Search Engines

The global sprawl of the World Wide Web encompasses information on almost any subject that you might be interested in. Internet search engines are a comprehensive way of locating topical information on the Web.

Popular Search Engines:

All the Web | AltaVista | AskJeeves | DMOZ | Dogpile | Excite | Go2Network | Google | HotBot | Infoseek | IPL
Librarians' Index | Looksmart | Northern Light | OneSeek| Yahoo | WebCrawler

An Index of Search Engines:

Google (www.google.com)

Google makes extensive use direct hit indexing. Wow. If you like to search for more than one concept and you like fast, accurate results, you'll love Google.

Altavista (http://www.altavista.com)

One of the web's largest search engines, AltaVista features large index of web pages plus directory listings. The advanced "Power Search" features plus foreign language translation support make AltaVista a popular service.

HotBot (http://www.hotbot.com)

One of the web's largest search engines, HotBot uses both direct hit and Inktomi search engine indexing. After the direct hit listings, you'll retrieve the search engine indexing. As with Lycos, HotBot's subject listings are an open directory. HotBot remains a favorite of savvy searchers who can take advantage of its in-depth indexing.

Northern Light (http://www.northernlight.com)

Boasting the web's largest index, Northern Light is a very popular and useful site. Northern Light adds "Custom Search Folders" which automatically organize your search results: A very nice touch.

Yahoo (http://www.yahoo.com)

Yes. Yahoo. Yahoo is both an exceptional subject guide and an exceptional search engine. When you search Yahoo, you search both Yahoo's 1+ million web site directory listings plus an Inktomi-generated database of web sites. Yahoo's subject hierarchies organize your search results making it easier to separate the needle from the haystack.

GO (http://www.go.com)

One of the web's upcoming search engines.The search feature has options which differentiate betweem images, audio and video.The channels like abc,espn are the partners for this site

Subject Guides/Open Directories

Yahoo (http://www.yahoo.com)

Yahoo uses human beings to create the best subject guide to the web. Over 150 catalogers maintain a subject directory to over 1 million web sites. True, search engines index more, but you don't always need more than a million web pages to answer a question. Yahoo supplements its subject listing with an Inktomi-based search engine. Yahoo's the best of both worlds.

DMOZ Open Directory Project (http://www.dmoz.org)

In a labor of love, over 13,000 volunteer editors maintain this directory of over 700,000 websites. Use either the subject listings or a search engine to navigate the site. Critics note that the volunteer-nature of this type of service can lead to uneven subject coverage. Advocates for one viewpoint may exclude websites advocating opposing viewpoints and topics without an editor remain excluded.

Librarians' Index to the Internet (http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/InternetIndex)

The Librarians' Index to the Internet is a searchable, annotated subject directory of more than 5,000 Internet resources selected and evaluated by librarians for their usefulness to users of public libraries. Use this site if you are tired of search engines or prefer to browse for information through subject pages.

Metacrawlers:

Search multiple search engines from the same web site.

InFind (http://www.infind.com)

InFind is the first and only search tool that calls out in parallel all the best search engines on the internet, merges the results, removes redundancies, and clusters the results into neat understandable groupings. Search engines 'metacrawled' include WebCrawler, Yahoo, Lycos, Alta Vista, InfoSeek, and Excite.

Go2Network Metacrawler (http://www.go2net.com)

Search major search engines simultaneously and view results by relevancy, search engine or site. View options prove a tremendous help in organizing your results. Search engines 'metacrawled' include Yahoo, Lycos, AltaVista, Excite, Infoseek and many others.

Dogpile (http://www.dogpile.com)

Search major search engines simultaneously. Only one default display view for your results: Listed by search engine. Use "Custom Search" to change order search engines are searched and, therefore, change the order of your results. While the Go2Netwok Metacrawler does a better job of displaying results, Dogpile boasts usesnet, ftp, and news search options plus an open directory project.

OneSeek (http://www.oneseek.com)

OneSeek allows you to search multiple search engines, but unlike Metacrawler and Dogpile, your search results are not aggregated into a single, custom display. Instead, OneSeek displays each search engine result in a frame, one at a time. First you may see your search results in AltaVista. Next you may go to GoTo.com.

About Search Engines

The best site to read & keep up to date with the ever-changing world of search engines is Search Engine Watch (http://www.searchenginewatch.com). Search Engine Watch provides news, reviews, and information for webmasters and surfers alike.

Glossary

Direct Hit:

Indexing that is a popularity ranking based upon how many users go to a site after finding that site in a search. The more users go to a site, the higher it appears in the index, the more likely you will be of finding that site. Direct Hit sells direct hit indexing to other web search sites.

Inktomi (http://www.inktomi.com):

Service that generates indexing for many search engines. Hotbot and Yahoo are two web sites that purchase indexing from Inktomi.

Open Directory:

A website search engine and subject guide which uses volunteer editors to select, describe and manage the content of the site.

Search Engine:

A database which indexes web pages and web sites. Different search engines use different indexes and methods of ranking pages.

Subject Guide:

A website which uses subject and topic hierarchies to organize websites. Yahoo is a subject guide.

More definitions? Try the Search Engine Glossary from the Search Engine Watch web site (http://www.searchenginewatch.com).