There
are generally two methods available
to search for information on
the Internet: Web Directories
and Web Search Engines (including
Meta-Search Engines). If you
are in the habit of only searching
the Internet one way, we recommend
that you review the following
information to broaden your
understanding of other search
options.
Subject
Directories,
such as Infomine, generally depend on
human editors for their listings. Directories
are compiled based on descriptions of
Web sites and are listed under one or
more subject categories. Some directories
only list sites that have been selected
as the "best" sites in various
subject areas. Directories are a good
place to start when looking for information
on general subjects and to get an overview
of what is available on the Internet.
Directories find fewer but often more
relevant sites than search engines.
Search
Engines, such as
Google, create their listings automatically
by "crawling" the Web and
returning results. They are useful in
searching for very specific information,
but they are not the best tools for
finding sites on broader topics (see "Subject
Directories"). Search engines are
different in size, search features,
and the criteria of documents indexed.
Keep in mind that no single
search engine that covers the entire
Web. In order to retrieve the most relevant
information, learn to use two or three
search engines well by reading the "Search
Guides" for each search engine.
Meta-Search
Engines
search multiple search engines and
Web directories simultaneously
and categorizes the results by each
search tool. Since search engine may
produce a different set of results,
meta-search engines are useful in
performing the most extensive search
possible.
The
links below were selected based on their recognition
as quality resources. Remember that Search
Engines and Directories are in a continuous
state of transformation. To stay current with
changes and new products, see: searchenginewatch.com or searchengineshowdown.com.
Infomine
originated from U.C. Riverside and maintained
by librarians for the introduction of
Internet resources relevant to faculty,
students, and researchers at the university
level. It provides links to over 100,000
Web sites that have been reviewed and
annotated. It also offers a unique expanded
search feature to allow browsing by Library
of Congress Subjects and Classification
System as well as author, title, and Table
of Contexts.
"Information
You Can Trust" is the
motto of ipl2, a collaboration between
the Internet Public
Library (IPL) and the Librarians' Index
to the Internet (LII). This is a searchable,
annotated subject directory of high quality
Internet resources selected and evaluated
by librarians for their usefulness in
providing accurate, factual information
on a topic. Other features include resources
by subject, links to newspapers and magazines,
special collections, suggested sites for
kids and teens, and online reference service.
For
many people Google is the first choice
in search engines. Besides searching
for Web pages, it offers a number of
special features. From the home page,
click on “more>>” to
access a list of Google services and
tools. For precision searching, click
on “Advance Search” to customize
your search strategy by word or phrase,
date, Internet domain, and language.
Launched
in 1994, Yahoo is the Web's oldest Web
directory. In 2002 it replaced human editors
with crawler-based listings for its main
results. You can use tabs above the search
box on the home page to find images, Yellow
Page listings or Yahoo's shopping search
engine. You can still search classic Yahoo
by selecting Yahoo
Directory. This will take you to a
list of Web sites reviewed and approved
by a human editor.
Formally
known as "Ask Jeeves," Ask.com
is a "natural language" search
engine that lets you enter searches
in the form of a question. The results
produced are sites selected as being
the most authoritative and popular and
best match the topic of your search.
Yippy,
formerly known a "Clusty," is a meta-search
engine originally developed by
Vivisimo in 2004. It queries multiple
search engines-Ask, Open Directory,
Gigablast and others-and combines similar
results into topic “clusters” for
easy navigation.
Dogpile
utilizes meta-search technology and
returns results from the leading search
engines
including Google, Yahoo, Bing, and Ask.
Since each search engine has its own
method of searching, Dogpile compares
the results, eliminates duplicates,
and returns the most relevant sites.
Ixquick
is a meta-search engine that uses stars
to rank results from popular search
engines. For example, a result with
five stars means five search engines
ranked the site as one of the best based
on
the query. Ixquick also offers a global
feature that searches local and international
search engines from a selected 18 languages.
