WWW DIRECTORIES AND SEARCH ENGINES

Try Google Scholar

• A9 - Amazon product that offers search results from Google along with a number of additional features, including search results from Amazon's "Search Inside the Book;" A9 also saves your search history and tracks the click history of sites you have viewed from your search results
• Accumo - organizes a small number of results from Google into concept clusters; also offers the fee-based Accumo Classifier software for desktop use
• Alexa Web Search - returns results powered by Google with additional information including traffic ranking, number of links to page, ownership and links to related pages of interest
• AllTheWeb - returns results quickly from an extremely large database gathered by the Yahoo crawler; offers multimedia and news searches; has a good advanced search interface
• AltaVista - searches Web sites and Usenet newsgroups with advanced Boolean and field search options. See also:
• Babel Fish, the AltaVista translation service.
• AOL Search - engine that defaults to AND logic and offers an Options template for easy search construction; has an option to view results by popularity; offers a directory based on the Open Directory
• Ask Jeeves - submit questions in plain English and view suggested relevant sites; also offers the Open Directory ranked in order of popularity
• Exalead - beta tool that offers concept clustering of results, thumbnail images of retrieved sites, and customization options such as organization of results by file type, geography or modification date
• Google - ranks pages by tracking the links links from pages ranked high by the service, including results from the Open Directory Project. Google offers a number of Services & Tools that are worth exploring, including:
• Google Groups, a Usenet newsgroup archive
• Google Language Tools, for locating pages written in particular languages and located in specific countries and a translation service
• Google Search: Unclesam, a searchable database of U.S. government Web sites (.gov and .mil) ranked by link popularity
• Google Web Directory, which uses Google ranking technology with the Open Directory Project
• HotBot - offers easy form-based Boolean, field, and media search options; includes its channel content with the results for searches on broad or popular terms; clusters results by presenting one hit per site
• IceRocket - offers thumbnail images of retrieved sites; also saves a search history, creates an RSS feed of search results, and offers a free RSS builder
• Lycos - emphasizes search results from the Open Directory and offers Web sites from the FAST Search index
• MSN Search - Microsoft's search engine that offers searches of the general Web as well as some deep Web sources; includes a Search Builder that includes an option to retrieve results based on recent updates, popularity and exact or approximate match
• NetNose - users rate search terms relevant to Web sites to determine the engine's content and rankings
• RLIN AMC database - the RLIN Archival and Manuscripts Control database
• SearchEdu.com - service that limits results to the .edu, domain; also offers to search well-known dictionaries, encyclopedias, almanacs, etc. See also:
  • SearchGov.com - .gov domain
  • SearchMil.com - .mil domain
• Thunderstone Website Index - search thousands of sites (vs. Web pages) from a continuously updated database
• Teoma - returns results in three sections: popularity-ranked Web pages based on the number of same-subject pages that reference them; suggested terms to refine a search; and link collections created by topic experts
• WISEnut - offers a large database and a companion directory of topics related to a search

• Chubba - search the Web, a dictionary/thesaurus and encyclopedia
• Clusty - beta tool from the creators of Vivisimo that clusters results from a variety of surface and deep Web sources and organizes them into clusters by topic, site or URL; also offers a variety of customization options
• Copernic - client software that searches multiple engines and directories, removes duplicates and dead links, highlights search terms in your results, and offers a variety of search and retrieval options
• Don Busca - searches the Web, blogs, news and software and offers a variety of options with each result including concept clusters, a visual thumbnail of the site, a cached version, a link to the site archive in the Wayback Machine, site info from a variety of sources and various bookmark management options
• Dogpile - search 20+ search engines and retrieve results by relevance or separate source engine; also presents concept clusters for viewing results organized by keywords or topics
• FastSeeks - retrieves results from a variety of directories and search engines as well as its own directory; its directory may also be browsed
• Fazzle - searches several search services on the Web, and also offers specialty searches of downloads, images, video and other topics on the deep Web
• GenieKnows - searches 25+ engines and directories and ranks results based on the number of sources listing a page; chooses sources to search based on consumer input; also offers searches of multimedia types
• iBoogie - offers searches of the Web and multimedia, and supplies real-time concept clustering of results
• InfoGrid - offers meta and news searching; portal interface also features the Open Directory, topical InfoGrids, with additional customization of topics available in a free download
• Infonetware - categorizes search results into component subtopics with options to select multiple topics for a new set of topics and a filtered results list
• Ithaki - searches engines, directories, and also numerous deep Web sources
• Ixquick - search engines, directories, news and MP3 files; ranks results based on top ten rankings from the source sites; allows any type of search syntax and will translate and direct your search accordingly
• Kartoo - categorizes content into relevant concepts and sites and displays results on a graphical map; requires Flash or offers an HTML version
• KillerInfo - retrieves information from the general Web and various topic-specific sources and organizes results into concept clusters based on Vivisimo's technology
• Mamma - retrieve results in relevancy ranked order; power search offers a user-friendly template for building a query
• MetaCrawler - retrieve results in relevancy ranked order; useful power search available with a template of search options
• metaEUREKA - sorts results by relevancy and offers a "Site info" link that returns information on the server, date last modified, size, and descriptive information if available; also links to site history via the Wayback Machine and popularity ratings from Alexa
• Metor - searches multiple engines, directories and databases; offers the option to see the size, date and availability of the document, to extract the context of your search terms within the document, and to navigate user-selected results within a frame
• Mooter - meta engine in beta that presents initial search results in graphical format and organizes results into concept clusters
• Pandia Search Central - searches multiple engines and directories and also offers searches of news, books, music, videos and other specialty databases; includes a searchable version of the Open Directory
• ProFusion - meta engine that allows results to be sorted by relevance, title and URL; offers topic-based vertical search groups for targeted searching
• Query Server - offers queries of the general Web, or health, money or government sites and organizes results by concept, by site, or by both
• SurfWax - offers options to see a quick view of sites in the search results list to determine relevancy and choose alternative search terms for a subsequent search from a thesaurus; offers personalization options
• Turbo10 - retrieves results from multiple sources, including the deep Web, and offers sorting by speed and relevance; also offers concept clusters to organize results into keywords and subtopics
• Virtual Learning Resources Center - searches several high quality directories; also offers its own directory
• Vivisimo - searches multiple engines and directories and organizes results into topical categories
• ZapMeta - organizes results by relevance, popularity, title, source or domain, allows users to set preferences, and features a useful advanced search interface

• Academic Info - gateway to college and research level Internet resources maintained by former librarian Mike Madin and a volunteer group of subject specialists
• AllLearn: Academic Directories - guides to high quality directories in the academic disciplines maintained for distance learners by Oxford, Stanford, and Yale Universities; also features a small collection of Learning Guides in academic disciplines
• The Best Information on the Net (BIOTN) - collection of academic resources maintained at St. Ambrose University in Iowa
• BUBL Link - UK funded project of selective resources from the University of Strathclyde Library in Glasgow, Scotland
• INFOMINE - large collection of scholarly Internet resources collectively maintained by several libraries, including those from the University of California
• The Internet Public Library - large, selective collection from the University of Michigan
• Librarians' Index to the Internet - carefully chosen, organized, and annotated directory maintained by a large group of librarians in California
• Resource Discovery Network - searchable interface to major meta-sites in academic disciplines, including Business, EEVL - Engineering, Mathmatics and Computing, Humbul Humanities Hub, PsiGate - Physical Sciences Information Gateway, and SOSIG - Social Science Information Gateway. See also PINAKES, A Subject Launchpad for another way into these sites
• The Scout Report Archives - searchable database of 10,000+ critical summaries of Internet resources for the academic and research community included in the Scout Reports
• Scout Select Bookmarks - collection of meta-sites in several subject areas
• Subject Guides A to Z - extensive collection of subject pages from the University of Delaware Library
• The WWW Virtual Library - highly respected guides to many disciplines sponsored by the W3 Consortium

• About - large collection of topical collections gathered by company-certified subject specialists
• Google Web Directory - version of the Open Directory Project using the Google link ranking technology; Google search results are also included with directory results
• JoeAnt - guide compiled by volunteers; listings include information about each site including multimedia features, chat, e-commerce, access limitations, etc.
• JumpCity - collection that offers a signed review of each item and a link to any Usenet newsgroup related to the topic
• LookSmart - large collection of links to reviewed sites in thousands of categories
• Open Directory Project - significant resource collection compiled by thousands of volunteer editors owned by America Online and promising extensive expansion.
• Search Beat - large, selective dirctory organized into numerous subtopics with a friendly approach
• Top9.com - directory that ranks content based on popularity using a methodology from PC Data Online; shows the top 18 listings in each category every month
• WebBrain - Java-based visual search engine of the Open Directory Project index; interface allows users to click through an animated display of categories to locate Web sites. Currently in beta, and requires a fast Internet connection.
• Web Search - well-organized, annotated collection of Web sites organized by topic and maintained by Chris Sherman of The Mining Co.
• Yahoo! - portal with one of the largest directories on the Internet but lacks reliable site evaluation, so deficient content is mixed in with the good; not an appropriate site for academic research; offers news, stock quotes, maps, free e-mail and many other services
Sites that collect links to portals (and search engines) may be found under Search Engine Collections.

*Selecting a Tool for Your Search: A chart listing general query types and the kinds of search tools that support them.

*This page was composed from information from the Internet tutorials provided by the University of Albany Library

Send comments or questions to Olga Verbeek at verbeeko@salve.edu.
Revised: February, 2005