Top Search Engines on the Web

For Students:

Yahooligans – This site had the most comprehensive search for students. It yielded more results than any other search engine in both categories tried.

http://yahooligans.yahoo.com/

Kids Click – This site is perfect for the younger researcher. If they know what topic they want they simply type it into the search bar, or they can click on a subject and it will take them to a list of websites on that particular topic.

http://www.kidsclick.org/

Meta Searches:

Vivisimo- The site allows you to see a quick view of the websites it finds by opening a small window on the page. It also clusters the topic by even more specific categories and will show what search engines the websites show up on.

http://vivisimo.com/

Dogpile- This site brings up the most common sites on the topic and will show you how they rank on the different search engines. It allows you to compare the different search results to see which one contains more information.

http://www.dogpile.com/

Images:

Google- This site had more relevant photographs that showed up on the first several pages of the search. The images were varied and covered a period of history.

http://images.google.com/

Altavista- Having searched for the same set of pictures on this search engine, I would say it comes in second. While coming up with thousands of hits for my subject, they became irrelevant by the second page of the site. Every other site began veering from the intended search on the first page.

http://www.altavista.com/image/default

Travel:

Travelocity- This site, besides being so fun, has a lot to offer. It does not group rentals beyond airfare and hotel, but it will allow you to check your flight status, search for activities at your destination, and it as a link to the Frommer’s guide. This way the roaming gnome can help you research your destination all in one stop.

www.travelocity.com

Side Step- Similar to Travelocity, this site allows you to see price comparisons on all activities in a city where you are vacationing and provides a Frommer’s travel guide. It does not have a feature for combined rentals and is slightly harder to navigate causing it to come in at a close second.

http://www.sidestep.com

Best Overall Search Engines:

Yahoo- This site has links to many activities affiliated with the search engine including news, games, email, and more. It provides links and now also provides text from the website just as google does. The site also provides alternate search results.

http://www.yahoo.com/

Google- This site is simple, easy to read, and brings up more results on my topics than any other site available. It also gives you parts of the text when the results come up. This helps to quickly eliminate some of the off task sites that make it onto the results page.

http://www.google.com/