Southern California College
Prepared by Robert Harris
Version Date: March 3, 1997
Abstract: This is a list of several search engines for finding information on the World Wide Web and other Internet areas (like Usenet newsgroups, Gopherspace, and Telnet sites). Also included are some research sources like newspapers.
Expert Mode Click here to see just the names of each engine, for efficient "click-and-go" operation.
Yahoo:
Yahoo provides a set of hierarchical menus by category (such as arts, business,
computers). It also permits keyword searching, using Boolean "and"
and "or" logic. The web database is relatively small, but it
contains many good sources. When the Yahoo database search comes up empty,
the search string is automatically processed by Alta Vista. Searching on
Usenet newsgroups and email addresses is also provided. Yahoo is good for
subject searching. An image search
capability is also provided. [http://www.yahoo.com]
Galaxy:
Galaxy provides a set of menus as well as search capabilities. It includes
not just Web resources but Telnet resources and an index of the titles
of Gopher menus in Gopherspace. Includes help. A good spot for those who
like to perform directory-based searches. [http://galaxy.tradewave.com]
Alta Vista:
Alta Vista is an indexed database of more than 30 million web pages and
four million Usenet news group articles. The company claims more than 20
million accesses per day. Alta Vista usually provides a reasonably fast
full-text search. Alta Vista is good for key phrase or specific item searching.
If you are looking for references to a specialty chemical, for example,
this is a great place to look. [http://www.altavista.digital.com]
HotBot:
HotBot has 54 million web pages indexed and a very flexible search form
that includes "modify" and "expert" search controls.
Search for all words, any words, phrase, person, or URL by date range,
media type, or location. Includes parameters for must, should, and must
not contain. Recommended. [http://www.hotbot.com]
Open Text:
Open Text is another full-text index. Power searching allows users to search
within titles, summaries, headings, or URL's. A Search Tips selection is
available. If you are looking for mention of a phrase or name, Open Text
and Alta Vista are two good places to look. [http://index.opentext.com]
Lycos:
More than just a search engine, Lycos offers software, news, pictures and
sounds, and more. [http://www.lycos.com]
Infoseek:
A combination directory-based and keyword-searchable database. Claimed
to be the web's largest directory. Uses natural language interface. An
excellent resource. [http://www.infoseek.com]
Excite:
Excite is a very nice directory-based engine with many extras. Included
are yellow pages, email lookup, sports, news, weather, dictionary, reviews,
stock quotes, and "Tours," like "How to Write a Resume."
A good place to explore. [http://www.excite.com]
Magellan:
Another combination key-word and directory engine. Magellan's special quality
is that its owners, the McKinley Group, have rated many sites from one
to four stars, and placed Green Lights on sites that are suitable for all
ages (without mature audience content). You can also search on non-rated
sites. [http://www.mckinley.com]
WebCrawler:
Menu and keyword-driven engine. Includes search tips; offers Boolean logic.
Browse page offers information on a diverse list of categories, plus reviews
of the best of the Net. Look at the Special page to see how big the Web
is. [http://www.webcrawler.com]
World
Wide Web Worm:
Three million URL's, keyword search. [http://www.cs.colorado.edu/home/mcbryan/wwww.html]
Onekey:
Fourteen thousand links reviewed by editors, original content on 80 topics,
job searching, and the contents of 1,500 full-text books. Editor's daily
picks, news and weather. This the new image for search engines--more than
just searching, it is a place to visit for various information resources.
[http://www.onekey.com]
Reference.com:
Search for information in over 16,000 newsgroups and hundreds of mailing
lists. In beta version. [http://www.reference.com]
Argus Clearinghouse:
A menu-based searching site with a lot of good information, much of it
personally selected or cared for by various individuals. [http://www.clearinghouse.net]
Berkeley Public Library's
Index to the Internet:
A subject index to the Net, including links to search engines and a very
large index. [http://www.ci.berkeley.ca.us:80/bpl/bkmk]
Instead of being search engines themselves, these pages contain hyperlinked lists of other search engines, often with descriptions of them.
Essential Links
Links to search engines, news sites, reference guides and general resources.
Do take a look at this fine resource. [http://www.elinks.com/main.html]
All In One Search:
Dozens and dozens of search engines. This is a good place to discover what
a search engine list page is all about. [http://www.albany.net/allinone]
search.com:
Search the web or Usenet newsgroups, by subject menu or keyword entry.
Also includes yellow pages, white pages, and email address book. News,
sports, weather, stock quotes, and job information are included. This a
very nice site, giving the user the feel of sitting at the control panel
to the Internet. [http://www.search.com]
Net Locator:
An interesting page that may not be easy for beginners but that offers
a number of options. [http://nln.com]
SearchZone:
Appears to be the same as UltraSearch, only with a different name and address.
[http://www.searchzones.com]
UltraSearch:
Search with one of fourteen search engines. [http://www.ultra-search.com]
Internet Sleuth:
Search not just the web but on 1,500 searchable databases. Search in newspapers,
magazines, bulletin boards, and more. This is very good and recommended.
[http://www.isleuth.com]
Metasearch engines submit your query to more than one search engine at a time, thus saving you the trouble of entering a search in multiple engines. Some of them format your results in a uniform way, making retrieval easier. The drawbacks are two: metasearching takes awhile since several engines are being queried and you miss the extra stuff and customized options for searching on the individual engines.
MetaCrawler:
Provides regional or world-wide searching. Provides help. [http://metacrawler.cs.washington.edu:8080/index.html]
SavvySearch:
More than two dozen search engines. [http://guaraldi.cs.colostate.edu:2000]
Metasearch:
Search dictionaries and thesauruses as well as the web. [http://metasearch.com]
Inference Find:
Queries six engines (WebCrawler, Yahoo, Lycos, AltaVista, InfoSeek, and
Excite) and clusters the results in a helpful way. [http://m5.inference.com/ifind]
Resources
for English Language and Literature
Literary texts, journals, dictionaries, and sites for literary research.
SCC Spiritual
Formation Department WWW Links:
An excellent collection of links to web sites on Christian Leadership and
Christian references and indexes. Books, articles, much more. Recommended.
[http://www.sccu.edu/spiritualformation/sflinks.html]
SCC
Psychology Department Home Page
Includes a list of journals, online subjects, and other sites related
to psychology and psychological research. [http://www.sccu.edu/Programs/academic/Psych/Psychhome.html]
Southern California
Libraries Online
Lists of academic and public libraries and sites related to libraries
(such as associations). [http://home.earthlink.net/~jsmog/library.html]
Total News:
A central news site with its own content listed by category. Also provided
are links to Fox News, MSNBC, CBS, CNN, USA Today, ABC Radio, NPR, and
Reuters (Yahoo Headline News). [http://totalnews.com]
Enews, the Electronic Newsstand:
News by category, links to 2,000 magazines, and a magazine digest. [http://www.enews.com]
News.com:
News site with an emphasis on technical news. One of C|Net's sites. [http://www.news.com]
Dejanews News Group Searches:
Search through the archived text of Usenet newsgroups to find entries of
interest. There are now several newsgroup engines, but this is one of the
most popular. [http://www.dejanews.com]
Tile.Net
Lists of mailing lists (like Listserves), Usenet Newsgroups, and FTP sites
on the Internet. [http://www.tile.net]
Liszt
A large directory of more than 66,000 mailing lists (email discussion groups),
selectable by category, search, or exact title. [http://www.liszt.com]
Internet Yellow Pages:
Since the number of web servers has grown 600% in one year, published Internet
Yellow Pages have limited scope, since most are almost a year old. Get
the up to date on-line version here. [http://www.mcp.com/nrp/wwwyp/]
Encyberpedia:
An Internet encyclopedia. [http://www.encyberpedia.com/ency.htm]
Internet Encyclopedia:
Another Internet encyclopedia. [http://clever.net/cam/encyclopedia.html]
Melvyl:
The University of California Library catalog. Requires a telnet helper
application. [http://www.dla.ucop.edu]
Amazon.com:
Lists more than one million currently available book titles, and provides
search by author, title, or subject. If you want to find out what books
are available on a subject or by an author, or if you need to fill in the
information for a book for which you have only the title, this is the place
to look. [http://www.amazon.com]
CARL UnCover:
Table of contents and keyword index searching of more that 17,000 periodicals.
You can either sign up and buy the articles, or take your search results
to the library and find the information there. [http://www.carl.org/uncover/unchome.html]
Pathfinder:
The Time, Inc. page, including information related to its magazines: Time,
People, Money. News, sports, entertainment, stocks, weather. [http://www.pathfinder.com]
U. S. News Online:
Searchable archives of U. S. News and World Report, a newsweekly magazine.
[http://vws.agtnet.com/usn_find.html]
Atlantic Monthly:
Searchable archives of Atlantic Monthly. [http://vws.agtnet.com/atl_find.html]
Christian Science Monitor:
Searchable archives of the Christian Science Monitor, a daily national
newspaper. Archives go back to the 1980's. [http://www.csmonitor.com]
New York Times:
Searchable archives of the New York Times daily newspaper. Registration
is required, but free (requires only an email address and your own made-up
user ID and password. [http://www.nytimes.com]
Career Magazine:
Find a job. Read articles related to employment. [http://www.careermag.com]
Yahoo: | Alta
Vista: | HotBot:
Galaxy: | Open
Text: | Lycos: | Infoseek:
| Excite:
Magellan: | WebCrawler:
| World Wide
Web Worm:
search.com: | Net
Locator: | All In One Search:
UltraSearch: | Internet
Sleuth: |
MetaCrawler:
| < A HREF="http://guaraldi.cs.colostate.edu:2000">SavvySearch:
| Metasearch:
Dejanews News Group Searches: | Argus
Clearinghouse:
Internet Yellow Pages:
Melvyl:
Reference.com | Pathfinder
| Onekey
Careermag
Your opinion of this page and these sites is valuable. Please send comments to Robert Harris, [email protected]. Should something be added to the description of a particular site? Should a site be added? Thanks.
Copyright 1997 by Robert Harris
Return to the Home Page of Robert Harris | Go
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How to cite this page:
MLA style:
Harris, Robert. "World Wide Web Research Tools." 3 Mar 1997.
Online. Internet. [Put here the date you read or printed this page]. Available
WWW: http://www.sccu.edu/faculty/R_Harris/search.htm
APA style:
Harris, Robert (1997). World Wide Web research tools [50 paragraphs]. [Online].
Available WWW: http://www.sccu.edu/faculty/R_Harris/search.htm
About the author:
Robert Harris is Professor of English at Southern California College in
Costa Mesa, California. [email protected]