Types of "search engines":
DIRECTORIES- Information is classified in categories. Users click on a category and continue choosing more specific categories until they find what they are looking for. Similar to a table of contents in a book.
Example:
Arts and Entertainment, Arts, Visual Arts, Painting, Oil Painting
Sports, Baseball, Baseball teams, Baseball players
Reference, Telephone directories, yellow pages, businesses, artistsSEARCH ENGINES- Allow users to enter a key word(s) to search a database, and then returns results in the form of a list.
Most search sites provide both directories and search engines, but usually are stronger in one feature or the other.
GENERAL PURPOSE SEARCH ENGINES
www.altavista.com - Results ranked by relevance to query. Web crawler
www.askjeeves.com - Query may be performed in the form of a question. "Where can I find a sculpture online tutorial?" or as keywords or phrases.
www.google.com - Ranked by number of links. Web crawler. "And" is assumed on all keywords.
www.hotbot.com - Popular among researchers due to advanced search options
www.lycos.com - Results presented in categories. "Tools" feature allows you to search only boards, email, chat, clubs, etc.
www.excite.com - Web crawler
www.looksmart.com - Directory
META CRAWLERS - search multiple search engines and web directory databases simultaneously. (Example, searches the Yahoo.com database, the altavista.com database, and the askjeeves.com database at the same time). Returns results in one list.
www.dogpile.com - can also search usenet. Can specify specific geographic location.
SPECIALTY SEARCH ENGINES
Mailing list and list-server search engines - search a database of mailing lists
www.liszt.com - searches mailing lists
paml.net - searches "Publicly Accessable Mailing Lists"
www.egroups.com - searches Yahoo groups (lists)
www.bcentral.com/services/lb/default.asp - searches mailing lists
Newsgroup search engines - searches newsgroups (a form of a message board)
SEARCH ENGINE HELP SITES - The below sites provide additional information on how to use search engines.
searchenginewatch.com/facts/math.html - Creating effective search keyword sequences
searchenginewatch.com/resources/tutorials.html - Search engine tutorials
www.ouc.bc.ca/libr/connect96/search.htm "Sink or Swim" search engine tips
library.albany.edu/internet/search.html
Note: The above sites are only a small portion of what is available on the Internet and is not to be considered comprehensive.
Sources for this page came from:
"Searching the Internet", Brian Cooper, Dorling Kindersley, London, 2000