Search engines produce their results from databases of Web page content created by computers. They are not all the same! They vary according to database size, content, searching capabilities and how they rank results. Don't give up on a search until you've tried at least 2 to 3 search engines.
[ Search
Engines ] [ Search News ] [ Search Global ]
[ Search Multimedia ] [ The Invisible Web ]
Google One of the two largest databases, excellent relevance ranking, "similar pages" and caching feature, also searches Open Directory categories. Doesn't support full Boolean searching. Indexes many PDF documents.
AllTheWeb The other largest database. Allows Boolean searching in the advanced mode. Relevance ranking generally not as good as Google, but a good second stop in searching.
Teoma Accesses moderate-sized database, but has some unique features to aid searchers and sometimes finds rare items. Advanced search includes very useful features, although not Boolean searching.
Search engines aren't "real-time" indexes, your favorite search engine may not provide adequate coverage of the news. Here are some tools that allow you to search a variety of news sources.
Alta Vista - News Searchs a wide range of current news sources. Allows Boolean searching.
RocketNews Searches a wide range of news sources, has advanced capabilities and searches up to 5 days of material. Sorts materials by relevance, not by date.
NewsNow U.K.-based and frequently updated. Has a search feature that should give a lot on breaking news.
AllTheWeb News Search This search engine makes a special effort to index "fresh" news, searching news sources constantly for updates. Good search capabilities.
Google News Has basic Google search capabilities. Indexes back 30 days.
Yahoo! News Has a number of news searching options. Coverage provides news summaries, news multimedia, related Web sites, and message boards.
These tools provide a global view.
Search Engine Colossus Main strength is the country-by-country listing of search tools, also lists some tools with an international flavor. Extensive and well-maintained. Includes links to various language versions for the different tools.
Nations Online Web sites of various countries. Very up-to-date, spotlights high-interest countries.
CNET Search.com - International The sections on individual countries allows you to metasearch a collection of engines from that country.
FAST Multimedia Search Search images, audio, video, or all media. Advanced searching allows specification of formats and types for each medium.
Alta Vista Choose multimedia format from the top page. Allows some specification of formats.
Google Image Search Has special image searching capabilities in "Advanced Image Search."
What about that other part of the Web you're not covering with search engines? A lot of it is covered by these resources. For a good definition of the Invisible Web, go to the Help function of InvisibleWeb.com . When searching the invisible Web, plan to locate the category of material you want, then browse. Don't be too specific in your searches.
Direct Search - Search Tools and Directories Excellent, frequently updated, academically-oriented site developed by librarian Gary Price.
InvisibleWeb.com Consumer-oriented, but valuable for academia, too. Does well at categorizing and describing resources.
FirstGov "The official Website for searching the U.S. government" needs further development, but is already a tool that pulls together a substantial part of the Invisible Web: federal government databases.
GPO Access Provides free online use of over 1500 Federal databases, going beyond what is available on FirstGov.
Digital Librarian: a Librarian's Choice of the Best of the Web Personal choices by a librarian of interesting sites in a number of categories. Doesn't try to cover something in all areas, and subject categories are non-traditional at times, but a lot of fun to browse and often provides a quick intro to searching in a particular area.
Search Adobe PDF Online Search more than a million summaries of Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) files (not usually accessible through search engines) on the Web.
MagPortal.com Indexes and links to magazine articles available free on the Web. Currently includes over 120 magazines. Has a similarity feature; for many articles, click on an icon and come up with a list of similar articles. Much of what it covers is "visible" to search engines, but some of it's not, and it offers a way to focus on magazine-type material only.