My favorites
- Best all-around search engine: Yahoo! and HotBot
- Most accurate (fewest irrelevant hits): Google
- For broad, top-level questions: Yahoo!
- For Boolean searches: Alta Vista
- For full-text articles: Northern Light
- For news: Yahoo! - News or CNN
- For telephone numbers and e-mail addresses: The Ultimates, 555-1212.com, AnyWho, or All-in-one PeopleSearch.net
- For stock information: Quicken, Yahoo! Finance, Motley Fool, Hoovers Online, Dow Jones, Invest-O-Rama!
- Shopping: MySimon and Acses internet book search
For another, more complete list of search engines/links and guide to the Internet, see NYTimes CyberTimes Navigator. For a more detailed lists of specific or specialized search engines, see "A Tool for Every Task," PC Magazine (Dec. 1998), available at http://www.zdnet.com/pcmag/features/websearch98/tool.html. See also "Choose the Best Search for Your Information Needs" by Debbie Abilock.
Internet Searching Tutorials
- Power Searching For Anyone. (http://www.searchenginewatch.com/facts/powersearch.html)
- See also Search Engine Tutorials. ( http://www.searchenginewatch.com/resources/tutorials.html)
- Every search engine uses Boolean operators slightly differently. The best idea is to check the Help link on each specific engine to see how Boolean operators are implemented. (For a very interesting article on the limits of Boolean searches in search engines, see Greg Notess, "On-the-Fly Search Engine Analysis" Online 23:5 (September 1999).
- Learn the Net: An Internet Guide and Tutorial. (http://www.learnthenet.com/english/index.html)
- See also Harley Hahn Teaches the Internet, available from me at my desk.
Background Information and Search Engine Comparison
- For a good comparison of search engines, see Choose the best search for your information need
- Seach Engine Showdown
- See a good compilation of reviews, see Search Engine Watch's Search Engine Reviews
