 |
Search Resources | Subject Guides | Services | Instruction | Help | Libraries | Home | SPC Home
Search Engines
|
|
|
|
|
- TeRespondo
-
Metacrawler that
searches Spanish language web sites. Searchers can narrow to a Latin
American country.
Subject
Directories
- ArgusClearinghouse
- Subject experts review and rate web sites. Topical guides offered, but only selected subjects are covered.
- BigEye
- Well organized site that uses broad categories to cover consumer interests and research information. some headings : Healt & Fitness, Kids' sites, Financial Center, Liberature Center, Space Center.
- Britannica.com
-
Encyclopaedia
Britannica's selected web sites, the encyclopedia, and magazine
articles can be searched from the first page but allows search of whole Internet from
Advanced Search page.
- Infomine
- From University of California Riverside, this directory offers "Scholarly Internet Resource Collections."
- Librarian's Index
- From web site information: "The Librarian's Index to the Internet is a searchable, annotated subject directory of more than 7,000 Internet resources selected and evaluated by librarians for their usefulness to users of public libraries." Maintained by Carole Leita on the Berkeley SunSite with a team of librarians' input.
- LookSmart
- Submitted search first sent to LookSmart's own directory of sites collected by topic. Then Inktomi's database is searched if no results found from LookSmart.
- StudyWeb
- Web sites are selected for their ability to support school curriculum from elementary school through college. Web sites are assigned grade levels. This directory is an excellent choice for teachers preparing lesson plans.
- WWW Virtual Library
- From Web site information-"is the oldest catalog of the web, started by Tim Berners-Lee, the creator of HTML and the web itself." Broad topics include Agriculture, Business and Economics, Computing, Humanities, Science. The Law categories can be searched with an internal search engine.
- Yahoo
- Older subject directory that also offers general search of the Internet. Subject categories human evaluated. Use + for required words in simple search and quotation marks to enclose a phrase. Searches Yahoo's own directory first, and then uses Google as a search engine. Most relevant sites are displayed first. Advanced search offers ability to narrow into Usenet sites, Web, or just Yahoo.
Discussion
Lists, UseNet Newsgroups- Google Groups
- Offers a directory of sites leading to discussion group types. Some types offered are comp. for computer discussions and talk. for current issues.
- LISZT
- TileNet
- Offers ability to search among discussion and information lists, Usenet News groups, and ftp sites. TileNet also allows a search of omputer product vendors, and Internet and web design products. Offers subscription to some free e-mail publications.
- Search the List of Listss
- Produced by Vivian Neou. Internal search engine to locate lists by topic. Some how-to subscribe information.
- InfoCenter Launch Pad
- Can browse UseNet lists by endings or do search for list by topic. Easier to browse than search.
Search
Engine Comparisons - AllSearchEngines.com
-
Annotated
reviews of major search engines. Categories of specialized search
engines like Reference and Travel.
- UC Berkeley: Search the Internet
(tools and tips)- Berkeley's web page, "Good Places to Start" assembles their recommended list of the best search engines and information about how to use them. Connect also via Berkeley's home page to tutorials on many Internet topics including how to evaluate a web site and the Invisible Web..
- Search Engine Watch
- Produced by Danny Sullivan. Lists search engines with annotations. Categorizes them by types and kid proofed. Gives results of comparison tests of search engines under "Reviews, Ratings, and Tests."
- Search Engine Showdown
- Greg R. Notess, a frequent contributor of articles to Online magazine, maintains this web site . Excellent ratings and comparisons of search engines. Updated frequently. Search strategies and tutorials for use of search engines, directories, and metasearch engines.
- SearchIQ
- Subject search directory of search engines, databases and web sites..
- WebSearch on About.com
-
Chris Sherman
maintains this web site where you can search for search engines on many
topics. Also gives web searching tutorials.
Collections
of Internet Search Tools
- Rice University: Internet Navigation
- Rice University web site offers lists of search engines that search by subject or keyword, listservs, and connections to web site tutorials on searching.
- UC Berkeley: Search the Internet (tools and tips)
- Berkeley web site gives recommendations with "Good Places to Start" of which are the best search engines to use. Using charts they tell how to best utilize them.
Specialized
Subject Search Engines- Biology Search Sites
- Biolinks
- Links to journals, medical sites, organizations, career information, and university web site.
-
Genealogy
- Cyndi's List
- Well organized categories that link to useful web sites for searching for ancestry. Also has a search engine of the site.
-
- Achoo
-
Comprehensive
in scope. Links to scholarly medical journals, but business topics in
health care also covered. ;
- Health A to Z
- Lay person's guide to medical topics.
- Legal Web Site Searchers
- FindLaw
- Comprehensive directory and search engines that produce excellent web sites on current law and legal rulings.
- Internet Legal Research Guide
- Large directory of links to law-related sites, both national and international. Continuing Legal Education links as well as connections to some legal forms.
Invisible
Web Sites
- AlphaSearch
- Offers group of gateway database web sites for different subject areas. Calvin College's Hekmann Digital Library is responsible for the sites.
- Complete Planetl
-
Search
engine to find databases on topic.
- Invisible Web
- More consumer oriented than research. Categories: Air Fares, Autos, Computers, Auction, Reference, and others. Produced by Intelliseek.
- Freeality.com
- One section for searching selected conventional search engines, and another for reaching specialized database search engines. Health, Jobs, Encyclopedias, etc. Metasearchers also.
- Internets
- Finds databases on different subjects.
- Scout Report
- Reviews web sites and databases.
|
|
Search
Engines
A search engine is a computer program that offers the ability to type
words or phrases in a search box and then submit those terms to match
against a database of web sites or a directory of web sites. Many search
engines require the use of the + (plus sign) placed before words that the searcher
wants to appear on the web sites that are retrieved. Many search
engines also
use the - (minus sign) placed in front of words to have the search leave out web
sites that have that word indexed. To do a phrase or name search it is
usually necessary to enclose the words in quotation marks, e.g.
"time travel," or "George Washington." Advanced
Search options are usually a good idea if the first search produces few
pertinent results. Advanced Search options make it easier to
tailor a search. If the Advanced Search link is hard to find, go to
the Help section.
Databases are created by using special "robots" or
"spiders" (programs that
"trawl" web sites looking for words in certain chosen areas of the
web site, frequently the title and other key areas of the web site. Because each robot or spider (program for
finding web sites with words for the indexed databases), indexes in a
different way, they miss some web sites that a different spider may find. Therefore, it becomes necessary
frequently to use more than one search engine to be certain important web
sites have not been missed.
Some search engines like Google, HotBot, and Fast automatically put an AND
between each word entered in the search box That ensures some
narrowing if two words are entered. the web sites retrieved will have to
have both words in the information. Most search engines allow the use of
the Boolean operators AND, OR, and Not usually in the
Advanced Search section. This allows narrowing or broadening of the
subject area searched.
Some search engines allow searching by domain, the ending assigned to the
basic netsite address. In the past domains have been descriptive: .com for
commercial sites, .edu for universities, .gov for government,
.mil for military, etc. Some search Engines like HotBot permit the searcher to only search in
netsites with a particular ending. Most search engines now allow narrowing
by types of multi-media (images, video, MP3) so you can limit your
search to pages that show pictures or have sound.
Subject Directories
A subject directory is a web site that
utilizes a database that has been compiled with human effort to evaluate
different web sites and place them in categories. The categories are usually
subdivided into further groupings. Users can navigate the subject heading
links or enter a search term which will search the database and show all
categories in that database that found those terms. Most subject directories
offer searches of the web in addition to mining their own databases. Digital
Librarian offers the use of Google as an additional avenue to its own
database of web sites. One of the oldest subject directories is Yahoo. Open
Directory is a reputable subject directory that was developed by volunteers.
Many other search engines send the terms to Open Directory if their initial
search does not retrieve enough hits. Some that use Open Directory are:
Ixquick, Google, and Oingo.
MetaSearch Engines (Search Engines of
Search Engines)
These are search engines that send the terms typed in the search box
to several designated search engines at the same time. Some state that
their program places the search terms into the syntax of the different
search engines that it uses, i.e. automatically places + sign
before more than one word or an AND between the words. Although
they are especially useful if you are getting few or no web sites
retrieved, they "time out." quit searching after so many
minutes and retrieve about 10% of what is to be found on each search engine.
The Invisible Web
These are web sites that are difficult for search engine robots to index their content. Web sites that are found in specialized databases and files that are difficult to reach with the spiders. One example of that kind of file is the pdf file created in the program Adobe Acrobat. Other difficult to reach information is often found in databases. There are certain search sites that attempt to overcome this problem. One of the best is Direct Search maintained by Gary Price (listed under Invisible Web Sites above). Mr. Price recommends some other useful web sites. These are a few of those sites:
| GPO Access (Government Documents) |
| Anywho (People Search) |
| EDGAR (SEC Filings) |
| NewsCenter (Gary Price) |
|
Learn
More About Using Search Engines Learn About Evaluating Web Sites |
|