How to Choose a Search Engine or Directory
Fields & File Types |
| If you want to search for... |
Choose... |
| Audio/Music |
akoo.com |
AllTheWeb |
AltaVista |
CNET MP3 Search |
FindSounds.com |
FtpFind |
Genie Knows |
HotBot SuperSearch |
Ixquick Metasearch |
Lycos MP3 Search |
Lycos RichMedia Search |
MSN Search Advanced Search |
MetaMission |
Researchville |
SavvySearch MP3 |
SearchTurtle.com
|
| Date last modified |
AltaVista Advanced Search |
AltaVista Search Assistant |
Hotbot |
HotBot SuperSearch |
MSN Search Advanced Search |
Northern Light Power Search |
|
| Domain/Site/URL |
AllTheWeb Advanced
Search |
AltaVista Search Assistant |
Clickey |
Direct Hit Advanced |
Excite Advanced Search |
HotBot SuperSearch |
Ixquick Metasearch |
MSN Search Advanced Search |
Namedroppers.com |
Northern Light |
Northern Light Power Search |
SearchEdu.com |
|
| Geographic location |
AltaVista Search Assistant |
Excite Advanced Search |
Fossick |
Northern Light GeoSearch |
HotBot SuperSearch |
MetaCrawler Power
Search |
MSN Search Advanced Search |
Northern Light
Geosearch |
Northern Light Power Search
|
| Images |
AllTheWeb |
AltaVista |
The Amazing Picture Machine |
AMICO Thumbnail Catalog |
Corbis |
Diggit! |
Ditto |
FtpFind |
Genie Knows |
Google Image Search |
HotBot |
HotBot SuperSearch |
Ixquick Metasearch |
Lycos RichMedia Search |
MSN Search Advanced Search |
Researchville |
Savvy Search |
Scour |
SearchTurtle.com |
Yahoo! News Image Gallery
|
| Language |
AllTheWeb |
AltaVista |
Excite Advanced Search |
Google |
HotBot |
HotBot SuperSearch |
Lycos Advanced Search |
MSN Search Advanced Search |
Northern Light Power Search
|
| Multimedia & video |
akoo.com |
All TheWeb |
AltaVista |
FtpFind |
Genie Knows |
HotBot |
HotBot SuperSearch |
Lycos RichMedia Search |
MetaMission |
Researchville |
Scour |
SearchTurtle.com |
Snoopa |
StreamSearch
|
| Programming Language |
HotBot SuperSearch |
MSN Search Advanced Search |
|
| Proper name |
AltaVista |
Excite |
HotBot |
HotBot SuperSearch |
Yahoo! Search Options
|
| Title |
AllTheWeb Advanced
Search |
AltaVista |
AltaVista Search Assistant |
Direct Hit Advanced |
Fossick |
Google |
HotBot |
iLOR |
Ixquick Metasearch |
Lycos Pro |
Mamma |
Northern Light |
Northern Light Power Search |
|
| Search logic |
| If you want to use... |
Choose... |
| Boolean operators |
AltaVista Advanced Search |
C4 |
Dogpile |
Excite |
HotBot |
HotBot SuperSearch |
Ixquick Metasearch |
Northern Light |
ProFusion |
WebCrawler
|
Full Boolean logic with parentheses
e.g., behavior and (cats or felines) |
AltaVista Advanced Search |
C4 |
Excite |
HotBot |
HotBot SuperSearch |
Ixquick Metasearch |
MSN Search Advanced Search |
Northern Light |
|
| Implied Boolean +/- |
Most search engines offer this option |
| Boolean logic by template terminology |
AllTheWeb Advanced
Search |
AltaVista Search Assistant |
AOL.COM Search Options |
Excite Advanced Search |
Fossick |
HotBot |
HotBot SuperSearch |
iLOR Advanced Search |
Lycos Pro |
MonkeySweat |
MSN Search Advanced Search |
SavvySearch |
Snoopa
|
| Proximity searching |
AltaVista
Advanced Search |
Google [by default] |
Ixquick Metasearch |
|
| Search options |
| If you want... |
Choose... |
| Alternative search terms |
Direct Hit |
Excite |
Oingo |
SimpliFind |
SurfWax
|
| A user fill-in template |
Excite Advanced Search |
HotBot |
HotBot SuperSearch |
Lycos Pro |
MSN Search Advanced Search |
Snoopa
|
| Case sensitivity |
AltaVista |
Ixquick Metasearch
|
| Search within existing results |
HotBot |
HotBot SuperSearch |
Lycos |
SurfWax
|
| Search for documents similar to those in existing
results |
AltaVista |
Google |
iLOR |
MetaMission |
ProFusion |
|
| Search on related search terms |
Direct Hit |
HotBot |
Lycos
|
| Truncation |
AltaVista |
Ixquick Metasearch |
Lycos |
Northern Light |
Northern Light Power Search |
|
| Automatic truncation |
Excite |
HotBot |
HotBot SuperSearch |
Lycos |
Northern Light |
Northern Light Power Search
|
| Your search stated in plain English |
Albert |
AltaVista |
Ask Jeeves |
Fossick |
Ixquick Metasearch
|
| Translation of pages retrieved as search
results, or any text or Web page, to and from selected languages |
AltaVista
Text & page translators:
Babel Fish
|
| An exact phrase within quotations |
Most search engines offer this option |
| Most phrases within quotations (i.e., phrases
with stop words have special requirements) |
Google |
Lycos |
MSN Search
|
| An exact phrase from a template choice |
AllTheWeb Advanced
Search |
Fossick |
HotBot |
HotBot SuperSearch |
MetaMission |
MonkeySweat |
MSN Search Advanced Search |
Yahoo! Search Options
|
| Search Results |
| If you want... |
Choose... |
| Concept processing applied to your search |
Ask Jeeves |
Atomica |
Excite |
Northern Light |
Oingo |
Query Server |
SimpliFind |
SurfWax |
Teoma |
Vivisimo
|
| Results grouped by concept and/or type of site |
Northern Light |
Query Server |
Teoma |
Vivisimo
|
| Results as a series of questions to help locate
the relevant site(s) |
Ask Jeeves
|
Results based on linking, i.e., number of links
from highly rated Web pages |
Google |
Google Web Directory |
iLOR |
Teoma |
TopClick
|
| Results based on popularity, i.e., selections by other
searchers or rankings by engines/directories |
AOL.COM Search |
Direct Hit |
Ixquick Metasearch |
Lycos
|
| Clustering of results into one hit per site
with the option to see all |
AllTheWeb |
AltaVista |
HotBot |
HotBot SuperSearch |
Lycos |
Lycos Pro |
Northern Light |
WISEnut
|
| Queries stored at the site and notification of
new results |
The Informant |
Karnak |
Northern Light Search Alerts |
TracerLock
|
| Queries stored by the search service for repeat searches |
Copernic
|
| Database Quality, Size, and
Type |
| If you want to search... |
Choose... |
| The deep Web (not covered by search spiders) |
Atomica |
Complete Planet |
Direct Search |
Google |
The InvisibleWeb |
Lycos Directory: Searchable Databases |
MetaIQ |
MetaMission |
ProFusion |
Search.Com |
Search Engines and News |
Subject Directory of Search
Engines |
WebData
|
| Multiple search engines simultaneously with
duplicate records removed |
C4 |
Chubba |
Copernic |
Fossick Meta Search |
Ixquick Metasearch |
Mamma |
MetaCrawler |
MetaMission |
ProFusion |
Query Server |
SearchTurtle.com |
SurfWax |
more...
|
| Usenet newsgroups |
Chubba |
HotBot Usenet |
MetaCrawler |
MetaMission |
Search Newsgroups (Google) |
Yahoo! Search Options
|
| Reference sources (dictionaries, encyclopedias,
e-mail and address lookups, calculators, quotations, news, government info,
statistics etc.) |
Reference Collection (U Albany Libraries)
|
| A professionally evaluated directory |
Argus Clearinghouse |
BUBL Link |
INFOMINE |
Librarians' Index to the
Internet |
Scout Report Archives |
WWW Virtual Library |
more...
|
| A large directory maintained by volunteers |
JoeAnt |
Open Directory Project (DMOZ)
|
| A large but generally unevaluated directory |
Yahoo! |
