searching

Searching for: webpages usenet articles pictures people places flights movies music books misc
Last change: Thu Mar 21 19:03:25 UTC 2002

  • Searching for Stuff on the Web:
      Like laundry soap, each search engine has its strengths and weaknesses and it is a good idea to change brands from time to time. Here's my take on some of the English-language search engines out there:

      About.com AltaVista Excite Google HotBot InfoSeek Lycos MetaCrawler Voila WebCrawler Yahoo!

      Voila

    1. Voila - never heard of this one before, but it happens to account for 10% of the hits this website gets from search engines. Rating: 5.00.

      Google

    2. Google - has a deep database + it weights its results by how well-linked a page is, the thinking being that if a lot of other pages link to a given page, then it must be either very good or very important. The links, however, may have nothing to do with your particular search. In my experience it by far the best search engine for simple searches. It arranges results by website, which saves a lot of time and mental energy. Rating: 4.67.

      Excite

    3. Excite - Decent. Supposedly has some intution built into it: eg, if you say "wood", it knows you mean wood for building, not trees. It has fallen prey to portal fungus, big time. Rating: 4.50.

      AltaVista

    4. AltaVista - has a fast, deep database (the deepest of all as of May 1999), a help page that is actually useful (!!!), very flexible, usable search pattern syntax and it has resisted being weighed down with portal sludge. If you could only use one search engine, this would be the one. I use Google for my simple searches, but come here for all the others. Rating: 3.67.

      MetaCrawler

    5. MetaCrawler (aka Go2Net) - feeds your request to several search engines (most of them are listed here) and intelligently compiles the result. In theory, this should make it the highest rated engine, but it doesn't because it only has each engine do a shallow, simple search. Plus it's slow (almost by definition). The result might be worth waiting for it its searches went deeper. c|net, however, gave it high marks. Rating: 1.75.

      Infoseek

    6. Infoseek - Has a good index that is helpfully integrated with your searches. Part of Disney's GO Network. Rating: 0.94.

      Lycos

    7. Lycos - My favorite back in '96. Lycos has a biggish database, but it is largely junk because it is way way out of date. Bought up by USA Networks. Rating: 0.48.

      Yahoo!

    8. Yahoo! - Start here if you are new to the Web or if you are looking for info on something you don't know much about. It has a great index of the Web, all checked out by real people, but its integration into your searches is usually more confusing than helpful. More an index to the web than an industrial-strength search engine. Rating: 0.17.

      HotBot

    9. Hotbot - like a good blowtorch, it seems to cut through a lot of garbage, but sometimes it seems to cut out too much. Thus the low rating. Also it is shellacked over with the obligatory portal sludge. Ugh. Owned by HotWired Digital, which in turn is owned by Lycos, by the way. Rating: 0.15.

      WebCrawler

    10. WebCrawler - of small brain, but good for quick and dirty searches. Rating: 0.02.

      about.com

    11. About.com - formerly known as miningco.com, this does Yahoo! one better by not just producing a simple, skeletal directory, but guides for various topics, imparting basic information and links to the best sites. Rating: NR.

    12. More engines ...

      Search Engine Ratings: A search engine's rating is the ratio between the effective size of its database and how far out of date it is. Inotherwords, the bigger and more up-to-date an engine's searchable database is, the higher its rating. The rating does not take into account the engine's speed, ease of use or the aptness of its results, however. The ratings listed above are as of 26 May 1999.

    13. Searching the Usenet:
    14. Pictures:
    15. Searching for People & Places:

        someone needs to combine all this into one thing. If you know of (or thinking about doing) such a site, email me!

      • the phone book - white pages for the whole US. Find people you haven't seen since fourth grade. Phone listings for the world are also available.
      • the yellow pages -- good coverage. Includes maps and links to webpages.
      • email addresses - ridiculously out of date, but better than nothing.
      • snail mail addresses
      • zip codes
      • US street map - good, detailed street map, but zooming in and out by balloon takes practice. Includes current weather at your location (and a link to a more detailed report).
      • Maps On Us - especially good for planning routes to n locations and getting latitude and longitude info for a given address. On the downside it limits you to 11 saved addresses. Yahoo! lets you have an unlimited number. Includes yellow pages and even weather.
      • MapQuest - includes real-time traffic reports and travel guides for the bigger cities.
      • Yahoo! - good for planning routes, and, unlike MapsOnUs, lets you store an unlimited number of addresses if you have a My Yahoo! account (free). Uses MapQuest data.
      • EtakGuide - excellent source of map info.
      • online city guides
    16. Searching for Flights:
      • thetrip.com - see when a flight is going to arrive or book one. Or, really cool, see where a flight is right now! Includes info on rental cars, hotels, restaurants and other travel info.
      • travelscape.com - recommended by Howard; says it's better than priceline.
    17. Searching for Movies:
    18. Searching for Music:

      • Muze - they once had the best music databases by far on the web, but they seem to have taken it down. Most other music databases on the web are based on this one.
      • CD Now - I've never bought from them, but it is much easier to find what you than with Amazon (see below).
      • Amazon - they sell CDs too. Good: for many artists they include info like influences. Bad: Hard to find what CD a particular song is on or to find a CD according to about when it came out.
    19. Searching for Books:

        Amazon Books

      • Amazon Books a great place to buy books online!!! Surprisingly, it actually lives up to its advertised hype.
      • Barnes & Noble - never bought from them, nor had to. They're monstrous enough as it is. Seems to have a smaller selection than Amazon and seems to assume that you only want to read what's new and popular.
      • Borders
      • Books On-Line Author Search - good source for ebooks
      • Best Book Buys - get comparative prices and shipping times for a particular book from various online bookstores.
    20. Searching for Other Stuff:
      • ZDNet has a good list of where to find an apartment, career, lawyer, realtor, ATM and other such things not mentioned above.
      Created Fri 06 Sep 1996 by Stephen Kalb.
      revenu al hejmo retposxtu   NetMechanic links last checked by NetMechanic on 2000.08.29
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