There are generally two main ways to search for information on the Internet. These are known as Web Subject Directories and Web Search Engines, including Meta Search Engines. If you are in the habit of only searching the Internet one way, we recommend that you review the following information to broaden your understanding of other search options.
Subject Directories, such as Yahoo, generally depend on human editors for their listings. Directories are compiled based on descriptions of Web sites and are listed under one or more subject categories. Some directories only list sites that have been selected as the "best" sites in various subject areas. Directories are a good place to start when looking for information on general subjects and to get an overview of what is available on the Internet. Directories find fewer but often more relevant sites than search engines.
Search Engines, such as Google, create their listings automatically by "crawling" the Web and returning results. They are useful in searching for very specific information, but they are not the best tools for finding sites on broader topics (see "Subject Directories"). Search engines are different in size, search features, and the criteria of documents indexed. Keep in mind that there is no single search engine that covers the entire Web. In order to retrieve the most relevant information, learn to use 2 or 3 search engines well by reading the "Search Guides" for each search engine. ()
Meta Search Engines search many search engines and Web directories simultaneously. The results are categorized by each search engine. Since each search engine includes a different set of sites, meta-search engines are recommended in order to perform the most extensive search possible.
The links below were selected based on their recognition as quality search tools. Remember that Search Engines and Directories are in a continuous state of transformation. For more in-depth information and to stay current with changes, visit: searchenginewatch.com or searchengineshowdown.com.
Infomine originates from U.C. Riverside and is maintained by librarians for the introduction of Internet resources relevant to faculty, students, and researchers at the university level. It provides links to over 100,000 Web sites that have been reviewed and annotated. It offers a unique expanded search feature that allows you to browse by Library of Congress Subjects and Classification System as well as author, title, and Table of Contexts.
"Information You Can Trust" is the motto of Librarians' Index to the Internet (LII). This is a searchable, annotated subject directory of more than 14,000 Internet resources selected and evaluated by librarians for their usefulness to users of public libraries. One very unique feature is that each record is assigned Library of Congress subject headings that can be searched directly from the record.
LookSmart is primarily a human-compiled directory of Web sites. Listings contain both commercial sites that pay to be included and free sites reviewed and added by editors. Note the category listings under the headings of Society & Politics, Reference & Education, and Science & Health. LookSmart also provides an "Article Search" that links to millions of magazine articles both free or for a fee.
Launched in 1994, Yahoo is the Web's oldest Web directory. In 2002 it replaced human editors with crawler-based listings for its main results. You can use tabs above the search box on the home page to find images, Yellow Page listings or Yahoo's shopping search engine. You can still search classic Yahoo by selecting Yahoo Directory. This will take you to a list of Web sites that have been reviewed and approved by a human editor.
For many people Google is the first choice in search engines. Besides searching for Web pages it offers a number of special features. From the home page, click on “more>>” to access a list of Google services and tools. For precision searching, click on “Advance Search” to customize your search strategy by word or phrase, date, Internet domain, and language.
Currently powered by Yahoo, AllTheWeb is lighter and more customizable than Yahoo itself. It offers a clean search interface that supports 36 languages. Other features include advance search strategies for news stories, pictures, videos, and MP3 files.
Formally known as "Ask Jeeves," Ask.com is a "natural language" search engine that lets you enter searches in the form of a question. The results are produced from sites selected as being the most authoritative and popular to best match the topic of your search.
Dogpile searches 26 search engines. Under “Advance Search” you can choose to have results displayed by search engine name or by relevancy to your search term. One of the main benefits of Dogpile are the automatically generated subtopics that can be used to refine search results.
MetaCrawler has a similiar interface to Dogpile. Advance search features and preference setting are identical. MetaCrawler simultaneously searches Lycos, WebCrawler, Infoseek, Excite, Thunderstone, AltaVista, GoTo, and Yahoo. It is known for speed and relevancy.
Vivisimo currently searches only Inktomi, Google, AllTheWeb, LookSmart and Overture. However it does offer an advantage of searching a number of news sources and specialized databases, such as FirstGov or PubMed directly from the search bar. Search results are returned with clustered links that can be selected or searched separately to narrow your topic.
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