Search Engine and Directory Snap Shot
The web offers a variety of search engines and directories for finding a particular site or for locating groups of sites on a variety of topics. Engines and directories vary in the subjects they cover and the actual sites they index. Keep in mind that due to copyright and licensure, not everything that exists is on the open web.
Google
http://www.google.com
This is the search engine every one uses. It has a reputation
as the biggest, the best, and the easiest. While Google
searches its way through large amounts of information, it mixes term
paper mills, commercial sites, and others of poor quality with
high quality offerings. Google works best when you have
a particular site or organization in mind. Google also has shared
aggregate search statistics and histories with the government, and gives top placement
to sponsored links and sites buying space through its Ad Sense program.
Scroogle Scraper
http://www.scroogle.org/cgi-bin/scraper.htm
This is the Google search engine but with enhanced privacy and no advertisements
or sponsored links. If you enjoy searching Google, consider using Scroogle instead.
Bing
http://www.cuil.com
Formerly, Windows Live, Bing is Microsoft's answer to Google. Bing
offers robust results often in a different order from those on Google.
It also has an incredibly smooth and speedy map search, and an
intuitive and attractive interface.
Cuil
http://www.cuil.com
A very new engine with newer software behind it than Google.
Cuil claims to search three times as much material as Google,
and indeed it does give different results. Cuil presents results
with small, snap shot style, screen views and fairly
large text excerpts to help you better decide if they are for you.
It also suggests new terms to try in upper right corner of the screen.
Clusty
http://www.clusty.com
Clusty searches using multiple engines and presents results with preview
images and large chunks of text. It also provides hints for improved searching. Its image
search presents results in an inviting three column format and shows
them on a separate page without an unwieldy stripe or banner.
The Open Directory Project available as...
Dmoz
http://dmoz.org
Google Directory
http://www.google.com/dirhp
This is a searchable directory maintained by live human editors
who screen out obviously off topic and poor quality pages.
This means improved results. The Open Directory also has a
search engine. Dmoz.org is the original advertising free version.
About.com
http://www.about.com
Despite poorly disguised sponsored links, pop-ups, pop-unders, and a big stripe,
About.com features not only web pages selected by human Guides
who are experts in their fields, but also articles and material that the Guides
themselves contribute. About.com works especially well for consumer health
and nonacademic subjects such as hobbies and sports. It
is an especially good source for clip art.
Altavista.com
http://www.altavista.com
Before Google was "the search engine," Altavista held that honor.
In many ways, it still outshines Google. It offers more search options including
Boolean logic, restriction by field, and a fairly
sophisticated image and music search capability. Altavista's software powers
Yahoo's search engine. When you do not find
something on Google, Altavista is a good place to look.
Ask.com
http://www.ask.com
Ask.com provides suggestions for narrowing down topics as well as page previews.
Ask has registration for saving searches and lets registered users choose a custom
background for the site. Its image searching uses an inviting, muticolumn format
for display and often returns results that Google fails to find.
Kartoo.com
http://www.kartoo.com
Kartoo, takes a different approach returning not only pages on your topic,
but also those on related themes and those that link to a known page
that you request. You can display results on Kartoo as either a familiar
list or a graphic map. Kartoo's search engine requires Flash and
is slow on older machines.
HONcode Hunt
http://www.hon.ch/HONcode/Hunt/
A gateway to medical sites that allows users to screen out the hucksters
and quacks and retrieve only trusted information simply by
selecting HONcode sites from the grey menu
above the search box. HON, which stands for Health
on the Net, screens medical sites for quality and credibility.
Infomine
http://infomine.ucr.edu/
Infomine is a search engine that covers only scholarly
web pages. Due to copyright, it has few, if any,
full text articles. It does include government and reputable news
souces. It also screens out term paper mills, and blatantly commercial sites.