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Search Tools

AllTheWeb.com
"All the Web, All the Time" was their motto, and they did serve up a good bit of the web, quickly and reliably. "A new hybrid between Fastsearch and the DMOZ open directory, it's almost scary how deep into a website their robot indexes! Also features related topic directories at the top organizing indexed pages about the subject of the search term. I entered my own name and found psychology articles, organizations, and windmills of Zaanse Schans as the categories about my web pages! Very interesting...."[11/01]
[6/17/02: Fast's AlltheWeb claims to have displaced Google as "World's Largest Search Engine". In 2009 that claim was no longer online, and their page stated they are were now owned by Yahoo!]
AllTheWeb is now defunct. All roads lead to Yahoo. OTOH... Google has not in fact gone extinct. ;-)

Alta Vista
Formerly self-described as "the most powerful and useful guide to the net", this early search engine leader and pioneer in online translation, was also acquired by Yahoo. According to Wikipedia, to be discontinued in 2010, in the face of Google's clear dominance. It still leads to something, unlike AlltheWeb.
[2012 - these 2 entries included for historical reference]

Bing!
Microsoft's answer to Google, with a little help from Yahoo! (circa mid 2009)

While many people now "Google" without thinking twice (or about using the verb, to Google) Bing! claims to deliver more relevant responses to queries without the (too) dense-packed seemingly random listings. I will say this: It's pretty. Get out the popcorn as Bing! (aka Microsoft) spends billions promoting this search engine which is (increasingly) integrated, btw, into the Windows/Internet Explorer experience. (Look for more with Windows 7?) Meanwhile, for many, Google! still rules, and some are singing the praises of Google chrome too. Stay tuned.

Dogpile
Now owned by Infospace, this long-popular meta-search tool combs several major engines and produces an organized and comprehensive list of results. Using a simple interface, Dogpile claims to be the easiest tool with "the best results". Now with mascot 'Arfie', too. [2012]

DuckDuckGo

"No tracking, no ad targeting, just searching."

Google
Very fast, with many results. Also features a "feeling lucky" option which takes you right to the page it thinks you'll like best.

HotBot
"Have you driven Inktomi lately? Very sleek and fast. Gets you where you want!" (1997). Still true, now under the stewardship of Wired. Comparable to Snap.com's Inktomi-driven engine. Hotbot no longer lists the various search engines from which they cull their list, as do some "meta" search tools.

Infoseek/Ultraseek

An "intelligent" search tool with several useful features. (Now part of Go.com)

Ivy's Search Engine Resources for Kids
As the name says, some search tools oriented towards children's sites and interests. Family-friendly.

Ixquick
Now here's a search tool which found me, and I'm glad it did! Very fast and multi-lingual, now self described as "the world's most powerful meta-search engine". Try it!

KartOO

This much loved search tool ceased to exist in late January 2010. :-( My own review follows, and a bit of the history can be found on Wikipedia.

A multi-lingual, multi-channel, multi-media search experience unlike any other! Three years in the making, this site uses a "cartographic interface" which presents search results in colorful spatial style, almost resembling a space map, and sure to appeal to right-brain processors and those who want to interact more directly with an intuitive, incredible, and very cool search tool.
[Mozilla review: "Until KartOO shut down in late January 2010, it was the best search engine--actually meta-search engine--available in the English language and possibly the world."]

LYCOS Search Engine
One of the (still barely) independent search engines, this is the competition for Alta Vista. Check this out after you've gone through Yahoo! and Alta Vista. "OK engine, but it's translation feature (entire sites) is the best". (8/2000)

Meta Crawler with Java
"Quick and pretty" (1997). Still true 15 years later. Now part of Infospace (as is Dogpile, MetaCrawler, and WebFetch [circa 2009] this remains one of the true meta-search engines, "searching the search engines" and displaying a list of results, annotated with the source.

Search.com
Oops. I blinked. What was Savvy-Search apparently is no more. Now a smooth metasearch engine run by our portal friends at C|Net. Seems ok so far.... (and getting better in 2001)

Search Engine Watch
Industry-standard reference for what is happening in the land of the search engine market.

Snap.com
After earlier incarnations of being "powered by Inktomi" and Global Brain, then swallowed up by by NBCi "powered by Dogpile", Snap.com re-emerged in 10/2004 as a very different site, with a new look and feel. " 'It's going to be controversial, but it's awesome,' proclaimed founder Bill Gross.... Visit the site, and below the standard blank search box is a list of the Web's most popular search destinations, by number of searches: eBay, Google, Yahoo and so on. Start typing something in, however, and the menu morphs with each keystroke (think of the global directory in your office e-mail), continually narrowing itself until one search term - the one you've typed in - remains. Hit enter and get your results." - Fortune.com, May 4, 2005

Teaching Tools
Here's a directory of exceptional online resources for K-12 classroom teachers and school-based educational and mental health professionals. Lesson plans, virtual field trips, inter-school competitions, Internet libraries, museums and more. Fascinating adventures for both teachers and learners. (Fenichel)

Teoma.com
A cross between a 3-dimensional artificial intellence model (like KartOO) and the more traditional, linear text and list.(2001) Update: 2/2006 saw Teoma become subsumed under the Ask search tool, formerly Ask Jeeves; the butler has now been retired. [3/07] The form below led for a few years to Ask.com. Oops, in an eyeblink Teoma is now back, now owned by IAC Search & Media. I've no idea what's now 'under the hood' and the current ownership gives no info (or permission) on using their graphic as a link, so... it's gone. The new launched-in-2010 version (according to Ask.com) employs employing an "ExpertRank algorithm" while deliver results using a "simplified interface" to produce 'organic results' for everyday searches. So this may be the experimental sandbox of Ask, or something more or less. It works. ;-) [April 2012]

Top 100 Time-Saving Search Engines for Serious Scholars
From OnlineUniversities.com, an extensive lists of serious search tools for scholars. It might not be time-saving to try all of these, but choice is good. From the well-known and trusted Google Scholar to more targeted searches by geographic or topic area. This was posted in 2010 and like other search engines on my own list, some have changed repeatedly in a short time. ('Clusty' on their list is now 'Yippy'.) I can't vouch for how current or consistently helpful this list is, but it may be worthwhile for some types of searches. It may need some updating (as just done here!). Or just enjoy. [April 2012]

VIRTUAL REFERENCE DESK - "Search Engine Secrets of the Pros"

Way Back Machine
A great resource for those who are looking for a specific web page at a particular point of Internet history, from 1996 until now. From a database of over 30 billion cached web pages... "The Internet Archive is building a digital library of Internet sites and other cultural artifacts in digital form. Like a paper library, we provide free access to researchers, historians, scholars, and the general public." [Source]

Web Crawler 2002
WebCrawler

Here's one of the original Internet Search Engines, now claiming to be faster than ever.
(Actually, it is very fast and very current, but the page descriptions can be extracted from the text a bit choppily.) 2007: Now part of Infospace!

Yahoo!
I see teachers advising their K-8 students to use this directory/search tool. Yahoo! is very good for finding things by general category. It's increasingly commercially oriented, and tends to produce a few big sites very reliably. For educational research (as opposed to consumer research), some of the other search engines (notably AllTheWeb and Google) may work better when looking for a fairly narrow subject. Yahoo! was one one of the first search tools on the Internet, and is changing constantly!

May 2012
Beginning with Yahoo! here, but encompassing all of search engine competition online, and for iPads and 'phones', there is a shifting among the big players for the ease and mobility needs of users, competing now with social media buttons and limited ad space on small or pad-sized screens. The story as presented by Yahoo! itself, May 24, 2012: 'Yahoo seeks to shake up search, Web Browsing'.

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