Using Search Engines on the Internet

Each search engine has its own strengths and weaknesses. Some of the search engines are faster,  some index more web sites, and get updated more frequently, some are easier to use than others and have more Boolean operators than others. Most search engines support two common search options - Boolean searching and phrase searching.  No two search engines will give you exactly the same results. To get the best search results, try a number of searches with different engines.

One can measure Web search engine value by:
Size, freshness and unique pages
Ranking of results (relevancy or popularity). Relevancy is based on occurrence of your terms and popularity is based on how many other web pages link to a particular page
Advanced search options such as Boolean searching, limiting searches to fields, etc.
Default search mode effectiveness (automatic phrase or proximity valuing, defaults to AND operator)

Major search engines

How to Choose a Search Engine or Directory
Choose the Best Search for Your Information Need
 

Google - has the biggest search engine database in the world. It includes PDF, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint and other file types.  It ranks results by the number of links from pages ranked high by the service. Read more about Google at:
http://www.searchengineshowdown.com/features/google/review.html

Yahoo It is the web's oldest "directory", the largest human-compiled guide to the web. In 2002 Yahoo made a shift to using Google's crawler-based listings for its main results. Since February 2004 Yahoo uses its own search technology. It shows first yahoo results and than Google search results. It's also possible to do a pure search of the Yahoo human-compiled Directory. Use Yahoo when you want to get a list of human-reviewed web sites. Yahoo search interface looks very similar to Google interface. It is not as large as Google but almost like an alternative to Google.
 As of July 2003, Yahoo owns Overture, Alltheweb, AltaVista, and Inktomi.

 AllTheWeb.com (used to be known as FastSearch) - has a huge database (over 2 billion fully indexed, searchable pages). It offers specialized searches for news, pictures, videos, MP3, ftp. It is almost identical to yahoo. Yahoo owns AllThe Web, so all the results are coming from yahoo database.
 
AOL - provides its users with editorial listings that come from Google's crawler-based index. The same search on Google and AOL Search will come up with very similar matches.
One would use AOL search primarily because you are an AOL user. The internal version of AOL search provides links to content only available within the AOL online service. In this way, you can search AOL and the entire web at the same time. The "external" version lacks these links.
If you like Google, many of Google's features such as "cached" pages are not offered by AOL search.
 http://search.aol.com

A9 - is a powerful search engine, created by Amazon, uses web search and image search results enhanced by Google, Search Inside the BookŪ results from Amazon.com, reference results from GuruNet, movies results from IMDb, and more. A9 remembers your information. It is a new way to store and organize your bookmarks.
http://www.a9.com

Lycos started out in 1994 as a search engine but in 1999 shifted to a directory model similar to Yahoo. Lycos main queries come from the Open Directory project; secondary results come from the FAST Search engine.

HotBot - It was launched in May 1996 as Wired Digital's entry into the search engine market. It provides easy access to the web's four major search engines: AllTheWeb.com, Google, Inktomi and Teoma. It is fast and easy way to get results from different search engines at the same time.
 
Ask - search service that directs uses a database originally developed by Teoma.  
Read more about Ask at:
http://www.searchengineshowdown.com/features/ask/review.html

Search engine which focuses upon general reference wikis:
Wiki Search

Sites included are:

Country-Specific Search Engines

Foreign Search Engines
http://allsearchengines.com/foreign.html

World Search - http://www.geocities.com/TheTropics/3579/world.html

 German Search Engine Resources
 http://searchenginewatch.com/sereport/02/09-german.html

Podcast search
http://www.podcast.net/
http://www.prospecttours.co.uk/

Podanza
http://www.podanza.com/
A new podcast directory where you can submit and browse within audio and video podcasts, divided in categories.

Podcast Blaster
http://www.podcastblaster.com/
Podcast Blaster is a podcasting service tracking more than 30000 podcasts.

YouLoud
http://www.youloud.com/

YouLoud indexes podcasts and videocasts so you can add and share favorites. The directory allows you to search, browse the top 100, discover the newest episodes and channels and explore tagged categories.

Specialized Search engines

Specialty Search Engines (SearchEngineWatch.com)
http://searchenginewatch.com/links/article.php/2156351
 
Kids Click http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/KidsClick!/

SciSeek Science Search Engine http://www.sciseek.com/

SearchEdu.com http://www.searchedu.com/ - restricts itself to searching university web sites and has links to related topics in the Open Directory

SearchBug: the Most Useful Searches http://www.searchbug.com/ - includes results of the most common searches, by topic

SearchGov.com http://searchgov.com/ - searches federal, state, local and international government sites

Online Books http://digital.library.upenn.edu/books/ - search over 17,000 full-text books

FindArticles.com http://www.findarticles.com/PI/index.jhtml - indexes and links to magazine articles on the net

News Search Engines

Google News - http://news.google.com/
Yahoo News - http://news.yahoo.com/
AltaVista News - http://news.altavista.com/
AllTheWeb News - http://www.alltheweb.com/?cat=news
NewsNow - http://www.newsnow.co.uk/
Kiosken - http://www.esperanto.se/kiosk/engindex.html
NewsDirectory - http://www.newsdirectory.com/

Blogs, listings, news

Blogdigger - http://www.blogdigger.com
Blogpulse - http://www.blogpulse.com
Feedster - http://www.feedster.com

Multimedia Search Engines

AllThe Web - http://www.alltheweb.com/
AltaVista - http://www.altavista.com/image/default
Ditto.com - http://www.ditto.com
 Yahoo.com - http://gallery.yahoo.com/
Google Images - http://images.google.com
Kazaa Media Desktop - http://www.kazaa.com
MIDI Explorer - http://www.musicrobot.com
Picsearch - http://www.picsearch.com
Singingfish - http://www.singingfish.com
Radio-Locator - http://www.radio-locator.com
PublicRadioFan.com - http://www.publicradiofan.com

Search Personal Pages
http://www.bltg.com/people/
http://www.beaucoup.com/1emaeng.html

Meta Search Engines

Meta search engines search multiple databases simultaneously. They are also referred to as multithreaded search engines, parallel search engines, or mega search engines. Meta-search engines do not build their own databases but use the major search engines and directories already existing on the Internet.

When to use them:
 
to get as many documents as possible with one search statement
you need to retrieve the results very fast
your search is not complex
you have an obscure topic

Vivisimo - http://www.vivisimo.com
EZ2WWW - http://www.ez2www.com/
SurfWax - http://www.surfwax.com/
Kartoo - http://www.kartoo.com/
MetaCrawler - http://www.metacrawler.com
Mamma - http://www.mamma.com/
Search.com - http://www.search.com/
DogPile - http://www.dogpile.com
   
Read more about Meta-Search or Multi-Threaded Search Engines:
http://searchenginewatch.com/links/article.php/2156241 (SearchEngineWatch.com)
http://ww.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/MetaSearch.html (UC Berkeley Library)

Read more about search engines

SearchEngineWatch.com
http://searchenginewatch.com/

Search Engine Reviews
http://searchenginewatch.com/resources/reviews.html

Search Engine Tutorials
http://searchenginewatch.com/resources/tutorials.html

 

Last revised: January 31, 2008
Copyright 2002 Whittier College
Direct questions and comments to webeditor@whittier.edu