Internet Search

Search Engines | Subject Directories | Internet Introductions | Evaluating Internet Sources | Search Engine Evaluations | Citing Sources

alltheweb  |  Alta Vista  |  Best Information on the Net  |  Google  |  Lycos  |  Metacrawler  |  MeL>Best of Web  |  Subjects A-Z  |  Yahoo

Please note that not all search engines are the same. There are a number of them that are “pay for placement,” meaning that the results that rank the highest--those that you see first--are there because those sites have paid to come up first. Even on some of the more legitimate sites such as Google, the first few links may have the designation “sponsored links” attached to them. Some of the more unscrupulous engines either omit any kind of warning or give warnings that are very difficult to understand.
 

GENERAL SEARCH ENGINES

PORTALS/FEDERATED SEARCH ENGINES
 

iNTERNATIONAL
 SEARCH ENGINES

Search Engine Colossus: International Directory of Search Engines

META-SEARCH ENGINES

SPECIAL-FORMAT
SEARCH ENGINES

EXPERIMENTAL & SPECIALIZED SEARCH ENGINES

Directories are generally organized by human experts so that you can browse through them in search of information. That means that you click through their hierarchy of subjects until you find what you want. Most also have search programs that let you enter terms and will then search through the subject hierarchy for you. 

• Best Information on the Net - from St. Ambrose University O'Keefe Library
• BUBL Link - from the Centre for Digital Library Research, Strathclyde University, Scotland
• Digital Librarian
• Infomine  
  "Scholarly Internet Resource Collections." Some are fee-based, but many are free.
• Internet Public Library
• Librarians' Internet Index
• MeL>Best of Web - from Michigan eLibrary
• Open Directory Project  
• Subjects A-Z 
  These guides focus on select high-quality online and traditional sources covering subjects related to OCC programs and courses.
• WWW Virtual Library 
• Yahoo  
  The most popular but the least scholarly of subject directories in this list.

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INTRODUCTIONS

• Finding Information on the Internet: A TUTORIAL

EVALUATING SOURCES

• Brief Overviews
  • Evaluating Internet Resources
  • Thinking Critically about World Wide Web Sources
• Evaluating the Web - an OCC Tutorial
• Evaluating Web Resources
• Evaluating Web Sites: Criteria and Tools - from Cornell University
• Evaluating World Wide Web Sites - from Iona College Libraries
• The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly, or Why It's a Good Idea to Evaluate Web Sources - from New Mexico State University Library

SEARCH TOOLS FEATURES & EVALUATIONS

• Searchengines.com  
  Select "Search Engine Listings" and then use the drop-down menus to link to various types of search engines and directories. Select "How to Search the Net" learn to improve your searching skills.
• Search Engine Watch 
  From the basics to the latest and most advanced: everything you wanted to know about search engines. Refine your skills with the "Tutorials" in the "Resources" section.
• Search Engine Showdown 
  Excellent all-around guide to searching the Web. Check the "Search Engine Chart" under "Features" for info on Boolean searching, truncation, field searching, sorting, etc.
• Meta-Search Engines 
  An evaluation, with chart of features

 CITING SOURCES

• How to cite sources
  Links to various citation helpers for MLA, APA, AMA, Chicago, Turabian, etc.