of the search box allow a user to search images, videos, news, maps, and more.
Yahoo – the original Web search engine and directory. Search the entire database at once or comb through the categories provided. Links along the top of the search box allow a user to search images, videos, and Yellow Page listings, as well as Yahoo’s excellent shopping search engine.
Ask.com - features a question-answering system allowing anyone to ask a question in plain, simple English without having to use keywords or Boolean search strings.
AllTheWeb.com – focuses on web searching, but will also search news, pictures, videos, MP3s and FTPs.
AOL Search – a search of Google and AOL Search will produce very similar results. However, if you are an AOL user, the “internal” version of AOL Search provides links to content only available within the AOL online service – effectively searching both AOL and the entire web at the same time.
HotBot – HotBot allows the searcher to search either Ask.com or MSN Live Search. Though not a metasearch engine, HotBot provides a fast, easy way to get different web search “opinions” in one place.
Alta Vista – Search results from Alta Vista come from Yahoo. Tabs above the search box let you search images, MP3/audio, video, human category listings, and news results. Alta Vista also allows you to limit your search to results worldwide or strictly within the US. This search engine conducts searches in 25 languages and has handy translation features.
Gigablast – has a smaller index than some of the major search engines, but is constantly gaining some interesting new features. Gigablast gives you the option to search a human-indexed directory, blogs, travel websites, and government websites (the last three in beta). Keep your eye on this site for more new and interesting features.
LookSmart – LookSmart is primarily a human-compiled directory of websites. There are two ways it gathers its listings. Commercial sites pay to be listed, making the service very much like an electronic “Yellow Pages. Volunteer editors at the LookSmart-owned Zeal directory also catalog non-commercial sites which are integrated into LookSmart’s results.
Lycos – One of the oldest search engines on the Web, Lycos is a customizable search engine which allows you to enter a search string or browse the Web by subject. When searching, the “Fast Forward” feature lets you see search results on one side of the screen and the actual pages listed on the other.
MSN Live Search – MSN Live Search provides access to Yahoo listings, but does not necessarily have as much functionality as Yahoo in terms of other types of searches. With MSN Search you are able to search the Web, images, news, maps, or classifieds.
Netscape Search – Owned by AOL Time Warner, Netscape Search uses Google for its main listings. The main difference between Netscape Search and Google is that Netscape Search will list some of Netscape’s own content at the top of its results. Netscape also has a completely different look and feel than Google.
Open Directory Project – The Open Directory uses volunteer editors to catalog the Web. While you can search the Open Directory itself, this is not recommended. Because it is a human-compiled database, many keyword searches may not find any matching results. Instead trying browsing by subject. Google offers a similar human-compiled directory (Google Directory), which may offer more accurate searching and results.
Excite – Formerly a crawler-based search engine, Excite was acquired by InfoSpace in 2002 and now uses the same underlying technology as other InfoSpace search engines. Excite continues to maintain its own portal features, however. With Excite you can search by topics like money, sports, weather, TV, movies, etc. You can also search images, news, audio, or videos.
Metacrawlers/Metasearch Engines
Unlike search engines, metacrawlers don’t crawl the web themselves to build listings. Instead, they allow searches to be sent to several search engines all at once. The results are then blended together onto one page. Below are some of the major metacrawlers.
DogPile – One of the most popular metasearch sites. DogPile sends a search to a customizable list of search engines, directories, and specialty search sites, including Google, Yahoo, MSN search and Ask.com.
Vivisimo – This metasearch engine not only pulls search results from major search engines, but it also automatically organizes these results into categories so you can easily find what you’re looking for.
Kartoo – If you are a visual learner and like the idea of seeing your web results visually, this metasearch site displays its results visually. Related sites are depicted as interconnecting by keywords.
Mamma – Founded in 1996, Mamma.com is one of the oldest metasearch engines on the Web. Mamma searches against a variety of major crawlers, directories, and specialty search sites.
SurfWax – SurfWax searches against major engines or provides those who open free accounts the ability to choose from a list of hundreds. Using the “SiteSnaps” feature, you can preview any page in the results and see where your terms appear in the document. This site also allows results or documents to be saved for future use.
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