AltaVista | Ask.com | Excite | Google | HotBot | Go.com | Lycos | Main Portals | Northern Light | Web Crawler | Yahoo


AltaVista
http://www.altavista.com/
One of the most comprehensive, Alta Vista will usually give you thousands of hits in your results if you don't refine your search. Many advanced search features for the expert searcher. Includes a translation function, and an excellent image search tool.

Ask.com
http://www.ask.com/
Natural language searching (you can type in a question instead of using keywords.) The AskJeeves knowledgebase includes sites that have been reviewed for their speed in loading, reliability of content, unbiased information content and ease of use.

Excite
http://www.excite.com/
Good for news and international sites. Comprehensive list of people finders.

Google
http://www.google.com/
Google offers a unique ranking system which provides remarkably relevant results. Developed at Stanford University.

HotBot
http://www.hotbot.com/
Wired Magazine's psychedelic search engine has some unique searching features and is easy to use.

GO.com
http://go.com/
Easy to use; excellent description of sites retrieved.

Lycos
http://www.lycos.com/
Begun as one of the earliest search engines, Lycos is now a comprehensive subject directory.

Main Portals
http://www.mainportals.com/
Main Web Portals, Directory, Index, Guide, Meta Search, Best Search Engines, Top Sites, Biggest Online Super Stores, Shopping Price Comparison, Travel, etc.

Northern Light
http://www.nlsearch.com/
Search results are sorted into categorized folders. Besides websites, searches over 1 million full-text articles which are for sale under $4.00 each.

WebCrawler
http://webcrawler.com/
Simple search provides single-line list of items retrieved.

Yahoo
http://www.yahoo.com
One of the oldest and easiest to use, Yahoo uses only simple search techniques. It is more useful as a subject index/directory as it has categorized thousands of websites under user-friendly headings.

Meta-Search Engines
Meta-Search Engines allow you to do your search in many search engines at once. In most of them you lose the ability to use sophisticated search techniques, but it's a quick way to do simple searches to gather as much information as possible. They are also useful tools for comparing search engines.

Dogpile
http://www.dogpile.com/
One of the best of the meta-search engines, Dogpile presents your results in a very organized fashion.

MetaCrawler
http://www.metacrawler.com/

Subject Indexes/Directories
There are a variety of lists of websites by topics that are created by public libraries, academic libraries, individuals and commercial companies. In addition to our own Search the Net, below are some of the most useful ones. Several of the search engines also have very good subject listings by broad categories, including Yahoo, Lycos,
and Hotbot.

Britannica Internet Guide
http://www.britannica.com/
Subject categories for over 65,000 websites, rated and reviewed by Encyclopaedia Britannica staff, plus the contents of the Encyclopaedia Britannica.

BUBL Information Service
http://bubl.ac.uk/link/
Selected Internet resources covering all academic subject areas
Internet Public Library

The Internet Public Library
http://www.ipl.org/
A virtual reference collection of over 13,000 websites, cataloged by subject.

Librarians' Index to the Internet
http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/InternetIndex/
One of the first indexes produced by a public library, this is now quite comprehensive.

LookSmart
http://www.looksmart.com/
Puts websites into over 12,000 easy to use categories; daily updates.