Internet Search Engines -- Probably More than You Wanted to Know

- submit questions in plain English and view suggested relevant sites; also offers the Open Directory ranked in order of popularity " Google - ranks pages by tracking the links links from pages ranked high by the service, including results from the Open Directory Project .<br><br> Google offers a number of Services & Tools that are worth exploring, including: o Google Groups , a Usenet newsgroup archive o Google Language Tools , for locating pages written in particular languages and located in specific countries and a translation service o Google Search: Unclesam , a searchable database of U.S. government Web sites (.gov and .mil) ranked by link popularity o Google Web Directory, which uses Google ranking technology with the Open Directory Project " HotBot - offers easy form-based Boolean, field, and media search options; includes its channel content with the results for searches on broad or popular terms; clusters results by presenting one hit per site " iLOR - presents results from other search services and offers options to view and manipulate results in various ways. NOTE: options are available when you download the free software HydraLinks " Lycos - emphasizes search results from the Open Directory and offers Web sites from the FAST Search index " MSN Search - derives results from a variety of sources, including the LookSmart directory, Ask Jeeves and others; applies concept matching to search statements; and offers an advanced search option with form-based field searching similar to HotBot " NetNose - users rate search terms relevant to Web sites to determine the engine's content and rankings " RLIN AMC database - the RLIN Archival and Manuscripts Control database " SearchEdu.com - service that limits results to the .edu, domain; also offers to search well-known dictionaries, encyclopedias, almanacs, etc.<br><br> See also: o SearchGov.com - .gov domain o SearchMil.com - .mil domain " Thunderstone Website Index - search thousands of sites (vs. Web pages) from a continuously updated database Internet Search Engines created by PAHS Library Information Services page 1 " Teoma - returns results in three sections: popularity-ranked Web pages based on the number of same- subject pages that reference them; suggested terms to refine a search; and link collections created by topic experts WISEnut - offers a large database and a companion directory of topics related to a search " Meta Search Engines Internet Search Engines created by PAHS Library Information Services page 2 Retrieve Collated Results (limited number with duplicates removed) " Chubba - search the Web, a dictionary/thesaurus and encyclopedia " Clusty - beta tool from the creators of Vivisimo that clusters results from a variety of surface and deep Web sources and organizes them into clusters by topic, site or URL; also offers a variety of customization options " Copernic - client software that searches multiple engines and directories, removes duplicates and dead links, highlights search terms in your results, and offers a variety of search and retrieval options " Dogpile - search 20+ search engines and retrieve results by relevance or separate source engine; also presents concept clusters for viewing results organized by keywords or topics " FastSeeks - retrieves results from a variety of directories and search engines as well as its own directory; its directory may also be browsed " Fazzle - searches several search services on the Web, and also offers specialty searches of downloads, images, video and other topics on the deep Web " GenieKnows - searches 25+ engines and directories and ranks results based on the number of sources listing a page; chooses sources to search based on consumer input; also offers searches of multimedia types " iBoogie - offers searches of the Web and multimedia, and supplies real-time concept clustering of results " InfoGrid - offers meta and news searching; portal interface also features the Open Directory, topical InfoGrids, with additional customization of topics available in a free download " Infonetware - categorizes search results into component subtopics with options to select multiple topics for a new set of topics and a filtered results list " Ithaki - searches engines, directories, and also numerous deep Web sources " Ixquick - search engines, directories, news and MP3 files; ranks results based on top ten rankings from the source sites; allows any type of search syntax and will translate and direct your search accordingly " Kartoo - categorizes content into relevant concepts and sites and displays results on a graphical map; requires Flash or offers an HTML version " KillerInfo - retrieves information from the general Web and various topic-specific sources and organizes results into concept clusters based on Vivisimo's technology " Mamma - retrieve results in relevancy ranked order; power search offers a user-friendly template for building a query " MetaCrawler - retrieve results in relevancy ranked order; useful power search available with a template of search options " metaEUREKA - sorts results by relevancy and offers a "Site info" link that returns information on the server, date last modified, size, and descriptive information if available; also links to site history via the Wayback Machine and popularity ratings from Alexa " Metor - searches multiple engines, directories and databases; offers the option to see the size, date and availability of the document, to extract the context of your search terms within the document, and to navigate user-selected results within a frame " Mooter - meta engine in beta that presents initial search results in graphical format and organizes results into concept clusters " Pandia Search Central - searches multiple engines and directories and also offers searches of news, books, music, videos and other specialty databases; includes a searchable version of the Open Directory " ProFusion - meta engine that allows results to be sorted by relevance, title and URL; offers topic- based vertical search groups for targeted searching " Query Server - offers queries of the general Web, or health, money or government sites and organizes results by concept, by site, or by both " SurfWax - offers options to see a quick view of sites in the search results list to determine relevancy and choose alternative search terms for a subsequent search from a thesaurus; offers personalization options " Turbo10 - retrieves results from multiple sources, including the deep Web, and offers sorting by speed and relevance; also offers concept clusters to organize results into keywords and subtopics " Virtual Learning Resources Center - searches several high quality directories; also offers its own directory " Vivisimo - searches multiple engines and directories and organizes results into topical categories " ZapMeta - organizes results by relevance, popularity, title, source or domain, allows users to set preferences, and features a useful advanced search interface Retrieve Results From Each Site Separately (more comprehensive results) " Researchville - opens multiple browser windows with search results from the originating search service; searchable categories includes news, Web guides, reference, opinion and multimedia " Webtaxi - use a helpful template to build search types and access your results separately at each site; click on "Search" button for numerous meta-search options Search Engine Collections [Many also include directories] " Beaucoup - compilation of 2000+ engines and directories organized by category; also offers a meta search capability " EZ-Fund - search 12 search engines individually from the same site " Lookoff - offers a categorized collection of search services on the Web; also allows you to query the collection and retrieve suggested search services to use " SearchBug.com - offers searches organized by topic, and searching of single or multiple search services " Search Engine Colossus - directory of hundreds of search tools from more than 200 countries around the world " Search Engine Guide - topical collection of 3000+ engines, directories and portals " SearchIQ - categorized collection of engines and directories from the SearchIQ search engine informational site Specialty Search Engines Internet Search Engines created by PAHS Library Information Services page 3 Deep Web The so-called "deep" or "invisible" Web consists of content stored in searchable databases mounted on the Web. These databases usually cover a targeted topic or aspect of a topic.<br><br> Search engine spiders cannot or will not index this information. There is a huge number of searchable databases on the Web. The following is a selection of sites that collect searchable databases on the Web.<br><br> " CompletePlanet - offers searchable access to thousands of databases on the "deep Web" for results that include summaries from the retrieved site " Direct Search - large compilation of links to the search interfaces of a wide variety of research resources on the Web compiled by Gary Price " Invisible-web.net - searchable directory of quality databases on the Web compiled by Chris Sherman and Gary Price as a companion to their book The Invisible Web: Uncovering Information Sources Search Engines Can't See " ProFusion - meta engine that also offers searches of multiple "vertical search sources" on the deep Web organized into topical categories Search.Com - dozens of topic-based databases from CNet " Domain Names " Checkdomain.com - search for the availability of a domain name in nearly every country of the world " Clickey - search for words contained in a domain name, or keywords contained in a brief record, with options to limit searches to a country, state and city " Namedroppers.com - allows searches for domain names with multiple keywords and the ability to limit to .com, .net, .org and .edu domains; results link to the domain's Web site when available and to the InterNIC Whois record " Registry Whois Search - search the database of registered domain names on the site of Network Solutions, the company that registers many domain names Whois Finder - domain search service that supports most top-level domains " FTP Search Tools " FileIndexer.com - offers searches by file name, file type and size from a collection of sites that are added daily " FileWatcher.org - FTP search engine with useful advanced options for constructing searches and ordering results " Ftpsearchengines.com - "file finding portal" listing FTP sites on the Web " Oth Net Internet Search Engines created by PAHS Library Information Services page 4 - searches multiple FTP sites by keyword Multimedia & Images " AltaVista Image Finder - searchable collection of multimedia on the Web: search by media type: images, videos or audios " The Amazing Picture Machine - searchable collection of a variety of image types including architecture, animals, maps, artwork, world leaders and more " Ditto - offers searches for images by word or phrase " FindSounds.com - searchable collection of sounds and sound effects on the Web, with options to hear similar sounds, and to search for sounds by mono/stereo, resolution, sample rate and file size " Lycos Multimedia Search - search tool for audio, video and pictures " Picsearch - offers image searching by word and phrase; also offers and advanced search for animations/non-animations, color/black & white, and size " Singingfish - searches streaming content including music, movies, news, radio, sports, television and finance " SpeechBot - experimental search engine of popular U.S. radio shows, offering the option to listen to an audio clip containing your search terms " TimePix - commercial site offering free access to more than 22 million photos, prints and illustrations taken from popular Time-Life magazines and the historical Mansell photograph collection; registration required " Yahoo! News Image Gallery - presents current news photos and a searchable directory of archived news phos to New Page Tracking " Google Alert - free e-mail alert service to save a search and have it run regularly against new pages on Google " Karnak - searches hundreds of Web sites, stores the results online, and e-mails you notification of the results; premium fee-based service tracks additional queries and offers customization options " TracerLock - saves your search query and tracks AltaVista for pages matching your search terms; the first ten results are sent to you in an e-mail " Webspector - software that tracks changes to a user-defined list of Web pages and highlights areas of the pages that have changed; email alerts can also be sent http://library.albany.edu/internet/engines.html Internet Search Engines created by PAHS Library Information Services page 5<br><br>

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