What do you need to find, and what do you already know? |
What is the best resource to make use of? |
| I know what I'm looking for, and I can describe it with some key words | Google is always a good bet, since it has the largest index. |
| Yahoo Search is useful if Google doesn't do it for you. | |
| MSN Search is getting better and may provide results if the other two don't work. | |
| I have an exact phrase that I want to search for | Any of the above, with "double quotes" around the phrase will do the trick. |
| I want a quick factual answer | Microsoft Encarta provides factual information to questions |
| Ask Jeeves can sometimes be worth asking, if you tightly phrase your question | |
| Brainboost is new, but seems to work quite well. | |
| Factbites is also new. Good for very specific search terms | |
| Answers.com Good standby. Viewed by many as the resource for facts | |
| I want to compare results from different search engines | Jux2 will compare results from Google, Yahoo and Ask Jeeves |
| Thumbshots Ranking compares results from Google, Yahoo, Alltheweb, AltaVista, MSN, Teoma, Wisenut. | |
| TurboScout allows you to type in the search once, then run it across 23 different search engines. | |
| I want an overview of a subject. | Yahoo Directory provides 14 main categories |
| Google Directory provides access to 16 main categories | |
| The Open Directory Project provides access to 16 main categories | |
| I want some suggested categories to narrow my search | Clusty suggests narrower topics to search under |
| Teoma suggests categories and collections of resources by experts | |
| Wisenut also has category suggestions | |
| I want a small collection of websites I can look at | Any of the three engines above will give you access to websites, rather than pages |
| I need recent additions to search engines | GooFresh from Research Buzz for new additions to Google |
| Exalead Advanced Search to limit by time | |
| AlltheWeb Advanced Search has a date limiting function | |
| I want to see thumbnails of pages before visiting them | Icerocket automatically provides thumbnails |
| Exalead will show thumbnails and loads the page locally for you to see it | |
| ZapMeta has a quick view option | |
| I want to do a comprehensive search across search engines | eZ2Find is a meta search engine with access to 6 major engines |
| Ixquick has a nunber of UK based engines in its collection | |
| Fazzle gives you a percentage result | |
| I want to re-rank or re-order my results | Exalead Advanced re-ranks by date |
| MSN Search Builder re-orders on update/popularity/accuracy | |
| Google Personalized will re-rank based on your interests | |
| ZapMeta re-ranks on popularity, title, source, domain | |
| I want a more personalised search experience | Personalised Google Emphasis subject areas of importance |
| Eurekster is good for groups of people | |
| My Jeeves storage, access from different computers | |
| I don't know how to spell what I'm looking for | Exalead Advanced search allows you to search for approximate spelling or phonetic spelling |
| The Reverse Dictionary will suggest words based on your suggestions | |
| Dictionary.com can suggest correct spellings for you | |
| I want a visual representation of my results | Kartoo provides a visual indication of importance of results and links between them |
| Mooter provides an initial visual representation | |
| WebBrain displays a visual representation above, and links below | |
| I need to search for different file formats | Google Advanced search for .pdf .ps .doc .xls .ppt .rtf |
| Exalead Advanced for .txt .pdf .doc .xls .ppt .rtf .wpd .swf | |
| I need to find websites that I can trust | Pinakes provides a list of Virtual Libraries with links to sites chosen by experts |
| Librarians' Index to the Internet sites are chosen by librarians | |
| The World Wide Web Virtual Library provides access to virtual libraries | |
| I need access to academic resources | Infomine for scholarly internet resource collections |
| Scirus provides access to scientific information | |
| Google Scholar provides access to scholarly articles | |
| SMEALSearch for Academic business information | |
| I want to search geographically | Country search engines is my list of over 2,500 country search engines |
| Teoma Advanced has a regional search option | |
| Many search engines have regional versions - replace the .com with the country code | |
| I want to search the hidden web or the invisible web | Turbo10 searches over 700 deep web search engines |
| Invisible Web is a small collection of high quality resources | |
| eZ2Find suggests appropriate databases once a search has been run | |
| ProFusion has access to hundreds of specialised search engines | |
| I need to find images | Google Images has over 1 billion indexed |
| Yahoo Search has over 1.5 billion images | |
| Fagan Finder lists several dozen good engines | |
| I need to find moving images | Yahoo! Video Search broad search |
| Google Video Search for recent television programmes | |
| Blinkx TV video search | |
| I need to find sounds | FindSounds for sound effects and musical instruments |
| I want to find out detailed information about a certain site | link:www.sitename.com in a search engine tells you who links to it |
| The Wayback machine may be able to show you an archived version of a site | |
| Better Whois shows ownership for top level domains | |
| Alexa provides traffic details and related sites | |
| I need search engines suitable for children | Kids search tools wide variety of useful resources |
| KidsClick! directory listings, chosen by librarians | |
| Yahooligans! for children aged 7-12 | |
| I want to find people | Internet Address Finder US biased, but still useful |
| 192 for UK individuals | |
| British Telecom Directory Enquiries | |
| I want people's opinions on a subject | Google Groups provides access to newsgroups |
| Daypop searches weblog entries | |
| Technorati searches weblogs in more depth | |
| I want current affairs and news information | Google news over 4,000 news resources |
| BBC it's the BBC - what else to say? | |
| MSN Newsbot, wide variety of resources, slightly US biased | |
| I want information on particular words | Online Etymology Dictionary Large and impressive collection |
| World Wide Words International English from a UK viewpoint | |
| Anagrams Very good utility for finding anagrams. | |
| Acronym Finder is extremely good | |
| What's new on the Internet? | Neat New Stuff from an American Librarian, Marylaine Block |
| Librarians Index to the Internet new sites that have been discovered and listed | |
| USA Today web guide is fairly eclectic | |
| I want local information (UK local) | Google provides local information by adding in a place |
| Streetmap for UK information on places, streets and postcodes | |
| UpMyStreet for UK information on particular areas/regions | |
| Google Maps for the UK | |
| I want to share or view bookmarks | FURL excellent for saving pages and sharing them with others |
| SPURL is very similar to FURL | |
| Del.icio.us for social bookmarking | |
| Connotea online reference management service for scientists from Nature | |
| My Bookmarks is the one that I've been using just for bookmarks. |
This is a collection of search engines and similar resources that I use on a regular basis when I'm looking for different types of information. It's not an exhaustive list, nor is it comprehensive. It's a list of what I personally find very useful.
Other similar lists exist - I'm not pretending that mine is original in concept. You might also want to try:
| I hope that you find this page to be of use to you: if so, please consider making a small donation to help me keep my site free. |
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