Search Strategies - Search Engines
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What am I looking for? What is the best search engine to use?
I know a little about what I am looking for and can use a few key words to help search for more information
Google is a good site to begin with, since it is one of the largest indexes
Yahoo Search is another popular general search engine
Bing provides multiple types of searches
Quintura is a good discovery search engine with Quintura for Kids a choice for younger children.
I want to search for information based on readability level. Twurdy uses custom designed readability software that includes information about the number of words on the page, the average number of syllables in each word, the average sentence length and more to determine a page readability level.
I know the exact phrase that I want to search for Use "double quotes" around the phrase with any of the above search engines
I need facts
Microsoft Encarta includes an online encyclopedia center, dictionary, atlas, and additional resources to answer your questions
Ask offers many innovative tools to help you get the information you need quickly and easily
Answers.com allows you to ask a question on about everything
Factbites is a cross between a search engine and an encyclopedia        
Ref:erences  browses the web's best references
I need an overview of a subject.

Yahoo Directory list broad general categories, followed by more specific categories on a wide range of topics

Google Directory organizes the web by topic into categories
The Open Directory Project is the Netscape alternative to Google Directory
I need to narrow my search
Clusty combines search results by grouping similar results together into clusters
Ask results include a "Narrow Your Search" feature for most searches
Exalead provides choices on how to narrow your search by using related terms, site types, multimedia, etc.
I like to see thumbnails of pages listed in my results
Ask uses binoculars to view thumbnails of result pages
Exalead shows a preview page for all results automatically
RedZee displays a trail of searched websites
I want to do an all-inclusive (metasearch) across many search engines
Ixquick search results include a universal power search relying on Boolean logic, phrases, wildcards, and field searches
Pandia collects and sorts the hits, takes out duplicates, and presents the end result in a simple format.
Metacrawler searches the top search engines, including Google, Yahoo Search, MSN Search, Ask, and more
Trovando provides access and compares results from over 250 search engines across 10 categories        
Mamma is a "smart metasearch engine which is like using multiple search engines, all at the same time.
SearchBoth provides a way to compare two different searchs from among a variety of search engines.
I am not sure how to spell what I'm looking for
Exalead Advanced search allows you to search for approximate spelling or phonetic spelling
The Reverse Dictionary suggest words and phrases that match your searched concept
Dictionary.com suggest correct spellings
I like to see a visual representation for my search results
Kartoo is a meta search engine which preents its results on a map
WebBrain lets you search the Web visually, so you can explore a dynamic picture of related information, instead of searching through long lists of text.
Quintura provides a cloud that you can navigate and easily refine in order to find relevant information faster and more easily
RedZee displays a trail of searched websites
I am looking for different file formats
Google Advanced search looks for .pdf .ps .doc .xls .ppt .rtf
Yahoo Advanced search looks for .xml .pdf .xls .ppt .doc .txt
I need to find information that is trustworthy
Pinakes links major subject gateways
Internet Public Library features high-quality websites selected, described, and organized by a team of librarians.
The World Wide Web Virtual Library is the oldest catalog of the web run by subject area experts
I want to search websites that are usually inaccessbile to traditional search engines
Turbo10 searches over 800 search engines previously not indexed by traditional search engines
CompletePlanet is a comprehensive listing of documents that cannot be indexed by traditional search engines
OAIster is a union catalog of digital resources from 947 contributors
I am looking for images
Google Images is one of the most comprehensive image search engines on the web.
Yahoo Search is anohter major image search engine
behold searches Flickr images based on your input
I am looking for Weblogs
Technorati is the recognized authority on what's happening on the World Live Web
Google Blog helps find blogs on your favorite topics
I need to find moving images
Yahoo! Video searches for AVI. MPEG, Quicktime, Real, Windows Media and Flash video
Google Video includes video from YouTube, Google Video, and other third-party sites
YouTube is the most well known of these services, recently bought by Google
I need to find a topic
Clusty results include clusters that can be used to help identify topics
Google Directory inlcudes a subject tree that can assist with identifying topics
I need to find related topics
Grokker reports results in both an outlne and map view that enable the searcher to locate related information
Clutsy groups search results into folder topics that help discover additional topics related to your original search
I need help from experts
Ask A Librarian provides basic research assistance related to a variety of subject
All Experts offers volunteers to answer a broad area of questions via email for free
I need primary sources
American Memory provides free and open access through the Internet to a variety of resources in a many different formats that document the American experience.
Library and Archival features access to onlne exhibitions that have been created by libraries, archives, and historical societies, and well as to museum online exhibitions.
I need definitions Def-i-ni-tions allow you to browse thousands of dictionary definitions.

Some of the information found on this page has been gathered from Finding information: Search engines by Phil Bradley; NoodleTools; and Infopeople. Much appreciation to these resources for their hard work and the assistance they provide to society.

Horry County Schools makes every effort to frequently update this list. If you find a broken link or would like to suggest another link or category please email the District Media Specialist.

Horry County Schools

335 Four Mile Rd. | PO Box 260005 | Conway, SC 29528

Phone 843-488-6700

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