Search Engines

http://www.google.com

The term Google represents an extremely large number. The size of Google's database is correspondingly large. Though I still like Altavista in many regards, I'm coming to prefer Google more and more, since their advertising is less obtrusive. Another nice feature of Google is that they "cache" the pages they index, allowing users to view them - even if the original document is off line. I recall reading of one very happy webmaster who managed to retrieve most of a site he had lost from Google's cache.
(471 accesses)

AltaVista
http://altavista.digital.com

This is my personal favorite for keyword based queries. The advanced search menu provides excellent boolean searches with relevance ranking. The AltaVista search engine and the site are developed and operated by Digital Equipment Corporation.
(819 accesses)

Lycos
http://www.lycos.com

One of the oldest search engines, implemented by Carnegie Mellon University, Lycos is now somewhat consumer oriented in its focus. Lycos is considered an "internet portal" and operates a free personal website service called Tripod.com
(432 accesses)
 

Ftp Search
http://ftpsearch.lycos.com

Use this Lycos service if you are trying to find a specific resource (ie. program, file, document, image) to download.
(440 accesses)
 

HotBot
http://www.hotbot.com

Operated by the publishers of Wired Magazine, this site seems to have some interesting cutting edge techno-cultural content. (379 accesses)
 

Yahoo!
http://www.yahoo.com

Yahoo is most notable for the way its content is categorized. If you want to perform a search within a specific area of interest, here's a good place to start.
(491 accesses)
 

Infoseek
http://www.infoseek.com

A good service, I like Infoseek for searching out technical information.
(356 accesses)
 

Magellan
http://magellan.excite.com

Yet another search engine. This one seems organized much like Yahoo! Additionally Magellan has something called "Search Voyeur", which allows you to watch queries as they are submitted by other users of this service. This has some limited novelty and instructional value, though most queries I saw were examples of "how NOT to query"
(403 accesses)
 

Aol Netfind
http://netfind.aol.com

Aol's service is based on the excite engine, offering www searches as well as "kid safe searches", Aol White Pages, Aol Yellow Pages, Email Finder, Newsgroup search ala Deja News and a directory of member's pages.
(352 accesses)
 

Northern Light
http://www.northernlight.com

Northern Light's new Internet search engine enables you to search the World Wide Web and information from 5,400 premium sources.   Web results are combined with information from premium material in one search, giving you access to books, magazines, databases, and newswires not available from any other search engine.
(311 accesses)
 

WebCrawler
http://webcrawler.com

This search engine uses software called "Excite", originating, I believe, from a weak pun about the task of bringing information "from external sites" and cataloging it. WebCrawler is operated by the Excite Corporation
(316 accesses)
 

Metacrawler
http://www.metacrawler.com

Sends a query to several search engines This is most useful when you have absolutely no idea where to begin searching, or are looking for a relatively uncommon subject.
(486 accesses)
 

Dog-Pile
http://www.dogpile.com

DogPile offers selective search of: The Web, Usenet Newsgroups, FTP, Newswires and Business News. Working much like Metacrawler, hits are drawn from various other search engines.
(370 accesses)
 

Debriefing Meta-search
http://www.debriefing.com

"Debriefing is the fastest meta search engine available, and it returns excellent results."
(397 accesses)
 

C-Net Search.Com
http://www.search.com

Based on the infoseek engine, this service has some category based filters which may help limit the number of inappropriate query returns.
(323 accesses)
 

Deja News
http://www.dejanews.com

Searchable Usenet Newsgroup Database
Usenet is a vast anarchic stream of correspondence which are somewhat optimistically called "articles". Deja News provides a web based method of searching archives for topical information and for posting your own articles.
(357 accesses)
 

ComFind
http://www.comfind.com

E-Commerce site directory
In contrast to the general information retrieval services, this site specializes in listing product and service providers.
(308 accesses)