Major Search Engines

	About.com http://www.about.com/ If you want in-depth information about a broad topic, About.com is a good place to start. Subject experts offer guidance and Web sites on more than 50,000 topics at About.com, a PRIMEDIA company. Each expert "hosts" a topic site that includes how-to's, news, newsletters, question-an-answer sections, links to Web sites, discussion groups, and more. For example, the Telecommuting section offers career tips, facts and figures, glossaries, news stories, and success stories, in addition to carefully selected job sites and other sites related to telecommuting. Suitable for grades 6 to 12.
	AlltheWeb http://www.alltheweb.com Operated by Fast Search & Transfer (FAST) of Norway, AlltheWeb is powered by the FAST search engine and searches over 2 billion Web documents for Web sites, audio and video files, images, and news. AlltheWeb is the first major search engine to also search Macromedia Flash content and applications. If a basic search yields too many hits, try AlltheWeb's advanced search, which offers multiple search options, restrictions, and filters. You also can set search and display preferences. Specialty functions include science-only and soccer-only searches. Suitable for grades 2 to 12.
	AltaVista http://www.altavista.com AltaVista features a multitude of search options. You can search for images, audio, and video, as well as Web pages. The basic search, which accepts natural language, may return thousands of hits, whereas the advanced search function allows you to do a Boolean search quickly and easily. AltaVista's Tools section offers instant Web site translation, maps. yellow pages, and a people finder, as well as a family filter. which lets you filter content from your search results. The site's Marketplace may be distracting to students doing homework or research. Suitable for grades 4 to 12.
	Ask Jeeves http://www.ask.com Don't know how to phrase your search? Ask Jeeves is the search engine for you. Just type your question in plain English, and Jeeves will try to find the answer. The search results include relevant Web sites, as well as additional questions and search terms you can use to expand or narrow your search. You also can search news sites and shopping sites or browse the Ask Jeeves directory by subject. In the Jeeves IQ section, see what other people have asked Jeeves, including the top searches of the year, and get the latest search results for those topics. Suitable for grades 2 to 12.
	DMOZ: Open Directory Project http://dmoz.org With more than 3.8 million Web sites indexed in more than 460,000 subject categories, the Open Directory Project boasts that it is "the largest, most comprehensive human-edited directory of the Web." Search the directory by keyword or browse such categories as arts, business, computers, games, health, news, reference, shopping, and sports. Constructed and maintained by a global network of more than 50,000 volunteer editors, this search engine returns its results in two sections: Categories, covering all subject categories appropriate to the search term, and Sites, which includes all sites relevant to the search term. A special section for kids and teens features sites for both Web research and recreation. Suitable for grades K to 12.
	Dogpile http://www.dogpile.com Dogpile, a meta-search engine, fetches results from multiple search engines and quickly returns the top 10 results from each one. If one search engine is providing particularly good results, you can decide to see more results from that search engine or choose to see what the other sites have found. Specify whether Dogpile should search Web sites, shopping, images, audio, multimedia, news, and message boards to customize your search results. With advanced search, you can customize which search engines are used in your query. In addition to the meta-search, Dogpile includes a directory, a prominent marketplace for shopping, and even a joke of the day. Suitable for grades 2 to 12.
	Excite http://www.excite.com/ Excite lets you create My Excite, a personalized search engine, and offers such services as a personalized start page, free Web-based E-mail, online chat, and games. The personalization options are Excite's strongest feature, and Excite's meta-search makes it a good choice for general searches on popular topics and news. The homepage features many search and browse options. including everything from today's news, shopping, and weather to chats and free E-cards. Lycos (http://www.lycos.com/) provides similar personalization options and has a good family filter feature to keep younger Web surfers away from inappropriate sites. Suitable for grades 4 to 12.
	Google http://www.google.com This search engine provides fast, relevancy-ranked searches for Web sites, images, message boards, and more. It favors sites in which your search terms are close in proximity, and you can use plus and minus signs and quotes (Boolean search) to restrict your search. The advanced search allows you to search PDFs, Microsoft, Word documents, and many other file formats. Google's other search tools include a directory, in which sites are organized by topic and ranked by relevancy; an image search, which Google touts as "the most comprehensive image search on the Web"; and other tools, including Froogle, Google Answers, Google Catalogs, and Google News, Suitable for grades K to 12.
	HotBot http://www.hotbot.com/ HotBot's new interface promises to deliver speed, relevancy, and much more. From the homepage, yo can do a basic keyword search using one of four search engines (FAST, Google, Inktomi, and Teoma). HotBot also provides many options in the advanced search function to narrow your results, including language, region, work filter, date, file types, and more. Customize your HotBot homepage by adding any of the advanced search options to it for faster searching. HotBot also allows you to set preferences for how it carries out searches and displays results. You can even set your display color preferences. Suitable for grades 2 to 12.
	Teoma http://www.teoma.com A relatively new entry among the major search engines, Teoma, which means "expert" in Gaelic, is owned by Ask Jeeves. Teoma attempts to go beyond traditional page ranking methods to determine what it calls "authority," in addition to relevancy. Search results are returned in three sections: Results, a listing of all relevant Web pages, corresponding to your search term; Refine, which offers suggestions for narrowing your search; and Resources, a listing of expert resources on the subject of your search term. Search results are ranked not only by relevance, but also by subject-specific popularity. Suitable for grades K to 12.
	Vivisimo http://vivisimo.com/ The meta-search engine uses a number of popular search engines to find your results and then clusters those results into easy-to-navigate subcategories. For example, a search for "Abraham Lincoln" might return over 100 sites, but Vivisimo subcategorizes those results as papers, books, assassination, inaugural address, quotations, and more, making it easier for you to find the information you need. Vivisimo's advanced search allows you to expand or narrow your search by adding or deleting specific search engines and media outlets. The ability to search specific media sites makes Vivisimo a particularly valuable tool for researching current events. Suitable for grades K to 12.
	Yahoo! http://www.yahoo.com/ Yahoo! is a good search engine for general searches. Searching Yahoo! yields not only links to relevant sites, but also Yahoo! Categories, making it easier for you to identify related topics. General categories range from Arts & Humanities to reference to Society & Culture. The page layout makes it easy to find your desired category; links to popular areas such as Shopping, In the News, and What's New are prominently displayed. The search results screen also offers links to other search engines, such as Google and Ask Jeeves. Click on My Yahoo! to create a customized Yahoo! homepage that displays such information as comics, weather forecasts, stock quotes, news, and more. Yahoo! also offers Web-based E-mail, an address book, calendar, bill paying, chat rooms, and other services. Suitable for grades 2 to 12.