The University of California, Berkeley, has a helpful online tutorial called Finding Information on the Internet.
PC Magazine 1997:
"Yahoo! is the best Web directory. The site provides you with a solid
starting point for finding Web content and invariably delivers links of
the highest quality. Yahoo!'s 14 categories and its thousands of
subcategories provide the best serendipitous searching available on the
Web, and they are an ideal first step in searching for information when
you have only the most general idea of what you want. If Yahoo! doesn't
have what you want, your keyword query gets sent to AltaVista."
We were an early site included in Yahoo! and owe them many thanks for their support.
ixquick
June 2001:
Is a metasearch engine that searches 12 engines simultaneously. I gave it a try and was impressed.
Google
April 2000:
According to an independent survey of the leading 13 portals and search engines, Google ranks first overall among search and portal users in the following categories:
- #1: Overall Site Effectiveness
- #1: Overall Opinion of Site
- #1: Would Recommend to a Friend
ODP - Open Directory Project
Like having someone cull through and content to help make sure you are getting relevant sites in your searches? The ODP - Open Directory Project's "goal is to produce the most comprehensive directory of the web, by relying on a vast army of volunteer editors." Other sites such as Lycos & Hotbot also use ODP data, which is offered under a free use license.
The Ultimate White Pages
help you find almost any published phone number and address in the United States. Scroll down to find the section for reverse searches: Put in a phone number and it will tell you to whom it belongs.
HotBot
PC Magazine 1997:
"HotBot, the Web's premier crawler, combines a huge database of
full-text-indexed pages with a sophisticated user interface. The site's
many filter options are easily applied by means of drop-down list boxes
or radio buttons, so you can construct complex, customized queries
without having to learn an arcane syntax. You can search for phrases,
for people, and for URLs, and some of HotBot's inventive filters
include searching by domain or Web site. You can also search for file
extensions and for most major media types. HotBot delivered highly
relevant returns even when we didn't use the site's advanced search
options."
Excite
PC Magazine 1997:
"Excite, the best general-purpose Web search site, delivers a high
percentage of relevant hits on simple single- and multiterm queries,
without forcing you to perform undue query tweaking. Its ability to
sort returns by site provides an invaluable quick overview of a large
number of hits. Excite's hits can also serve as queries by example to
help you locate similar pages. Excite offers excellent query-refinement
tools, including keyword weighting. The site features more than 60,000
substantive Web site reviews and a bevy of other valuable extras, such
as its City.Net regional guides and the Excite Live! personalized news
page."
Rainbow Query to "search the Queer Internet"
AltaVista
"AltaVista Wins Internet World Magazine's Industry Award for Outstanding Service at Internet World 1996."
c|net's search.com
A database of over 250 search engines.
NewsLink
A central source for finding magazines and newspapers on the Internet. Extensive.