Web Search Engines
The line has gotten blurred between search engines and subject directories, as search
engines include directories and directories include search options.
This page:
Search Engines |
Invisible Web |
About Search Engines |
Multiple Search Engines |
Search Engine Snooping |
Search Engine Fun |
Web Search Software
Search Engines
The Big Four:
- Google - Based on quantity and quality of links to a site.
The Google Cheatsheet will help you take advantage of special syntaxes. Explore Google Search tells how you can
get instant factual information.
- Bing - Formerly MSN and Live.com (Microsoft)
- Yahoo Search
- Ask.com
Best of the Rest:
- Duck Duck Go -
Useful information above the links, searches within sites ("bangs"), and more privacy options
- Exalead - Search
engine from France offering a proximity operator, thumbnails of Web pages in the results, suggested related terms and
categories, and more
- Similar Sites - Enter a site and it finds
similar ones
- Wolfram Alpha - Calling itself a "computational
knowledge engine," WA searches facts and does calculations based on its own database of "curated" facts
- Yandex - The Russian search engine
Other Search Engines:
- Find Articles - Combination of articles from CBS News and sites from around the web
- FreeSearch - U.K. search engine
- Gigablast - Looks similar to Google, smaller database though
- Lycos
- Openfind - Search engine emphasizing Chinese-language results
- Overture - Includes paid listings; included in several other search engines' results
(formerly GoTo.com)
Custom Search Engines:
These sites let you make your own custom search engine that will search selected sites or topics.
- Bing Custom Search
- Gigablast Custom Topic
Search - Lets you make a search form for up to 500 Web sites
or subsites
- Google Custom Search
Engine
- Rollyo
- Yahoo Alpha
Google Extensions:
Google's API makes
it possible for others to develop applications that work with Google.
- Google Hacks:
- Find Forward - All kinds of special Google searches: images, backlinks, blogs, no blogs, RSS, wildcards, etc.
- Google School - All kinds of tips and shortcuts (Lifehacker)
- Google Sets - Get a list of synonyms to add to your search
- Google Sitemaps will help Google search your site. Third party programs can help you make a sitemap.
- Shmoogle - Takes a Google search and presents the results in random order. Find stuff you didn't know was there!
- Soople - Assists with many kinds of expert searches
- Staggernation:
- XooMLe - Google results in XML
Visual Search Engines:
These applications produce visual representations of
search engine results (including clustering).
- Clusty
- Grokker - Get results in a "zoomable map" or outline form. Test it with a Yahoo search.
- Kartoo
- TouchGraph
Answer Engines (Natural Language Search Engines):
Ask these search engines a question. Note:
Google and Bing sometimes provide answers in response to
queries.
- AnswerBus
- Brainboost Answer Engine
Web Directories of Search Engines:
- Fagan Finder - Directory of various kinds of search engines, with a box to let you search them directly ("Find anything and everything online")
- Internet Search Engines (Phil Bradley)
Invisible Web
The so-called invisible Web is data that's locked up in databases, or it's in non-text formats, but in either case, it's
hidden from search engines. Also, What is the Invisible Web? (UC Berkeley libraries)
- Beaucoup - 2000+ Search Engines, Indices, and Directories arranged by subject
- INFOdocket - Where librarian Gary Price reports his latest discoveries (Library Journal)
- Ultimate Guide to the Invisible Web (Open Education Database)
About Search Engines
Multiple Search Engines
Some of these sites (also known as metasearch engines) let you search several search engines all at once; others list many search engines on a single page (these are sometimes called all-in-one pages).
- Dogpile
- Excite - Searches several search engines; also a portal service
- Fazzle
- Find.com
- HotBot - Has become a metasearch engine
- Info.com
- Ixquick
- Mamma
- Metacrawler
- My Search
- Pandia Metasearch
- PlanetSearch - Searches 12 search engines at once
- Researchville - Searches news sites, discussion forums, reference sources, and multimedia, as well as standard Web search engines
- Search.com - Now a metasearch engine (CNet)
- Searchmania - 50
Web indexes in one
- Surfwax - A metasearch engine with a difference. "Site snaps" give you information stored about the pages in your results. Registered users may save searches and results.
- TurboScout
- WebCrawler
- Zuula
Search Engine Snooping
See what your fellow surfers are searching. Some of these are popular searches of the day; others are what people are
searching right this minute.
- Google Zeitgeist
Search Engine Fun
Web Search Software and Desktop Search