SEARCH ENGINES

The key to finding anything on the Internet is to use a search engine, but if you ask different search engines to find the same information, each one will find a number of websites not found by the others. Rather than limiting yourself to the tunnel vision of a single search engine, experiment with some of the different search engines listed below, and you may uncover information that your favorite search engine missed.

Even better, you may find that one search engine is better at finding certain types of data or offers a unique perspective to searching for information. For example, the Teoma search engine tries to cluster search results into subjects. So if you search for "Mustang," the Teoma search engine clusters the results according to "Ford Mustang" and "Mustang horses." The following list includes some of the more powerful search engines:

About	http://about.com
AlltheWeb	http://www.alltheweb.com
AltaVista	http://www.altavista.com
AOL Search	http://search.aol.com/
Ask Jeeves	http://www.askjeeves.com
Google	http://www.google.com
Hotbot	http://www.hotbot.com
LookSmart	http://www.looksmart.com
MSN	http://www.msn.com
Open Directory Project	http://dmoz.org
Teoma	http://www.teoma.com
Yahoo!	http://www.yahoo.com

Meta-search engines

Rather than visit multiple search engines yourself, you can save time by using a meta-search engine, which simultaneously sends your query to two or more general-purpose search engines and eliminates duplicate results. Here are some popular meta-search engines:

DogPile	http://www.dogpile.com
Mamma	http://www.mamma.com
MetaCrawler	http://www.metacrawler.com
Search.com	http://www.search.com

Specialized search engines

Finally, don't ignore specialized search engines designed to search only for websites pertaining to a particular topic. Specialized search engines often find obscure web-sites that the larger search engines might overlook. There are specialized search engines for everything from caring for fish to the latest crafting fads. Here are a few interesting ones:

• AvatarSearch Finds occult information about witchcraft, vampires, pagan rituals, astrology, tarot cards, and other topics that often panic right-wing conservatives (http://www.avatarsearch.com).

• Black Web Portal Finds websites of particular interest to blacks (http://www.blackwebportal.com).

• Crime Spider Searches for websites providing information about various crime and law enforcement sites and organized by topics such as serial murder, urban legends, and cybercrime (http://www.crimespider.com).

• Disinformation Conspiracy theory-laden search engine that helps you uncover websites offering the "real truth" behind the pyramids of Mars, the sightings of black helicopters over America, film footage of Bigfoot, and the government secrets hidden in Area 51 (http://www.disinfo.com).

• Education World Finds websites that can help students, teachers, and parents learn more about education (http://www.education-world.com).

• Federal Web Locator Lists many of the websites from various government agencies and organizations (except for the really cool ones like the CIA and FBI). Maybe you can use it to find out where all your hard-earned tax dollars are going (http://www.infoctr.edu/fwl).

• GovSearch Collection of government search engines for finding information about the U.S. government: IRS documents, Customs Service, NTIS, U.S. law code, legislative information, OSHA regulations, and information from many other agencies and departments (http://www.nwbuildnet.com/nwbn/govbot.html).

• CopSeek Directory and Police Search Engine Helps you find websites related to law enforcement so you can find a policeman when you need one (http://www.copseek.com).

• NerdWorld Search engine dedicated to computer and technology fanatics (http://www.nerdworld.com).

• Que Pasa! A bilingual search engine geared towards Hispanics and Latinos, available in both English and Spanish (http://www.quepasa.com).

• Satanist Net Search engine geared to helping you find satanic information on the Internet (http://www.satanist.net).

• Women.com and WWWomen Two search engines geared toward helping women find information and resources on the Internet (http://www.women.com and http://www.wwwomen.com).

Kid-safe search engines

If you leave your children unsupervised, it's likely that they'll eventually find bomb-making instructions and pornography on the Internet. While keeping children isolated from such information may be impossible, you can at least limit their searching to kid-safe search engines. Unlike general-purpose search engines, kid-safe search engines won't accidentally display links to pornographic or bomb-making websites. Try one of the following:

Ask Jeeves for Kids	http://www.ajkids.com
CleanSearch	http://www.cleansearch.com
Go.com	http://www.go.com
Yahooligans	http://www.yahooligans.com

Multimedia search engines

Most search engines help you find text, but what if you want to find a song, a picture, or a video clip? Rather than waste your time using a general purpose search engine to find an MP3 file of your favorite band, try using a special multimedia search engine instead. These multimedia search engines specialize in searching only for specific audio, graphic, or video files.

Here are some of the more popular multimedia search engines:

Ditto	http://www.ditto.com (see Figure 1-1)
FAST Multimedia Search	http://multimedia.alltheweb.com
SpeechBot.net	http://speechbot.research.compaq.com
MIDI Explorer	http://www.musicrobot.com

Figure 1-1: The Ditto.com website allows you to search the Internet by using pictures.

Regional search engines

Search engines often include websites from all over the world. If you'd rather limit your search to a specific region or country, try using one of the regional search engines listed in Table 1-1 instead.

Table 1-1: International Search Engines

COUNTRY	WEBSITE	URL
ASIA
General	GlobePage	http://www.globepage.com
China	SINA Online	http://english.sina.com
Hong Kong	Timway.com	http://www.hksrch.com/welcome.html
India	123India	http://www.123india.com
	IndiasWeb	http://www.indiasweb.com
Japan	Search Desk	http://www.searchdesk.com
Philippines	G-Spot	http://www.gsilink.com/gspot
Singapore	Catcha.com	http://www.catcha.com.sg
South Korea	Yahoo! Korea-Seek	http://kr.yahoo.com
AFRICA
General	Woyaa!	http://www.woyaa.com/
South Africa	Ananzi	http://www.ananzi.co.za
	Max	http://www.max.co.za
EUROPE
General	Search Europe	http://www.searcheurope.com
France	Francité	http://www.francite.com
	Lokace	http://www.lokace.com
Iceland	Iceland on the Web	http://www.vefur.is/iceland
Italy	Italia Mia	http://www.italiamia.com
Malta	Search Malta	http://www.searchmalta.com
Netherlands	Search NL	http://www.search.nl
Russia	Russian Internet Search Engines	http://www.slavophilia.net/russia/search.htm
Switzerland	Swiss Search	http://www.search.ch
U.K.	Everyday UK	http://www.everydayuk.co.uk
	Lifestyle.co.uk	http://www.lifestyle.co.uk
	UK Plus	http://www.ukplus.co.uk
MIDDLE EAST
General	Ajeeb	http://english.ajeeb.com
Egypt	Egypt Search	http://www.egyptsearch.com
Iran	Iran Index	http://www.iranindex.com
Israel	HaReshima	http://www.hareshima.com
Syria	Syria Gate	http://www.syriagate.com
NORTH AMERICA
Canada	Canada.com	http://www.canada.com
Mexico	Radar	http://www.radar.com.mx
SOUTH AMERICA
Bolivia	Bolivia Web	http://www.boliviaweb.com
Brazil	Cadê	http://www.cade.com.br
Chile	Chilnet	http://www.chilnet.cl/index.htm
South Pacific	South Pacific Search	http://www.emaxia.com
Australia	WebWombat	http://www.webwombat.com.au
	WebSearch AU	http://www.websearch.com.au

Searching for more search engines

New search engines seem to appear almost daily (see Figure 1-2).The following sites will help you find the latest and best Internet search engines:

Figure 1-2: You can find a search engine in any language.

AllSearchEngines	http://www.allsearchengines.com
Search Engine Watch	http://www.searchenginewatch.com