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Search Engines

What is a search engine ?
How do search engines work ?
Which search engine is for me ?
Some search engines and their coverage
Australian Based Search Engines
Telstra's Search Engines & Mirrors
International Search Engines
Directory Based Search Engines
Meta Search Engines
Education Search Engines
Country Specific Search Engines
Topic Specific Search Engines

What is a search engine ?

The volume of information available on the Internet is growing at an explosive rate and this means that the web has become the globe's largest repository of information. A site sought by a web user may reside at many or more (mirrowed/duplicated sites) of the millions of Web pages around the globe. A search engine is a web search facility that can help the user to locate desired information more quickly and comprehensively (Forrest, E. 1999).

How do search engines work ?

A search engine has usually two parts: a 'robot' or 'crawler' and a program that receives the user search request. The robot goes to every page or representative page on the Web and creates a huge index, the program compares the user request to the entries in the index and returns the results to the user.

Which search engine is for me ?

There are many search engines available on the web and although many duplicate the results of each other you may find that the different attributes of each one may suit you for different types of information.

Some sites provide a comparison chart of the principal search engines on the Web as well as the search features available for each one of them. It is worth having a look:

Search Tools Chart (Infopeople)
Search Engines Quick Guide (Infopeople)
Engine Reviews ( Lookoff)
Rating One
Search Engine Shoot-out (CNET)
Search Engine Showdown (Notess)
Search Engine Watch
Search Engines in Review
The Search is Over (ZDNet)
The top 50 Search Engines

Some search engines and their coverage

The table below shows some of the principal search engines available on the Web and the areas of interest it covers. For more detailed information on search engines features refer to the links above.

SEARCH ENGINE	COVERAGE
Yahoo	It presents a menu organised by subject and it is considered to be a very good starting point for searching the Web. Regional coverage, including Europe, Asia Pacific and Americas.
Lycos	Web pages, weather, pictures, city guides, recipes, video files, etc ...
Alta Vista	Web Pages, newsgroups, business, people, etc ...
Hotbot	Web Pages, newsgroups, yellow and white pages email addresses, classifieds, news, etc ...
Excite	Web pages, yellowpages, people, products, news, maps, email addresses, classifieds, etc ..
Web Wombat	Australia and New Zealand based, covering web pages, magazines, world telephone directories, world maps, comics and cartoons, etc ...
Dogpile	Web pages, newsgroups, stock quotes, business news, FTP, images, etc ...
Web Crawler	Web pages, auctions, yellow pages,maps horoscopes, chat, people finder, classifieds, stock quotes, weather ,city guides, etc ...
Looksmart	Provides topics broken into sections and global and cities directories, allowing user to narrow search for a specific part of the world.
EdNa	The "Educational Network of Australia" is for Australian educators and learners. It has lots of information and resources identified and contributed by Australian educators.

Australian Based Search Engines

ANZWERS ( Australian & New Zealand Web Enquiry Research System )
Aussie
Australian Libraries Search
babyOIL
Beyond...The Black Stump
City Search - Melbourne
City Search - Sydney
Crowley's JumpSite
Excite
LookSmart
Matilda
OzSearch Internet Guide
Web Wombat
Yahoo! Australia

Telstra's Search Engines & Mirrors

International Search Engines

Directory Based Search Engines

Meta Search Engines

Education Search Engines

AskERIC
Ask Jeeves
Ask Jeeves for Kids
Awesome Library - K-12 Education Directory
ClassMates Online
The Education Channel
Education World
The Good Guides
(Search the Universities Guide for Courses)
Internet Scout Project
Maths Search
NLightN for Libraries
PedagoNet - Learning Resources Search Engine
Study Web
TeachWeb - Internet Resources for K-12 Educators
Yahooligans

Country Specific Search Engines

Africa

Asia

Asian Connection
Orientation Asia
SAARC
(The South Asian Search Engine) South Asian Internet Resources
China - Hyper-C
China - Search Hong Kong Org
China - Surf China
China - Yahoo China
China - Yahoo
(simplified) India - 123India
India - Hindustan
India - Jadoo
India - India Connect
Japan - Excite
Japan - Infoseek
(requires Japanese Language Suppot) Japan - Lycos
Japan - Moshix2
Japan - NTT Directory
Japan - Open Text Index
Japan - Yahoo
Korea - Yahoo
Malaysia - Altavista
Malaysia - Search Engine
Phillipines - EDSA - The Philippine Search Engine
Phillipines - GSpot
Singapore - Singapore Connect
Singapore - Technofind
Singapore - Yahoo! Singapore
Sri Lanka - Orientation
Sri Lanka - Webinator
Taiwan - Sina.com

Europe

Webtop
Euroseek
Global Online Directory
Orientation Eastern Europe
Search Europe
Belgium - Ilse
Belgium - Lycos
Belgium - Webbel
Belgium - WebWatch
Czech Republic - Yahoo
Denmark - ITcom
(909) Denmark - Jubii
Denmark - Kvasir
Denmark - Yahoo
Estonia - ZZZ Search
Finland - Altavista
Finland - Haku
Finland - Ihmemaan haku
Finland - WebInfo
France - Ecila
France - Francité
France - Les Pages Web
France - Lycos
France - Nomade
France - Yahoo
Germany - Apollo 7
Germany - Excite
Germany - Fireball
Germany - Klug Suchen
Germany - Lycos
Germany - MetaGer
Germany - Suchen.com
Germany - Web.de
Germany - Yahoo
Greece - Greek Explorer & Indexer
Greece - WebIndexer
Hungary - HuDir
Hungary - Heureka
Ireland - Yahoo
Italy - Arianna
Italy - Lycos
Italy - Virgilio
Italy - Yahoo
Netherlands - Excite
Netherlands - Ilse
Netherlands - Lycos
Netherlands - Search
Netherlands - Track
Norway - Kvasir
Norway - Yahoo
Romania - Orientation
Russia - Russian Internet Guide
Russia - Russia on the Net
Spain - Biwe
Spain - Lycos
Spain - Terra
Sweden - Excite
Sweden - Evreka
Sweden - Lycos
Sweden - Yahoo
Switzerland - Blue Window
Switzerland - Lycos
Switzerland - Search
United Kingdom - Excite
United Kingdom - Lycos
United Kingdom - Mirago
United Kingdom - Search UK
United Kingdom - UK Index
United Kingdom - UKMax
United Kingdom - UKPlus
United Kingdom - Yahoo
Yugoslavia - YuSearch

Middle East

America - North

Alaska & Canada - Alcanseek
Canada - AltaVista Canada
Canada - Canada.com
Canada - Comfo
Canada - La Toile du Québec
Canada - Yahoo
USA - City Search
USA - Gov Search
(Searching is for free, and then documents can be purchased for between $1 and $4)

America - Central

Mexico - Buscador MexMaster

America - South

Orientation Latin America
StarMedia
Yahoo
Argentina - Terra
Argentina - Yahoo
Brazil - Aonde
Brazil - Cadê
Chile - La Brujula
Ecuador - Ecuanet
Paraguay - Yagua.com
Peru - Nazcanet
Venezuela - Auyantepui

Pacific Region

Fiji - Fiji
New Zealand - Access
New Zealand - NZ Explorer

Topic Specific Search Engines

Acronym Finder
Argos - Ancient & Medieval Internet Search
Camp Search
Cinema
Environmental Organisation Webdirectory
FindLaw: Internet Legal Resources
Healthfinder
(r) Official US Gov gateway to consumer health and human services information. Health Links Human Search
Music Search
WWWomen - Women Online