How to Choose a Search Tool
| Fields & File Types | |
|---|---|
| If you want to search for... | Choose... |
| Audio/Music | FindSounds.com | Free-Loops.com | Pandora | Soundsnap | YouTube |
| Date last modified |
Many advanced search pages offer this, including: Google Advanced Search | Searchzooka | Yahoo Advanced Web Search |
| Domain/Site/URL |
Many advanced search pages offer this, including: AOL Advanced Search | Google Advanced Search | SearchEdu.com | Searchzooka | Yahoo Advanced Web Search |
| File type |
FindFiles.net Many advanced search pages offer limited options for file type searching, including: AOL Advanced Search | Yahoo Advanced Web Search |
| Geographic location |
Many advanced search pages offer this, including: Google Advanced Search | Searchzooka | Yahoo Advanced Web Search |
| Images/Photos | Ask.com Images | BestPicturesOf | Bing | Dogpile | Google Image Search | IceRocket | Ixquick | Mamma | PicFog | Picsearch | RevIMG | Tiltomo | TinEye | Topictures.com |
| Language |
Many advanced search pages offer this, including: AOL Advanced Search | Google Language Tools | iBoogie Advanced Web Search | Searchzooka | Yahoo Advanced Web Search |
| Videos | Academic Earth | Big Think | Bing | Blinx | Bloggingheads.tv | Clicker | ClipBlast | FORA.tv | Hulu | TED | Yahoo Video Search | YouTube | Vimeo | Zuula |
| Page Title/URL |
Many advanced search pages offer this, including: AOL Advanced Search | Google Advanced Search | Searchzooka | Yahoo Advanced Web Search |
| Search logic | |
| If you want to use... | Choose... |
| Boolean operators | Google [OR only] | Ixquick |
| Full Boolean logic with parentheses e.g., behavior and (cats or felines) |
Usually available on the advanced search page |
| Implied Boolean symbol | Minus sign (-) for NOT logic accepted on most search engines |
| Boolean logic using search form terminology | Most advanced search pages offer this option |
| Proximity searching | Exalead |
| Search options | |
| If you want.. | Choose... |
| Search topics appear as you type |
Many engines offer this, including: Ask.com | Bing | Blekko | Google | iSEEK Education | SurfWax LookAhead (RSS feeds) | Yahoo! |
| A user fill-in search form | Many search engines offer this on their advanced search pages |
| Truncation | Exalead | Ixquick |
| Live human guides | ChaCha |
| Your search stated in plain English | Ask.com | Hakia | Ixquick |
| Translation of pages retrieved as search results, or any text or Web page, to and from selected languages | Babel Fish |
| An exact phrase within quotations | Most search engines offer this option |
| An exact phrase using search form terminology | Most forms on an advanced search page offer this |
| Multiple search tools searched simultaneously with duplicate records removed | iBoogie | Ixquick | Mamma more... |
| Multiple search tools searched simultaneously with results available separately | Browsys | Searchzooka | SortFix | Zuula |
| Search Results | |
| If you want... | Choose... |
| Results clustered by concept and/or type of site (often laid out as a "horizontal" list of topics in addition to a single vertical list of results) | iBoogie | iSEEK Education | Quintura | Search.com |
| Results influenced by searcher behavavior or ratings | Eurekster Swicki | Google | Trexy |
| Option to search on related terms or topics | Ask | Bing | Dogpile | Exalead | Factbites | Google | Mamma | MetaCrawler | Monster Crawler | Search.com |
| Results with thumbnail images or excerpts of retrieved sites | Bing | Exalead | Lycos | Zanran |
| Search alerts | Google Alert | TracerLock |
| Specialty Searches | |
| If you want to search... | Choose... |
| The Deep Web (i.e., vertical search, not generally covered by search spiders) | Visit a topic-specific engine, e.g., PubMed, or try to locate one using a general search engine. |
| Blogs | Ask.com | BlogPulse | Globe of Blogs | Google Blog Search | regator | Technorati | Yahoo News Search | Zuula |
| Numerical facts, data and statistics | Wolfram|Alpha | Zanran |
| Library materials | WorldCat |
| News (many search multiple sources) | Alltop | Bing | Congoo News | Google News Alerts | Google News Archive Search | Google News Timeline | InfoGrid | NewsNow | Pandia Newsfinder | Populrs | RocketNews | Topix.com | The WorldNews Network |
| Podcasts | Podcast Alley | Podcast Search Service |
| RSS feeds | Chordata | RSSfeeds.com | SurfWax LookAhead |
| Saved Web pages, citations | Browsys Virtual Folders | CiteULike | Connotea |
| Scholarly materials, e.g,. books, articles, etc. | Google Book Search | Google Scholar | The Online Books Page | Project Gutenberg | Wikibooks |
| Site analysis | GoLexa |
| Web events | FindWebEvents.com |
| Your own customized search engine | Eurekster Swicki | Google Custom Search Engine | Rollyo |
| Reference sources (dictionaries, encyclopedias, e-mail and address lookups, calculators, quotations, news, government info, statistics etc.) | Reference Collection (U Albany Libraries) |
| Professionally maintained directories | About | INFOMINE | Librarians' Internet Index | The Scout Archives | Virtual Learning Resources Center | more... |
| Directories maintained by volunteers | JoeAnt | Open Directory Project (DMOZ) |
