Best Search Tools Chart
Adobe Acrobat PDF version - prints on 2 pages
| Selected Internet Search Engines | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Search Engine | Database | Advanced/Boolean | Other search options | Miscellaneous |
| Google
google.com Advanced Search. Ranks based on popularity (# of pages linked to). |
Full text of web pages and other documents on the web.
Plus: News (4500 sources); Images; Groups (Usenet posts 1981)-, Local (maps, businesses), Products (shopping), Scholar (articles), Book Search, Video Search, Blog Search, and more |
AND (default) OR (capitalized) - to remove words or phrases. + to include common words |
* wildcard to replace word(s) (to * or * ) No truncation. Quotes for phrase. Stems some words (+ to turn off). Fields: intitle:, site:, inurl:, filetype: more. US Gov Srch Similar pages - finds related sites. |
Language translations. ~ searches synonyms (~food) define: finds definitions Tools: math/equivalents calculator, maps, stocks.- more |
|
Bing
|
Full text of web pages and other documents on the web. |
AND (default) |
No truncation. Quotes for phrase. For dates, type the name of the month instead of the calendar number. |
Left panel, suggests related searches and shows search history. Translates similar to Google. Use Instant Answers for easy field searching. |
| Yahoo! search
search.yahoo.com Advanced Search. Yahoo! Directory. Ranks based on relevancy (occurrence of terms). |
Full text of web pages and other documents on the web (also
huge), Some content pay-for-position or from Yahoo! community. Plus: News (7000 sources), Images, Maps, People, Local, Travel, Shopping, Video, Audio, and more. |
AND (default) OR (capitalized) - to remove words or phrases. + to include common words. |
No truncation. Quotes for phrase. Limit by date, language, domain, file type, and country in Adv Srch. Fields: intitle:, inurl:, link:, site:, hostname: |
Translates
similar to Google. Shortcuts give quick access to topics. Creative Commons search in Adv. Srch. |
| Ask Kids
www.askkids.com |
Good answers for simple questions. Also safe, entertaining games for kids; news by age groups. | Natural language questions, not Boolean searches. | Lieft sidebar offers links to narrowed, broadened and related search results. | Provides links to other resources (Schoolhouse, Movies, Games, Video, Images). |
| Selected Internet Meta-Search Engines | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Meta-Search Engine | Database | Advanced/Boolean | Other search options | Miscellaneous |
| Ixquick
ixquick.com |
Searches Ask, All the Web, Yahoo, MSN Live, Exalead, Gigablast, EntireWeb, Open Directory, Wikipedia, and others. Customizable. | AND (default), OR, - to exclude. "Translates" complex searches to fit what each search engine "understands." | Picture search. Internatl Phone Directory. | Star rankings tell how many search engines include a match
among their top 10 results. Refine search results by clicking check mark to find more like, and X to exclude pages like a result. |
| Clusty clusty.com |
Searches Ask, Gigablast, MSN Live, NY Times,
Open Directory, Shopzilla, Wikipedia, Yahoo! News. Selection varies. |
AND (default), OR, -
to exclude. Clusters on left of search result allow zooming in on subsets of results. |
News, Images, Wikipedia, Blogs, Jobs, Shopping, Gov sites. Click Remix to change cluster listings. | Public search site from Vivisimo (vivisimo.com). |
| Selected Internet Subject Directories | ||||
| Subject Directory | Database | Boolean | Other search options | Miscellaneous |
| Internet Public Library ipl2.org |
Resources useful to public library users, evaluated & annotated by librarians . | AND (default), OR, NOT, Nesting ( ). - to remove words or phrases. + to include common words. |
Quotes for exact phrase. | Click magnifying glass icon by each result for metadata. Replaces the Librarians' Internet Index. Offers an "Ask an IPL2 Librarian" service. |
| Google
Directory directory.google.com |
Open Directory Project selected websites, enhanced by Google popularity ranking (about 5 million). | AND (default) OR (capitalize) - to remove. |
Search like Google. | Use hierarchical subject organization to locate sites on a topic. Good to narrow down web searches with too many results. |
| Infomine
infomine.ucr.edu Advanced Search and Browse. |
Scholarly Internet resources, selected and annotated by (mostly)
UC librarians. (over 100K). |
AND (default), OR, NEAR, Nesting ( ).
|
Quotes for phrase; pipes (|term|)
for exact word or words; Stemming (can turn on or off in Advanced); * to truncate. Fields: subject; title; author; keyword; description. |
Can search all databases or individually. Can browse by subjects in each database. |
Last updated February 16, 2010.