Search Engines Subject Guides Meta Search Tools Web Archives Search
Search Engines
Search engines are computer programs that scour the Web to find new sites, delete or update old ones for their home databases and log the words on each page. Each search engine works differently and may often produce different results. To use them most effectively, use the Help screen in each search engine's site to see how you may refine your searches.
Subject Guides
Subject guides include sites collected and organized by individuals who select resources based on what they consider "good information." Some of the most selective, high quality Subject Directories which include site reviews are:
Meta Search Tools
Meta-Search engines allow you to search many search engines at once. Using them is a quick way of doing a simple search to gather as much information as possible; however one of their major disadvantages is that you are not able to use refined search strategies that the individual search engines or directories allow you to use.
Global Search Tools
For a more global view and to go beyond a United States perspective, which is what most of the above search engines provide, try some of the tools below .
Web Archives Search Engine
The Wayback Machine is a search engine that contains over 10 billion web pages archived from 1996 to the present. This is a unique search engine, the only one of its kind!
The Internet Archive Wayback Machine
To locate an extensive list of Web search engines and directories visit Yahoo's Searching the Web page.
Also, for reviews of web search engines see www.searchenginewatch.com.