Ready Reference: Search Engines

 

Search Engines | MetaSearch Engines | Directories | Tutorials

Recommended Search Engines  Search the Web by Word(s) or Phrase

Search engines create their listings using automated software without evaluating the contents. Use a search engine to find information on very specific topics that require searching with unique terminology. Domain names (such as .edu, .gov, .org, .au, .de) can  be used to limit searches in most search engines.

  • Google Popular, huge (8 billion+ indexed pages), with great relevancy and cached pages.
  • Google (Advanced Search) Combine or exclude search terms or phrases and limit by language, date, domain, format. 
  • Google Books (Advanced Search)  Includes full text for many out-of-copyright books (generally 1923 or earlier)
  • Google Scholar Beta test version. Find scholarly sources including articles. If the full text is not available, the article may be available to Oneonta students and faculty either in print, in library databases (such as Academic Search Premier or through Interlibrary Loan.
  • Google Uncle Sam Search U.S. Government sites. Reliable information, no ads! See also Science.gov, a selection of science sites from federal agencies.
  • alltheweb  Advanced search features include limit by date, page content, region.
  • AltaVista Large, powerful search engine with unique search features including proximity searching and truncation.
  • Scirus  Searches over 200 million science-related web pages, as well as refereed journals
  • Teoma/Ask.com  Results are ranked by subject popularity.
  • Yahoo! Includes results from the "invisible web" (web pages not searched by standard search engines)

MetaSearch Engines -- Search Many Engines at Once

Everything on the Web is not indexed by Google and other similar search engines.  If you don't find what you need, try one of the MetaSearch engines listed below. These services search several search engines in a single sweep. Although complex searching is not available with these engines, they provide a good starting place.

  • Clusty An upgraded version of Vivisimo. Clusters results by subject subdivisions. Good for topical and current event searching.

  • Kartoo Search results are displayed as a flow chart. (Flash is required)
  • Ixquick  Brings "top 10" from each search engine, aggregates results, and eliminates duplicates. 
  • Dogpile  Aggregates results from 8 engines.  Advanced searching allows Boolean.
  • Query Server  Search the web, health, news, and government. Results are clustered by topic.

Recommended Directories -- Browse the Web by Subject

Humans select, sometimes evaluate, and organize (by subject) the listings in a directory. Use a directory to browse and to find the "best" sites on a general or popular topic.

General Directories

Academic Directories

  • Academic Info  Selective, annotated "college and research level Internet resources."
  • Intute Well-organized links to over 100,000 high quality web sites selected and annotated by subject specialists.
  • Resource Discovery Network "The RDN selects, catalogues and delivers high-quality Internet resources for further and higher education."
  • SOSIG: Social Science Information Gateway  A searchable "database of over 50,000 Social Science Web pages...selected by subject experts."
  • VoS - Voice of the Shuttle  "A structured and briefly annotated guide to online resources" focusing on the humanities.

Recommended Tutorials on How to Search the Web