SEARCH ENGINES                                                

Search Engines
        

Search engines constantly scour the net using robots or spiders to find information. The search engines put the information into databases which they continually update. There are well over a billion web pages on the net with many more added each day. No search engine has catalogued all these pages, so it is wise to try different ones when your first efforts fail. Each engine has its particular strengths and weaknesses. As these engines rely on robots to find information, they will also return irrelevant data during your search. Often the best place to start searching, especially if you are have a well-defined topic, is in Subject Catalogs or Directories which are compiled by human beings. Some of the search engines listed below have subject directories. Search engines usually have a help feature to guide you on how to get the most out of your searching.

Fast  The name says it all.  Claims to have index of over 500 million URL's.

Alta Vista has full text of over 350 million Web pages. Will translate pages into other languages. Has a translation service for the user as well. Has a nice feature of grouping results in a table for more refined searching. Provides access to Usenet groups as well. Useful for image searching. It uses Looksmart's subject index.

* Northern  Light is rated as number one search engine for advanced searching by PC Magazine this year. Has a large index of over 330 million pages and groups results into folders for easier access to relevant items.

HotBot is another powerful search engine. It indexes over 400 million pages and has a speedy retrieval system. It is known for its refinement of the search process. Excellent for images and multimedia. It also uses Looksmart's subject index.

Excite medium sized search engine of about 250 million pages. It has what is known as conceptual searching. Provides a nice refined search feature. It has an excellent news search service. Contains a browsable subject index.

InfoSeek medium sized search engine of about 45 million pages. It is known for the quality of its searches. Searches Usenet. Contains a good browsable subject index.

Google bases it searching on a web page's linking i.e. the number of links from highly rated pages. It has indexed over 1 billion pages, but claims it has better results because of its PageRank technology. Has an interesting "I feel lucky" feature.

Lycos is one of the oldest search engines and, despite its medium index of 50 million pages, one of the most popular. It has a good index of images and sound including MP3. It also has an excellent subject directory of reviewed sites.

KidsClick designed by librarians for kids.

Kids Search Engines  a listing of sites suitable for searching by children

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Meta-Search Engines

Meta-search engines search several search engines at the same time. They organize the results for you and have the advantage of more complete results. The disadvantage is that they are slower and cannot take advantage of all the advanced searching techniques.

Search Engines Worldwide Search by country

MetaCrawler

Dogpile

SavvySearch

AskJeeves Allows for natural language questions

Specialized Search Engines

One of the disadvantages of using search engines such as Hot Bot or Alta Vista is the number of items returned which match your keyword. Perhaps you need a specialized search engine. Fortunately, Beaucoup has organized over 2000 search engines on one site. It is worth a visit.

Directory of Search Engines provides a list of 67 search engines

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Information on Searching

If you are interested in learning more about search engines and how to use them to advantage there are several sources on the internet. Some of these sites offer excellent tutorials. A good place to start is at Berkeley University. Other very informative sites:

Search Engine Watch tutorials and a good explanation of search engines
Internet Basics at the Northwest Educational Technology Consortium
Web Searching, Sleuthing and Sifting complete tutorial
Search Tools Chart and Search Engines Quick Guide
Internet Search Zone Beginner, intermediate and advanced searching
Kid's Search Tools
Search Engine Showdown

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