This resource document introduces an array of search engines helpful to journalism students, journalists as well as other researchers. Minnesota State University Moorhead students experimented with it in fall 1995. If you have suggestions on other useful search engines for inclusion in this document, please send them to Professor Shelton Gunaratne.
- First-Generation Search Engines
AltaVista- Excite
- HotBot
- InfoSeek
- Ixquick Metasearch
- Lycos
Second-Generation Search Engines
- Ask Jeeves
- Google!
- Hotlinks
- Simplifind
- SurfWax
- Teoma (Direct Hit)
Evaluative
- Commercial Portals
GONetwork- Google Web Directory
- LookSmart
- My Starting Point
- Open Directory Project
- NetNow
- Yahoo!
- Meta-Search Engines (Integrated Result)
Beaucoup.com- Cyber411
- Highway 61
- Mamma
- MetaCrawler
- Northern Light
- SurfWax
- Vivisimo
- Meta-Search Engines (Non-Integrated Results)
- 1Blink
- Dogpile
- Global Federated Search
- GoHip
- ProFusion
- Searchalot
- Miscellaneous
- 555-1212
- Use this to search area codes and country codes, e-mail addresses, telephone numbers and Web sites (by area code).
- AliWeb
- This database is updated once a day.
- The Angle
- "The first site with a brain," its creators brag. The regular user can create his/her own username and password.
- Argus Clearinghouse
- A "virtual library" organized by "topical guides" prepared by users who have studied particular subjects.
- CaBOOM! WebSearch
- Several search engines in one place.
- CCSO Phonebook Gateway
- A tool to locate e-mail addresses.
- Comparing Search Engines
- Discussions of some features and drawbacks of various search tools, size of each search engine's database, etc.
- Education World Search Engine
- Best Education Site Today. Search more than 10,000 URLs on education.
- FindForms.com
- This search engine eables you to find all types of legal forms. The site is not a directory but rather a unique search engine that only "crawls, collects and adds" actual forms and form sites
- to its database. It can crawl hundreds of form sites on the Internet and index links and descriptions of thousands of actual free legal forms covering a variety of topics.
- Findspot
- Besides searching the Web, Findspot also looks for Listserv directories, daily news stories, U.S. street maps, phone directories, etc.
- Forum One
- A search engine and guide to online discussion forums on current events and public policy -- a service of Prosody Communications.
- Global Internet: Net Happenings
- A service of InterNic Directory and Database Services (and moderated by Gleason Sackman, Fargo, N.D.), this site leads you to search a variety of sites on a variety of topics.
- InfoSpace
- This site calls itself "the most comprehensive directory on the Internet." It provides access to several directories: telephone, toll-free, fax, business/government, yellow pages and blue pages.
- The Internet Sleuth
- This provides access to more than 3,000 searcheable databases and to the Ultimate Bulletin Board..
- Lawguru.com: Legal Research Page
- Lawguru.com provides more than 340 legal search engines and tools..
- Medical World Search Engine
- A unique search engine for medicine.
- Mining Company
- This facility provides human-reviewed sites in all categories.
- NCSA What's New
- A very popular main "notice board" for Internet newbies. It updates new sites thrice weekly.
- News Index
- News-only search engine. Search current articles from hundreds of sources from around the world.
- NewsTrawler
- NewsTrawler is a parallel search engine for news, magazines and journal archives. Search for articles from the archives of hundreds of online information sources from around the world.
- engines.
- OpenHere
- OpenHere, which comprises 13 search engines, is one of the 10 largest index and search sites on the Internet.
- Overture
- Formerly Goto.Com, which marked the launch of idealab! into the search engine business.
- Price Watch
- Fastest way to find the best street price for computer products.
- SAARC
- South Asia search engine.
- search.com
- More than 250 ways to search the 'Net -- a service of c/net.
- Switchboard
- A free nationwide residential and business telephone directory from Coordinate.com.
- TradeWave Galaxy
- A powerful search engine that offers global searches of Gopher, WWW, Hytelnet, etc. It has a large subject directory.
- W3 Search Engines
- This site provides access to list-based servers (AliWeb, CUI, GNA Meta-Library, InfoSeek and The-InIS), spider-based servers (JumpStation II, NIKOS, RBSE's URL database, WebCrawler and WWW Worm) and other information servers (EINet Galaxy, Lycos, Jughead and Veronica searches, Thesaurus Search, WAIS directory-of-servers and The Whole Internet Catalog), as well as to servers on software, people, publication, news/FAQs, documentation and other interesting things.
- WebCrawler
- This search engine operates by traversing the Web and either building an index for later use, or by searching in real-time for the query. It lists the Top 25 URLs on the Web.
- The WWW Virtual Library
- A subject-based directory from WWW's place of origin in Switzerland.
- Zip2
- "What's become of the Yellow Pages?" This site not only enables one to search (by map as well) but also provides door-to-door directions. It helps create one's own personal page.