··· Search Tools ···
If you're searching for a very specific topic, you're better off using one of the search engines immediately below; if you're more interested in browsing a subject area, explore the directories, listed further downpage.
Search Engines
The search engines listed below are those which are widely regarded as the best, and should be all you'll really need; any one of them will help you find what you're looking for, and then some . . . and then some more. . .
You may want to try out all of them to get a sense of which you feel most comfortable with, as each has slightly different features. Each, of course, makes claims about its superiority to all other search engines, so keep grains of salt handy...
If you're new to search engines, here's a great
basic tutorial on web searching, which includes not only basic concepts and strategies but brief overviews of the major search engines. [Ellen Chamberlain, U South Carolina-Beaufort]
For still more good info on search engines, including tutorials, reviews, and tips, check out the
About.com WebSearch page; another good intro and guide to search engines is
The Spider's Apprentice, which features reviews of particular engines as well as tips. Something similar may be found at
Search Engine Watch, which has lots of good advice for beginning and advanced users of search engines.
If you want to find a specialized search engine (you know, one that searches only water-related sites, or craft-related sites, or orchid-related sites, or—well, you get the idea), check out Yahoo!'s
Search Engines & Directories page.
Google is, well, Google is.
Here are the rest:
Bing
Microsoft's answer to Google.
All the Web
Another powerful site, comparable to Google.
WebBrain
A very cool graphic display of results and the relationship between categories of results.... Does that make any sense? No? Well, see for yourself... it's rather cool, if not perhaps the most accurate/effective search engine in the webworld....
HotBot
Ask
Lycos
Excite
Go.com
AltaVista
Directories
Yahoo!
One of the most first. Search it from here:
Metasearch Tools
The following Web sites allow you to invoke multiple search engines with a single query; the number of search engines used by each site varies. Some of these sites also function as directory/search engine hybrids, and some allow various sorts of refinements and limitations....
WebCrawler
MetaEureka
About as "lean" as a website can get—very fast, very good, with a nice "site info" feature.
Ixquick
Another new and very powerful search engine ("the world's most," according to itself), with a "star" ranking system.
Metacrawler
Dogpile
Search.com
Search-Engine Collections
These are essentially directories of search engines, along with reviews, tips, etc.
Search Engines Worldwide
A site that lists all available search engines by country, for some strange reason. In the world of cyberspace geographical location seems rather irrelevant, but this site is valuable for its comprehensiveness. Give it a try, and see all those search engines you'd otherwise never hear of.
Search Engine Colossus
Pretty much the same deal as the link right above....