Search Engines

Last updated: 08.05.2002

Indexes

Usenet archives

Deja
Formerly 'dejanews.com', this massive archive of postings to Usenet has now reinvented itself as a portal, and added a cumbersome and confusing interface to get between you and whatever you're trying to find. Whoever is responsible should be taken out and beaten with a stick.

Web Search Engines

AltaVista
Enormous searchable Web index, compiled by robots. The search engine allows simple or sophisticated searches to be carried out. The 'Advanced Query' syntax is perhaps the most powerful and flexible on the Web.

Google
A new kind of search engine, Google is extremely good at picking out the most relevant pages for whatever you're looking for, but can be slow on multi-word queries.

HotBot (Inktomi)
Large WWW index compiled by robot, searchable by keyword. Advanced search options available.

Infoseek
Another large and capable search engine.

Lycos
One of the first search engines on the Web. 'Nothing escapes the Wolf Spider'. Good coverage and a straightforward interface.

The Search Broker
Search engine front-end, which intelligently hands off queries to other more specialised search engines.

WebCrawler
Another early search engine, now owned and operated by America Online.

Web category indexes

EINet Galaxy
A category-based index of Web resources from EINet.

Magellan
Large and expanding Web index, featuring capsule reviews of sites grouped by categories.

Yahoo
The grand-daddy of hierarchical Web indexes, millions of Web sites grouped by category and arranged in a hierarchy.