Erin Shockley
April 25, 2004
Most people have their favorite search engine or two to use in most circumstances. However, there are those occasions when more specific search engines would better fit your needs. Below is a list of engines to use in those times when your general search engine just won’t cut it. I have found the two best search engines in categories such as government, kids, images, medicine, and news.
1. FirstGov – With this search engine, you can choose whether you want to search federal government sites, state government sites, or both. I tried typing in several keywords, and each time I received over 1,000 hits; this made me realize that this engine searches many sites, and with it, you can probably find anything for which you are looking.
http://www.firstgov.gov/
2. Google Search: Uncle Sam – This search engine searches all .gov and .mil sites for your search request. Since it is an offspring of Google, I expected it to be powerful and thorough, and it definitely lived up to both expectations.
http://www.google.com/unclesam
1. OneKey – I searched this site with the keywords “breast cancer” to determine how kidsafe the results would be, since this query could potentially generate some hits inappropriate for children. The search engine uses Google, but restricts the results list because it requires websites to meet an editorial policy in order for them to be displayed. I received 818 hits that were all appropriate for children and dealt directly with breast cancer.
http://www.onekey.com/
2. Ask Jeeves for Kids – This site runs a distant second to OneKey. Again, I searched this site for “breast cancer,” but I did not come up with nearly as many hits. It is convenient because the site automatically categorizes the results into headings such as general information, prevention, and raising awareness. However, each heading links to only one page, severely limiting resources if children needed to do a research project. Nonetheless, there are not many kidsafe search engines available at this time, and this is definitely the second best one that I found.
http://www.ajkids.com/
1. Google: Images – Like all Google search engines, this one is highly effective and powerful. I received nearly 200,000 hits for my search for “turtles,” including photographs, cartoons, borders, and backgrounds.
http://www.google.com/imghp?hl=en&tab=wi&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=
2. GoGraph – This search engine allows you to search for icons, clipart, photos, animated images, or all of these. As a test, I performed a search for “flowers” and received over 1,000 hits. Each image is unique, providing for a wide variety of choices when you need to find that perfect graphic.
http://www.gograph.com/
1. MedHunt – This website is a great one to use if you’re trying to find out more information about any medical terms. I typed in “colic” and found 342 results, listed in order of relevancy. Many of the results link to pages telling you how to treat colic or deal with your colicky baby in layman’s terms, making this a great resource for the general population.
http://www.hon.ch/MedHunt/
2. WebMD Health – Again, I searched this site for “colic.” This time I found 92 hits, most of which dealt directly with the query I provided. Among the results list were many sites appropriate for the general public, not just doctors.
http://my.webmd.com/webmd_today/home/default
1. Yahoo! News – This is a great news search engine powered by Yahoo! I tried several different queries, many of them dealing with local news, and this search engine found relevant results for most of them. This is definitely a great site to try if you need to find more information on happenings in the news.
http://news.yahoo.com/
2. AlltheWeb News – I tried the same keywords in this search engine as above. I received many of the same top sites as in my Yahoo! searches, but there were not as many hits. Therefore, although this is a great resource, it does not seem to search as many sources as Yahoo! News.
http://www.alltheweb.com/?cat=news