SEARCHING THE INTERNET
SEARCHING HELP:
Nueva School Library Research Page which provides hints on which engines to use depending on the type of information for which you are looking.
If you are looking for more information on search engines, directories or metacrawlers, try Search Engine Watch which reviews the engines and keeps up with new ones as well.
SEARCH ENGINES AND WEB DIRECTORIES:
Search engines and web directories (or guides) are terms which some people may use interchangeably but they are in fact different tools. A search engine is powered by a computer program which performs a search. Students will receive results that may or may not be relevant. A web directory is composed of sites compiled by humans or editors. Search results have been reviewed and are more likely to be relevant hits. The confusion may exist because some directories have search engine capability as well. Below is a list which contains links to some of the more popular engines and directories on the web.
AltaVista This is one of the largest search engines on the web in terms of pages indexed. You can also search images, audio, video, or news by clicking the gray tab at the top of the search box.
Dogpile A popular metasearch site that sends a search to a customizable list of search engines, directories, and specialty search sites.
Excite One of the most popular search services on the web, Excite integrates non-web material such as company information and sports scores when appropriate.
FAST Search Formerly called All The Web, it tries to index the entire web.
Google This search engine uses link popularity as a primary way to rank web sites. This is helpful for general searches.
HotBot This is a favorite for research because of its large index and the ability to customize a search.
LookSmart This is a human-compiled directory of web sites. It also provides results to MSN Search, Excite, and other partners.
Northern Light This search engine features one of the largest indexes of the web. It also includes a directory.
Webcrawler This search engine claims to have no banners or popups. They search eight other search engines.
Vivisimo This is a cluster search engine. Try it for organizing your searches.
Yahoo This is the web's most popular search service and helps people find information easily. It is the largest human-compiled guide on the web.
METACRAWLERS:
Unlike search engines, metacrawlers don't crawl the web themselves to build listings. Instead, they allow searches to be sent to several search engines all at once. The results are then blended together onto one page. Below are some of the major metacrawlers:
Dogpile owned by InfoSpace
Family Friendly Search searches Yahooligans, AOL Kids, and Kids Click
Metacrawler also owned by InfoSpace