Search Tools (aka "Search Portals"):

You're not going to escape it, so you might as well start with Google, the Web's largest and most profitable search engine--and don't be dubious, Google is good!--but you might begin with Yahoo!, which technically is a directory rather than a search engine, but gives good guidance for most searches.  Don't neglect trying one of the Megasearch engines (listed below).  Perhaps the best place to begin is with Pappa Sterby's Search Page, a smorgasbord of search engines maintained by Ira Sterbakov.  (Keeping abreast of all the search engines grows more impossible each day, but Ira challenges the impossible.)

The catchword for search engines these days is "portals," which is an outcome of the development of Web directories such as Yahoo!   Looking for profits, many engines want to keep you in their browser sights as long as possible so they are piling up selected links. A good recent example is Canadian Content.  This Toronto-based site, apart from being a major Internet service provider, is not unlike Yahoo!,  in its intentions.

Increasingly, search engines are becoming "smart," meaning one doesn't have to use specialized commands or Boolean delimiters to confine a search. A good. recent example is the Canadian-designed, Mamma, nicknamed the mother of all search engines.

Google.com! ignores relevance and searches sites by popularity and produces numbers based on how many other pages point to a site.  Google has become the most-used search tool on the Web.

Another trend is the production of specialized search engines (several examples are included at this link) for particular topics, psychology, religion, sports, for example.


Some, like iWon, have become providers of personal information to advertisers by offering surfers big-money lottery and sweepstakes opportunities.

Searchers for U.S. newspapers should go to the search tools I've highlighted on this site's opening page.

It is impossible to keep up with the changes and developments in search tools. The Internet has reached a point where the best way to learn about a new search tool is to search for it with one of the older search engines.  It works!

For a site that calls itself the "Portal portal" and spends much time reviewing and analyzing search engines, visit Traffick.com.   This is a fine site for researchers who want to stay abreast of what's going on with search tools.  Here, they say, you'll find "Search Engine Enlightenment."

I have a quotation from Charles Brumback, the former CEO of the Chicago Tribune, on my contents page that reads:  "[In the future, the] successful company is going to be the table of contents to the Internet."  The future is here!  If one doesn't believe it, one should visit the site called "Search Engine Watch."  Search engines and directories are big business.  For proof, look no further than Google and Yahoo!


The New York Times recommends:  Places to Start Google So good it became a verb. It includes a search of Usenet discussions, a government search, an image search, maps, local listings and Google Scholar for scholarly literature. A9, from Amazon, adds some interesting twists to Web search. Alta Vista now from Overture, includes audio and video search. Yahoo! Subject guide and free-text searching of the World Wide Web, and many other services The Open Directory Project aims to become the largest Web directory edited by (volunteer) humans All the Web, from Fast Search, is quick and simple Ask Jeeves has several different flavors of search. Ixquick searches multiple search engines and quickly returns filtered results. ProFusion, Excite, Dogpile, CNet Search.com and Metacrawler simultaneously search different combinations of multiple Web search engines Vivisimo searches and categorizes results helpfully Reporter's Desktop conveniently consolidates many ways to find people and things. Hotbot Looksmart searches selected sites reviewed by humans, but emphasizes those who pay for placement. Librarians' Index to the Internet Useful sites organized and annotated by librarians in California and Washington About.com has humans who assemble mini-sites on a wide variety of topics. Britannica adds human judgment to searching, and presents the results in an unusually effective way Searchmil.com searches for information in military (.mil) computers The Hardin Meta Directory catalogs health-related sites Topica and Tile.Net will help you find Internet mailing lists

For complete look at Times' Navigator, click here.

Yahoo!

Yahooligans: Yahoo! For Kids!

Alta Vista: ***At one time the best all-around engine. Still a very powerful tool.

Many think this is the best of the search engines; it has a strong tendency, however, to list useless sites unless one masters its "advanced search" techniques. This engine has been sold and resold several times, and seems to have lost its pioneering edge in the process.  Searchers who learn how to apply a little Boolean logic to a search can often pinpoint their interest.  This engine was developed by DEC, purchased by Compaq, and later acquired by CMGI.  As of this update, AltaVista is paired with Overture.

New York Times' Navigator: **Excellent for editors.

Excite: *A change of management means eXcite is no longer in operation as such.  The new owner is one of the biggest lottery and sweepstakes portals, iWon.

Excite fell on hard times during the economic deconstruction of the Internet in the late '90s.  The International Herald Tribune reported in late 2001 that "a tiny Internet company, iWon, recently picked up the remains of the Web portal Excite.com for less than $10 million -- a pittance compared with the $6.7 billion that Excite was worth on the stock market three years ago."

HotBot: **A favorite of many, especially the 'Wired' crowd.

Dogpile: (Very useful collection of search engines.)

• A popular megasearch engine that uses 20 search engines to find a page.
• My favorite among the Mega-Search engines.  A part of InforSpace.
  

This has become the most popular search engine because of the massive number of "hits" it produces.  Google actually ranks sites by the number of times they are accessed, so it becomes a kind of listing of most popular Web sites.  Also controls a "group" of other search engines.  As the New York Times says, this search engine has become so popular it's a verb!

WebCrawler:

Onekey:

Touted as "the smart search engine" and more recently as the ultimate "kid safe" search engine because it utilizes human editors rather than robotic web crawlers.  It sounds like a great idea; in fact, it sounds a lot like what I'm trying to do single-handedly here with "WebSites for Journalists."

Lycos: 

(developed by Carnegie Mellon U. in Pittsburgh, Pa.). Recent surveys show this is one of the surging search engines. This could be the most thorough of all the search engines.

Looksmart:

Inktomi: (check above)

DejaNews:

Idg.com

If one wishes to search popular literature about information technology, this is the place to do so. Good for people in Internet commerce.

Infoseek: ***Has become one of the leaders and powers many other search sites.

iSleuth (now known as Internet Sleuth):

One of the best organized searchers of search engines on the Web. About as simple and strategic a portal to the WWW as one can design, this publicly traded portal comes from a Florida firm specializing in electronic searching. Its specialty at last perusal seems to be locating colleges and city guides.

Alexa (The "surf engine"):

This is one of a new group of so-called "surf engines" that attempt to limit the number of "hits" and produce a shortcut for Web surfers. Powered by Google and owned by Amazon.com. 

NBCi:  (What used to be SNAP!):

• NBC has invested heavily in this engine, that has been transformed into a news portal.
• Its "top journalism resources" is a wide-reaching list of the best tools.

Ask Jeeves:

• This engine claims a revolutionary linguistic technology that accepts natural language queries.
• My test gave me the impression that Jeeves simply restates the original question into a series of related questions it can answer.

• Another in the rising number of places trying to guide Web surfers to good stuff.  And practical stuff such as finding people by name, phone, etc.
• It includes a quick link to lots of job-search sites, but few that are focused on journalism jobs.
• Another site that provides a neat history of its growth.
  

 Return to top of this page.

Langenberg.com Search: ***Excellent quick-search source.

A Seattle/Tacoma provider of company domain service on the Internet, the Chuck Langenberg Company, has developed its own little megasearch engine with a nifty little reference page as a starting block that will get you to encyclopedias, dictionaries, zip-codes, or deeper searches. For quick reference, this search engine may be hard to beat.

Mamma (The mother of all search engines): **At least in Maple leaf-land.

The Canadian alternative to Yahoo! from some guys who build corporate search engines with specific roles. Called a smart meta search engine, Mamma basically searches all the other search engines it can find. My wife and several of her teacher colleagues at one time were convinced this is the most efficient of all search engines.  Probably not so anymore, if it ever was so.

Encyclopaedia Britannica online (formerly e-blast):

Northern Light:  
http://www.nlsearch.com/

Suite 101:

Workers at this site reportedly "scour" the WWW to find the best sites in particular categories, which basically means they're trained to use search engines.  A German founded company operating out of Vancouver, BC.  A good site for homework and research beginnings.

• A British search engine connected with GreenNet, a group of environmentalists. This has become perhaps the most extensive portal to the Internet in Britain.

NYU list:

Third Age Web Guide:

• A wide-ranging, fully humanized search engine that has become a portal for the older set.  Not bad if you can handle psychobabble and bladderbabble.

• This isn't really a search engine; it's more of a rater of resource guides (such as WebSites for Journalists). It labels itself the "premier Internet resource library," and it gives check ratings (5 checks is excellent) to Internet guides. It can lead a browser to some interesting and valuable places.

PsychCrawler:   [As of June 2006 this site was restructuring itself.  Go back later.]

• For research in human behavior, this special search link from the American Psychological Association will be extremely helpful. The APA also maintains a more generalized search enging for psychology researchers called PsychNet Best Search.

Resource Library Group:

This is a search facility dedicated to libraries that is maintained at a Canadian site.

IxQuick:

Websearch: 

http://www.websearch.com/

Metacrawler:

• A similar comprehensive search engine is Metacrawler:
  http://www.metacrawler.com/

• Part of the InfoSpace stable.

C-net:

• Cnet has its own searcher of search engines located at
  http://www.search.com/

• Searchers will discover, as they say at Cnet, "the only thing growing faster than the Net itself is the number of online search tools to help you." Surveys show that about 65 percent of those who enter the WWW utilize search engines.

• ProFusion, at the University of Kansas, lets you design your own mulitple search; a kind of multiple choice search engine:

ProfNet:

• Reporters e-mail their requests for expertise, and the expert gets in touch with the reporter.


e-mail address:

• Profnet also has a freely accessible website. Visit it at:

Law School Resources:*****One of the most valuable sites on the WWW

• This site is part of the scholarly resources guide of the library at Villanova University Law School.
• A valuable place to browse.

State and Local Government Locator:

• This site is of particular interest to legal researchers.

Topica (Directory of e-mail lists):

• The king of listings of e-mail lists. Topica now owns Liszt, and provides a directory guide to e-mail lists.