The Most Popular Single Search Engines:
Less well-known but Useful Search Engines:
The Best Search Engines:
Google: for fast searching
Hotbot:
for all around searching
Excite: for "conceptual searching"
Northernlight: for "custom search
folders" for narrowing choices to specific categories.
AltaVista: for looking for everything that's been written on a limited topic
About.com
for This is a directory with dozens of specialty areas, each moderated by a
human "guide." The mental health guide is Leonard Holmes, Ph.D. When
you search About.com, you are directed to specialty sites, news items and
discussion forums on the topic that you choose.
The Best MetaSearch Engines:
Savvysearch
: for customized searches using up to 100 search engines
AskJeeves : for using natural language questions
(e.g.,"Is schizophrenia inherited?"
InferenceFind:
for displaying results in categories
Surfwax
: for customizing and saving general search strategy
preferences, and for focusing searches using suggested terminology
Ixquick : for ratings of results based on number of search
engine top 10 hits.
Specialized Search Engines:
The most popular search engine for finding information from news groups is
Deja.com/usenet : for finding information from
news groups.
411:
for finding addresses, phone numbers and e-mail
addresses (The Best!!)
Switchboard
: for finding addresses, phone numbers and e-mail addresses (Mediocre)
Bigfoot.: for finding addresses, phone numbers and e-mail addresses (Costs $$)
WebSEEK :
for finding clip art or images
Invisible Web Search Engines:
Infomine Scholarly Internet
Resource Collections
CNET editor's take (4/2005)
Ask Jeeves's many new features make
it a compelling alternative to Google and Yahoo.
Read full review
Editors' rating: 6.3 Good
The good: Includes Smart Search boxes
with at-a-glance info; MyJeeves portal saves and organizes your search history
and selected results; Binoculars feature gives you a sneak preview of a Web
site before you click; offers downloadable toolbar with desktop search.
The bad: Lacks video or audio
searches; delivers so-so local search results.
The bottom line: While it's weak
on multimedia and local searches, Ask Jeeves's powerful search history,
organizational tools, and one-of-a-kind site preview make it a compelling
choice for students.
Google searches for just about
everything you'd ever expect to find on the Internet--and does it with style.
Editors' rating: Excellent 8.0 out of
10
Average user rating: 7.4 Very good
(from 32 users)
The good: Intuitive interface;
excellent image searches; best-of-class local searches, producing maps with
satellite imagery; cached pages and related links; sponsored links clearly
separated out into the right-hand column; desktop search tool; downloadable
toolbar.
The bad: Multimedia audio search
still in beta; video search is text only; currently, won't save your search
history.
The bottom line: Google's the way
to go for straight Web searching, local results, maps, or image queries, but we
found better engines for multimedia searches.
While we can't recommend LookSmart
for everyday Web searches, we are impressed with its unique FindArticle
feature.
Editors' rating: 5.0 Average
The good: Excellent periodicals
search; archiving tool Furl lets you save a copy of a Web page.
The bad: No image, multimedia, people,
or local search; no cached pages or related links.
The bottom line: LookSmart falls
short when it comes to standard Web searches, but its article searches and
innovative Furl tool are unmatched among the competition.
If you want to find people or find
out what people are talking about, Lycos makes sense, but for all other searches, try Google.
Editors' rating: 5.3 Average
The good: Excellent people and forum
discussion search; decent multimedia results.
The bad: Crowded and confusing search
page; no cached pages; no aggregated, at-a-glance search boxes; no downloadable
toolbar.
The bottom line: Lycos makes the
grade if you're checking up on someone or scouring discussion forums;
otherwise, turn to Google.
Yahoo has added new features that
give Google a run for its money and make Yahoo a compelling alternative.
Editors' rating: 7.7 Very good
Average user rating: 8.0 Excellent
(from 7 users)
The good: Great multimedia
searches; highly customizable; excellent toolbar; desktop searches;
top-notch local and people searches.
The bad: Yahoo shortcuts not as
extensive as AOL Search SmartBox's.
The bottom line: After a few years of
eating Google's dust, Yahoo offers new features that give the reigning search
king a run for its money and make it a worthy alternative.
If you want to customize and save
your search results, A9's your engine.
Read full review
Editors' rating: 6.7 Good
Average user rating: 8.8 Excellent
(from 6 users)
The good: Lets you adjust columns for
dozens of different types of search results; caches pages and site info; saves
search history; includes Web bookmarks and diary; provides downloadable
toolbar; offers complete local searches.
The bad: Cozy relationship with Alexa
raises privacy concerns; no multimedia or people searches.
The bottom line: A9's unique,
personalized approach to search is perfect for those who need a wide range of
results from their queries.
AltaVista offers superb audio and
video searches, but for everything else, you can do better Editors' rating: 5.7 Average
The good: Sleek interface; strong
multimedia searches.
The bad: No local search, people
finder, or Yellow Pages; no cached pages; easy to confuse sponsored links with
actual search results.
The bottom line: This search engine
warhorse offers above-average audio and video searches, but Yahoo boasts
the same features--and more.
Rev: 7/6/2005