Scholarly Search Engines and Directories
- Google Scholar
- Searching a subset of the full Google database, Scholar searches for academic material such as peer-reviewed papers, theses, and technical reports from broad areas of research.
- Infomine
- Librarian built, Infomine is a virtual library of useful academic resources such as databases, electronic journals, electronic books, bulletin boards, mailing lists, online library card catalogs, articles, directories of researchers, and many other types of information.
Search Engines
- Highly recommended as the first stop for web-searching. Google is a "crawler-based" search engine and is highly regarded for relevancy and comprehensive coverage. Google is also known for the wide range of features it offers, such as cached links that let you see "dead pages".
- Yahoo
- Although famous for its original subject directory compiled by human editors, Yahoo now relies on crawler technology to produce one of the largest search engine databases available. Listings are enhanced with Yahoo categories from the subject directory when appropriate. You can also select search results from images, news, yellow pages, and products by following the tabs.
- All the Web
- Another crawler-based search engine, All-the-Web is becoming the index of choice for many users. In addition to the standard tabs to search the web, news, and images, All-the-Web also has tabs for video, audio and ftp files. They also claim to be one of the "freshest" search engines, crawling the web every 7-11 days.
- Ask.com
- Formerly Ask Jeeves, Ask.com has retooled themselves and provide a pretty nifty selection of tools. Especially useful are the options to narrow your search results.
- Clusty
- Clusty queries several top search engines, combines the results, and generates a list based on comparative ranking. What makes the results unique is what happens after you search. Instead of delivering millions of search results in one long list, similar results are grouped together in "clusters". These clusters help you see your results in topic area and hone in on what you are interested in.
Subject Directories
- Yahoo Directory
- Started in 1994, the classic Yahoo directory is the web's oldest. Created by human editors who sort web sites into subject categories and subcategories. Yahoo recommends the directory when you aren't sure how to describe what you want. The categories and cross-references can help you find web sites devoted to your interest.
- Open Directory
- The Open Directory Project is the largest, most comprehensive human-edited directory of the Web. It is constructed and maintained by volunteer editors. The Open Directory powers the directory results of Google, Lycos and many other search directories.
- LookSmart
- Nearly the same size as the Open Directory, the LookSmart Directory also provides a feature called "FindArticles", which allows searches focused on articles in free publications on the Internet.
- Librarians' Index to the Internet
- The goal of the LII is to provide a well-organized point of access for reliable and trustworthy web sites. Seeking unique content and contrasting points of view, the LII presents highly selected directory access to websites.