Best Search Tools

Directories are a great place to begin research. Directories use people to find and categorize webpages into general topics, so even though there are fewer pages, they can give you good background information that will help you narrow your research topic. NetTrekker, on the BroncoNET homepage is the best one to start with, but here are some others.

KidsClick -or- Yahooligans specially created for young folks.

Yahoo/AltaVista & Google have a directory (tab on home page) in addition to their regular SE.

Librarians' Internet Index - like DeweyLinks, but larger; only the best sources chosen.
For more directories, try DeweyLinks for Webliographies, Virtual Libraries, and Webpedias.

Ask.com - revamped AskJeeves site still likes searches as regular questions; gives Smart Answers and alternate topics, along with Binoculars page previews.

Alta Vista - Good for specialty searches such as images, video and audio clips, or news searches; has link to Babel Fish translation site. [now owned by Yahoo, but same simple-to-use homepage]

Yahoo - Info-rich homepage now has a great search engine; also owns AltaVista and All the Web.

Google - Large coverage, determines relevance by other sites' links to it; search in 15 different languages; best for very specific searches.

MSN LiveSearch - recently changed from directory to crawler-based search engine, it's worth a try.

All The Web - If you tried Google and didn't find it, try this one.

Dogpile or Webcrawler or Metacrawler - all owned by InfoSpace, these search other search engines and score for relevance.

Info.com - Good results from up to 14 search engines and pay-per-click directories.

Clusty - Organizes results into relevant categories called "Clusters"; (was Vivisimo)

Killerinfo - A good clustering site; accepts & returns more specific keyword searches.

Mamma - "The mother of all search engines" - has specialized health metasearch; can also search for images, videos, phone directories.

Kartoo -  Displayed as visual "map" with keywords connecting results.

Ithaki - Searches in 14 languages or 21 countries plus categories for limiting your search.

Proteus - Pick one of 20 search engines or 5 metasearch engines.

OnePage - Pick from 30 differrent search engines on one page.

iTools - Metasearcher with specialized searches for maps, people, finance, language, and Internet terms.  Use the Research Tools section to search encyclopedias, newspapers/magazines, biographies, and general topics.

NoodleTools - choose the best search tool for your information needs.

MapQuest - Locations anywhere in the U.S. or the world.

Switchboard - Telephone directory and MapsOnUs; also from Infospace.

Singing Fish - audio/video search engine; can choose 7 different formats by audio only, video only or both

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