[M. C. Escher's mobius with ants]Jim's search finds

The sites we think of as search engines are actually a variety of tools.
Some are catalogs such as Yahoo. Others are specialized such as FirstGov and Map Quest. The "index" sites such as Google and AltaVista cast a wider net and include not only World Wide Web sites but newsgroup postings and other non WWW resources. There are also "multiple search sites" such as The Argus Clearinghouse or the Dogpile that allow you to search many resources with one question.
This person's explanation of the various kinds of search sites and how you may use their differences to your advantage is near the bottom of this page.
Try your search on more than one site and note the differences in results.

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Index sites

Index search sites are built by a piece of software called a "spider." A spider is designed to "crawl" the World Wide Web and report what it finds to the designer. Although spiders are relatively comprehensive, they tend to share some disadvantages. The most glaring is that any "frame based" website will be ignored.
Google appears to currently be the largest of the index search sites

AltaVista
For several years AltaVista was the largest of the index sites

WebCrawler Searching
They, or the spiders they use, crawl all over the web for you


Catalog Multi Specialized Bottom Help

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Catalog sites

Catalog sites are assembled by people. This conveys both benefits and problems. The main benefit is that some person has seen the URL and thinks it worth including in the catalog. The main problem is that no one can hire enough people to look at all the available sites.
Yahoo
Probably the most frequently visited search site

Excite
Another major search site

Infoseek
yet another major search site

The Mining Company
About.com - Human Guides. Human Interests. Expert guidance from hundreds of Guides.

Ask Jeeves!
Ask questions in plain English

HotBot
The Wired magazine take on searching

Lycos
"Your Personal Internet Guide"

Northern Light Search
Shining a different light on searching


Top Index Multi Specialized Bottom Help

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Multi-Search sites

Search The Internet with The Internet Sleuth
From six of the majors to hundreds of the minors and specialized, your choice

Galaxy
You can include "gopher" and "telnet" in your searches

Dogpile
Up to 25 search engines at once including FTP file locating

ProFusion®
You can register a query and receive weekly updates



Top Index Catalog Specialized Bottom Help

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Specialized search sites

Specialized search sites are just that. By limiting to a particular type or catagory of resource, specialized search sites are able to serve up a "fine-grained" or detailed route to information of a particular kind.
The Internet Public Library
My, my, my, I always wanted a library in my bed room that didn't take up too much space

THOR: The Virtual Reference Desk
Listings of reference books by catagory

SciCentral
Gateway to the Best Science and Engineering Online Resources

Map Quest
A zoomable world atlas and more

Deja.com
The tool for searching the internet news groups

News Index
One tool for searching the non-net news

BigBook Directory Search
The Yellow pages like you wouldn't believe

FirstGov
The United States government's official web search tool for Federal sites

CIA World Factbook 2000
Part of what "vee hafv vays" of knowing

Some Helpful Search Site Information

When you search for anything on the World Wde Web you usually point your browser (most often Netscape Navigator or Internet Explorer) at some search site.
The question at hand is which search site should you use.

If you know of, or can find, a specialized search site relating to the kind of information you are seeking, that should be your first choice.

If you are looking for anything with a large audience like "Auto Racing," a "catalog" search site, such as Yahoo will probably serve your needs quickly and well. This follows from the fact that "catalog" search sites are people-based. That is to say that while no where near all 4.73 million sites that have anything to do with "Auto Racing" will show up, the selection that does show up will be popular. No "catalog" site will ever have enough people to catalog all the available websites.

If, on the other hand, you need information about "commercial quality left-handed trifurcated oil filter tongs" you will be best off by using an "index" search site such as Google. This follows from "index" sites being collections of links gathered by a program called a "spider." There is a caveat, however. "index" sites do not in general deal with "frame based" websites very well. Also the designer of any web page may choose to include a "No Index" tag in the page. "Spiders" are trained to ignore webpages with the "No Index" tag. For these reasons, as well as any constraints programmed in by the designer of the "spider," "index" sites also will not show every URL (Uniform Resource Locator) on the World Wide Web.

If your search for "commercial quality left-handed trifurcated oil filter tongs" wasn't successful, it's time for the heavy duty multi search sites. Instead of doing a search, the multi search sites let you enter a question or query once to be submitted to many search sites. Some, such as ProFusion® will let you register a query so that if the results change, you will be notified.


Top Index Catalog Multi Specialized Help

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