Search Engines

The Best of the Best

General Search Engines:

Google- http://www.google.com

This search engine does it all! It is quick and easy to use for kids and adults. It offers parental controls to keep kids from wandering to inappropriate sites both in school and at home. It also provides search results that can be websites, images, audio/visual, blogs, shopping, and other topics of interest. It also has its own E-mail now that allows you to search through your own saved messages to find a conversation by topics rather than titles.

Ask- http://www.ask.com

This search engine is similar to Google. One definite advantage it has over Google, however, is that its menu with types of searches is on the main search page. On Google, there are some search options available on the top of the search bar, but Ask has them all located on the homepage. Ask does not have all of the search options available that Google does, however, still making it second best. It does offer websites, images, news, shopping, and other important searches.

Meta Search Engines:

Dogpile- http://www.dogpile.com

This engine contains similar types of searches to Google and Ask. It provides results in websites, images, news, and audio/visual, as well as other useful topics. It pulls resources from the main general search engines like Google, Yahoo, MSN, and Ask and presents the results by what seems to be not only the relevance to the searched topic, but also how many of the general search engines provided it as a result.

Clusty- http://clusty.com/

This engine searches the main general search engines as well as Gigablast, Wisenut, and Wikipedia. It provides results by catergory just as Dogpile, Google, and Ask do, offering results by websites, images, new, and jobs. This engine clumps its results together by the kinds of results they are, not by how popular the result is on other engines. For instance, clusters of results it may provide are images, resources, history, and myths rather than just providing a list of results.

Shopping Search Engines:

Amazon- http://www.amazon.com

Amazon is a massive online purchasing power. It allows you to buy anything from baby clothes to patio furniture with the click of a button. One of Amazon’s most impressive features is that it has joined with Barnes and Noble, Toys R Us, Imaginarium, Office Depot, and Target to provide even bigger names to its online search. The features offered by Amazon include wish lists, recommendations, SuperSaver free shipping on certain orders, and consumer vendors. Ordering is simple and returns are no hassle, Amazon will even provide a dissatisfied customer with a barcode for their package to return an item free of charge.

Ebay- http://www.ebay.com/

Ebay may technically qualify as an auction site rather than a true shopping site, however, the sheer variety of item available and the ability to compare offers from different vendors certainly makes this site worthwhile as a shopping stop. With two options available for purchasing, bidding and “buy it now”, shoppers are given the opportunity to try for a lower price for the item by bidding lower than the offered price, or they can opt for a sure purchase with the immediate buy. Ebay offers almost any item you could think to purchase from socks to cars.

Kid Friendly Search Engines:

Yahooligans- http://yahooligans.yahoo.com/

This kid friendly search engine is powered by Yahoo and, much like Yahoo, is not just a search bar. The homepage for Yahooligans also offers a calendar of important dates and holidays as well as a menu of links to popular kid topics such as animals, games, TV, music, news, and even one for cool sites. The homepage also offers polls for kids to participate in and a joke of the day. For parents and teachers, there is also a small menu of links to resources like online safety and internet literacy as well as lesson plans on how to use the internet.

Ask for Kids- http://www.askforkids.com/

Ask for Kids is set up much like the regular Ask Jeeves website. The homepage is primarily a search bar, however, it does have a menu of search topics similar to the main site. On the kids’ page it is not just popular topics of interest menu, it is a menu of topics for study. The list of links, which looks like a stack of books, offers links to a dictionary, thesaurus, almanac, atlas, and links to subjects like science, history, astronomy, and math.

Medical Search Engines:

WebMD- http://www.webmd.com/

WebMD offers much more than just a medical search engine. The homepage offers menu tabs for diseases, news, healthy living, health care services, pregnancy, and blogs. There is also an A-Z guide in addition to the search bar. The homepage has a Top 12 Health Topics list with links to information and a featured articles window that links to WebMD video clips. Perhaps the most interesting feature of the WebMD homepage is the symptom checker. This small box on the homepage allows you to choose male or female and a region of the body and then offers the most common problems for that region and how to address them.

MedlinePlus- http://medlineplus.gov/

This medical search site also offers a menu of search choices in addition to its overall search bar. Links to topics like general Health Topics, Drugs and Supplements, and News help narrow the focus of the search. This site offers clear links to a Medical Encyclopedia, Dictionary, and Directory of resources and practitioners which are not obviously clear on other sites. MedlinePlus also offers Tutorials, Surgery Videos, and information on Clinical Trials. Current Health News, Featured Sites, and In the Spotlight links also present topics of interest to users.

Legal Search Engines:

FindLaw LawCrawler- http://lawcrawler.findlaw.com/

This simple legal search site is powered by Google. The homepage has a search bar, but also links to websites under the categories Countries, US Government Sites, and Law Schools. A menu of links also directs users to databases under the headings Lawyers, US States Codes and Regs, US Federal and State Case Law, Library Documents and Forms. One item of particular use is a search bar specifically to search for a lawyer.

FindLaw- http://www.findlaw.com/

This main hosting site for the LawCrawler above has a search bar for finding a local lawyer, but not for legal issues. It does, however, present a list of legal issues to browse through. Some of the topics under the menu of links include Accidents and Injuries, Dangerous Products, Civil Rights, Criminal Law, Employee Rights, Immigration, Divorce and Family Law, Taxes, and Real Estate. This site also offers small windows for Tips and Tools and a “Did You Know?” section with recent news.