Search Engines and Subject Directories

This page has Search Tools, Search by Subject Indexes, and How to Search discussion.

Recommended Search Tools Page search Librarians' Index to the Internet (CA State Lib) or use one of the popular Search Engines. Gives searching techniques.
Alta Vista fast, indexes every word on every document, and allows full Boolean searching(+, AND,OR). A favorite basic search engine.
Cyber411 Searches several search engines simultaneously and fairly quickly, but returns only site titles not descriptions.
Dogpile A new megasearch engine that searches many search engines but allows you to set a maximum wait time, will display the first 10, and give you the option seeing the rest, etc.
Galaxy Search can search by text or title and can limit search to specified subject areas.
Hot Bot A favorite basic search engine that allows searching by date and type of document.
Infoseek can use question, phrase, or name.
Infospace.com The ultimate directory; find people, places, and things.
Netsearch Netscape's search engine with several options for searching.
Lycos has several options and links to other search services including road maps.
Magellan search engine and subject directory.
MetaCrawler very comprehensive, allows searching in several engines simultaneously.
Web Crawler search or use links to yellow pages, people finder, etc.
Yahoo Search a popular search engine and subject directory with lots of options.
Yahooligans A search engine and subject directory and the best place for kids to start searching.

B.J. Pinchbeck's Homework Helper an excellent homework-oriented subject directory. Very large.
Kids Web a homework-oriented subject directory for kids.
Beyond Bookmarks: Schemes for Organizing the Web Links to sites that use Dewey Decimal arrangement and other.
eBlast a directory of highly rated sites from Encyclopedia Britannica.
Gopher Jewels Catalogs many of the best gopher sites by categories.
Internet Public Library An extensive subject directory.
Internet Subject Catalog from Wardsboro Elementary School, VT and Dale Copps.
Library Without Walls a Dewey listing from Mt. Laurel Hartford, NJ School. Some interesting sites, but not large.
Mid-Continent Public Library, KC Very good listing of links in Dewey Decimal order.
Multnomah (OR) Public Library a good reference directory in alphabetical order.
Virtual Library Well-catalogued site in alphabetical order by subject.
Waunakee Middle School LMTC Click on "non-fiction" to find Dewey Decimal arranged links of interest to middle school students.

Amazing Picture Machine Use this to search for graphics on many subjects.
Clip Art Search Engines search well-known search engines for icons, graphics, and sound files.
Web Seek Searchable directory of over 100,000 images on the web.

IPL Web Searching gives pro's and con's of 8 different search engines.
Search Engine Evaluation gives features and comments about various search engines.
Understanding WWW Search Tools Extensive evaluation of different search engines. Contains an update evaluating Meta-Search Engines.