Web Search Engines

The line has gotten blurred between search engines and subject directories, as search engines include directories (often licensed from Open Directory Project) and directories include search options.

This page:
Search Engines | Invisible Web | About Search Engines | Multiple Search Engines | Search Engine Snooping | Search Engine Fun | Web Search Software

Search Engines

The Big Four:

• Google - Based on quantity and quality of links to a site. The Google Cheatsheet will help you take advantage of special syntaxes. Explore Google Search tells how you can get instant factual information.

See also Google Extensions, About Google, and Search Engine Fun below.

• Yahoo Search - Once strictly a directory that licensed others' search engines, Yahoo now has its own. See also Yahoo shortcuts to search maps, weather, stock quotes, airline flights, and much more.



• Ask.com



• Bing - Formerly MSN and Live.com (Microsoft)
• See also Local Search Engines (U.S.)

Best of the Rest:

• Exalead - Search engine from France offering a proximity operator, thumbnails of Web pages in the results, suggested related terms and categories, and more
• Wolfram Alpha - Calling itself a "computational knowledge engine," WA searches facts and does calculations based on its own database of "curated" facts

Other Search Engines:

• AltaVista - A Yahoo property that's not what it used to be
• FreeSearch - U.K. search engine
• Gigablast - Looks similar to Google, smaller database though
• IceRocket
• Lycos
• Openfind - Search engine emphasizing Chinese-language results
• Overture - Includes paid listings; included in several other search engines' results (formerly GoTo.com)
• See also
• Academic Search Engines
• Directories of Search Engines (below)
• Book Content Search Engines
• Indexes (of journal articles and other material)
• Multimedia Search - For search engines that find images, audio and video files
• Web Portals
• Blog Search Engines
• RSS Search Engines

Custom Search Engines:

These sites let you make your own custom search engine that will search selected sites or topics.

• Gigablast Custom Topic Search - Lets you make a search form for up to 500 Web sites or subsites
• Google Custom Search Engine
• Rollyo
• Yahoo Alpha

Google Extensions:

Google's API makes it possible for others to develop applications that work with Google.

• Google Hacks:
• Web site for the book, Google Hacks, by Tara Calishain and Rael Dornfest (O'Reilly, 2003), which has programs you can use with Google's API, as well as search tips.
• List of hacks in the book
• Google Hacks Archives - Tips from Tara Calishain's ResearchBuzz
• Larry Chase's Best of Google Tools & Tips for Market Resources - Use these tools to check how your pages will do on Google
• Find Forward - All kinds of special Google searches: images, backlinks, blogs, no blogs, RSS, wildcards, etc.
• Google Alert - Lets you know when there are new results for your search
• Google School - All kinds of tips and shortcuts (Lifehacker)
• Google Sets - Get a list of synonyms to add to your search
• Google Sitemaps will help Google search your site. Third party programs can help you make a sitemap.
• Shmoogle - Takes a Google search and presents the results in random order. Find stuff you didn't know was there!
• Soople - Assists with many kinds of expert searches
• Staggernation:
• Google API Proximity Search (GAPS) - Search terms within so many words of each other
• Google API Relation Browsing Outliner (GARBO) - Find related pages or linking pages for a given URL
• Google API Web Search by Host (GAWSH) - Find the top domains for a search
• XooMLe - Google results in XML

Visual Search Engines:

These applications produce visual representations of search engine results (including clustering).

• Clusty
• Grokker - Get results in a "zoomable map" or outline form. Test it with a Yahoo search.
• Kartoo
• Mooter
• TouchGraph

Answer Engines (Natural Language Search Engines):

Ask these search engines a question. Note: Google and MSN sometimes provide answers in response to queries.

• AnswerBus
• Brainboost Answer Engine
• To contact real people, see Ask a Question sites

Invisible Web

The so-called invisible Web is data that's locked up in databases, or it's in non-text formats, but in either case, it's hidden from search engines. See also What is the Invisible Web? (UC Berkeley libraries)

• Beaucoup - 2000+ Search Engines, Indices, and Directories arranged by subject
• Direct Search - Librarian Gary Price's guide to subject databases.
• Invisible Web - Hundreds of sources in all subjects
• Complete Planet - Claims to include over 100,000 databases and specialty search engines from the "Deep Web." Some resources seem oddly classified.
• Invisible-Web.net - Web directory of sources. Based on the book by Chris Sherman and Gary Price
• Profusion - 500 sources arranged in a subject directory and searchable from this site
• See also Web Subject Guides and Open Archives/Digital Libraries

About Search Engines

• Search Engine Showdown (Greg Notess, librarian, Montana State University)
• Search Engine Watch (Mecklermedia)
• Alt Search Engines - Blog covering alternatives to the major search engines, often subject-specific search engines
• Pandia Search Central
• ResearchBuzz - Tara Calishain has search engine news as well as other news of interest to researchers
• ResourceShelf - Gary Price's site often covers search engines
• Search IQ - Reviews general search engines, subject search engines, Web directories, and search tools (ZDNet)
• Traffick: The Guide to Search Engines and Portals
• Web Search (About.com)
• Web Search Service Features
• See also Web Current Awareness, which includes sites that discuss search engine news

About Google:

• Google Blog - Google's official blog
• Google Blogoscoped (a.k.a. Outer Court)
• Google Guide - For novice and experienced users
• Google Inconsistencies (Search Engine Showdown)
• Google Weblog
• Google World - A directory of sites leading to everything you'd want to know about Google [Indicateur.com]
• Watching Google Like a Hawk

Directories of Search Engines:

• GeniusFind - Search engines and directories in many subjects
• Pandia Powersearch - "All-in-one list of search engines"
• Search Engines and Directories (Yahoo)
• Search Engine Colossus - Country-specific search engines
• Search Engine Guide - General and subject-specific search engines
• Search Engines Worldwide
• Web Search Tools (Library of Congress)

Multiple Search Engines

Some of these sites (also known as metasearch engines) let you search several search engines all at once; others list many search engines on a single page (these are sometimes called all-in-one pages).

• A9 - In addition to Web searching, you can search in reference sources, books, movie information, and more (Amazon.com)
• Dogpile
• Excite - Searches several search engines; also a portal service
• Fazzle
• Find.com
• HotBot - Has become a metasearch engine
• Info.com
• Ixquick
• Mamma
• Metacrawler
• My Search
• Netscape's Net Search
• Pandia Metasearch
• PlanetSearch - Searches 12 search engines at once
• Queryserver
• Researchville - Searches news sites, discussion forums, reference sources, and multimedia, as well as standard Web search engines
• Search.com - Now a metasearch engine (CNet)
• Searchmania - 50 Web indexes in one
• Seekz - Searches 15 search engines and clusters results by site
• Surfwax - A metasearch engine with a difference. "Site snaps" give you information stored about the pages in your results. Registered users may save searches and results.
• Topic Hunter - All-in-one page that provides a search box for many different kinds of search engines (metasearch, news, blogs, RSS, directories, as well as the standard major engines)
• Vivísimo - Does clustering
• WebCrawler

Search Engine Snooping

See what your fellow surfers are searching. Some of these are popular searches of the day; others are what people are searching right this minute.

• Google Zeitgeist
• Lycos 50
• Metaspy (Metacrawler)
• Snoop (Search.com)
• Yahoo! Buzz Index

Search Engine Fun

• Disturbing Search Requests - Weird searches that led to users' sites
• Speegle - Have your search results read to you by a woman or man with a Scottish accent

Google Fun:

• Gaggle - Random Google search
• Google Smackdown - See how two terms match up. Similar: Google Duel and Google Fight
• Googlebombing - The attempt to associate a Web site with a particular search statement.
• Googleshare - Like "mindshare," only expressed as a percentage of Google
• Googlewhacking - Find unique results for a pair of words
• Googlism - What Google thinks about someone or something (of course, Google doesn't actually think)

Web Search Software

This software works with your browser to help you search or surf. Some of this software can do desktop searches as well.

• Alexa
• Blinkx - Searches the Web, your desktop, audio and video files
• Copernic
• Subject Search Suite
• UCmore toolbar
• Yahoo Desktop Search

Search Engine Toolbars:

• Ask Toolbar

• Ultrabar
• Yahoo Toolbar