Internet Search Engines

Here's an alphabetical list of many "Internet Search Engines" which enable you to search for more specific information than you can find be browsing. Those preceded by an asterisk (*) are generally regarded as the major search tools at this time. They attempt to collect and index resources in a fairyly automatic fashion, using robots, spiders, worms to roan the Internet, bring back resources, sort them, index them, and create databases. Factors which can affect the success of a search are: the size, content, and currency of the database; the speed of the search; search features; and the design and ease of use of the user interface.

1. Aliweb

2. All-in-One Search Page Has collected many search engines at one site.

3. *Alta Vista was developed by Digital Equipment Corporation. It offers simple and advanced queries, online help, and the "largest, fastest, and most sophisticated search engine" on the Internet.

4. *CUI W3 Catalog

5. CUSI (at Northwestern) . The Configurable Unifed Search Index. A collection of search engines.

6. *Excite Netsearchis fairly new. It was developed by Architext software and claimes to be "the first concept-based navigation tool," whatever that means.

7. Experimental Search Engine Meta-Index

8. Galaxy

9. Golden Retriever

10. *Infoseek Home Page offers both a free and a subscription service (fee).

12. *Inktomi is also new. Offers a simple interface but not much online help. (Inktomi is the mythological trickster spider of the Plains Indians.)

13. Internet Search

14. *Lycos, Inc. Home Page is fast and claimes to have indexed 91% of web sites. (From lycosidae, groundspiders, that catch their prey by pursuit.)

16. *Metacrawler is also new, offering multi-threaded web searches.

17. Netlink Server

18. New Riders' Official World Wide Web Yellow Pages

19. *The Open Text IndexOffers boolean operators as well as proximity searches. Online help, but may be difficult to get in.

20. Point Communications

21. RES LINKS

22. RFC Index Search Form

23. Savvy Search

24. Search Engine Room

25. Search Plex

26. Starting Point

27. Trade Wave Galaxy

28. U of Michigan Clearinghouse - Subject Guides

30. Verity Virtual Library

31. *WebCrawler Searching is now owned by America Online.

32. *WWWW - World Wide Web Worm An early pioneer in web searching; now has a relatively small database.

33. WWW Search Engines

34. W3 Search Engines

35. *Yahoo!

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Update: March 12, 1996