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Search the Web

A collection of various and specialised search engines, subject specific directories and other web-searching information.

Search the web booklets and guides

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Search engines

  • Ask.com - offers multiple specialised search tools.
  • Exalead - offers some unique features and options for limits.
  • Factbites - different presentation of results - 3 relevant sentences are shown from each site in your search results list.
  • Gigablast - offers options to narrow your search.
  • Live Search - Microsoft Web search engine, also known as Live.com.
  • Microsoft Academic Search - Find information about academic papers, authors, conferences, journals, and organizations from multiple sources.
  • Yahoo! - separate search interface to the Yahoo! subject directory.

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Meta search engines

Meta search engines transmit your search simultaneously to several individual search engines.

  • Dogpile - searches Google, Yahoo, Ask Jeeves, About, LookSmart, Teoma, Overture, FindWhat.
  • Mamma.com - extensive web search on latest news and updates, images, videos and twitter.
  • Metacrawler - searches Google, Yahoo, Ask Jeeves, About, LookSmart, Teoma, Overture, FindWhat and more.
  • Pandia Search - includes Yahoo, AltaVista, the Open Directory, AlltheWeb and more.
  • Yippy - searches several search engines, combining similar results together into clusters.

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Specialist search engines

Some search engines have a specific focus.

  • Anzwers - Australian & New Zealand emphasis
  • Artcyclopedia - Fine arts search engine. Comprehensive and effective guide to fine art on the Internet with an excellent links page
  • DigitalNZ - a search engine that brings together NZ digital content from a range of content providers
  • Picsearch - search engine for pictures and images
  • Scitopia - over 3 million documents, plus patents and government data
  • Wayback Machine - Internet Archive - locates archived versions of stored websites.

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Academic and professional directories

Directories are sets of web pages grouped by subject and listed in an organised way.

  • Academic Info - focus on academic sites.
  • Biz/Ed - business education on the Internet - business and economics related subjects for students and educators.
  • INFOMINE - (Scholarly Internet Resource Collections) 120,000+ scholarly resources arranged over a broad range of subjects.
  • intute - provides access to high quality internet resources, chosen and evaluated by subject specialists from a network of UK universities.
  • Te Puna Web Directory (NZ and Pacific) -a directory to New Zealand & Pacific Island web sites.
  • Virtual Reference Shelf - selected web resources compiled by the Library of Congress.

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General and commercial directories

  • About.com - educational subject directory with an academic focus covering thousands of topics, including Invisible Web.
  • Refdesk - an index to current quality Internet reference sources and sites.
  • PIPERS New Zealand pages - an index to several thousand NZ sites organised by subject categories.
  • Search Engine Watch - search tips and information, and analysis and comparisons of search engines. Latest developments in search engines.
  • Search engine showdown - compares and evaluates search engines from the searcher's perspective.

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Invisible web gateways

  • Complete Planet - 70,000+ searchable databases and specialty search engines.