Roadway: BRC Search Engines

Search Engines

Currently there are more than 4 billion web pages, and finding the information you need can be difficult and frustrating. Search engines can help you sort through the unmanageable amount of data available.

Internet search services (such as Altavista and Hotbot) use computer programs, called spiders or crawlers, to automatically search out new and existing Web pages and index their contents, word by word. Using this technology, these services build a database of Web documents and pages. A search engine is provided, which allows users to specify whatever term, phrase or topic that interests them. In a matter of seconds, users receive a ranked list of pages which the search engine has determined match the specified criteria.

Many search engines provide advanced search options for more effective, focused searches. Roadway's Search Engine Comparison Matrix will detail the advanced search features of the major search engines listed below. If you're looking for a more in-depth tutorial on searching, Find It Fast! is the resource for you.

Although there are currently dozens of search engines, the following are the ones best-suited for business/company/industry research:

Altavista's Advanced Search screen allows you to specify that the title line of the web site contain the word or phrase searched. To find pages about a topic or company (including its home page), for example, type:

title: "roadway express"
title: "sales force automation"

The quotation marks ensure that the term "roadway express" and "sales force automation" are found as phrases. By limiting the search to the title line, results will more closely match what you're looking for. Try it!
All the Web indexes more than 300 million web pages searched in under one half second with highly relevant results.
Google ranks search results based on the link structure of the Internet. Includes an "I'm feeling lucky" button that connects you directly to the site that Google feels best matches your query.
HotBot is a search engine that allows phrase and title searching using a pull-down menu.
Yahoo's Advanced Search screen allows phrase searching either by specifying the phrase within quotation marks, or by selecting the search method "find an exact phrase match." To focus the search by specifying that the title line of the web site must contain the word or phrase, use the following syntax:

t:"roadway express"
t:"year 2000"
Excite is one of the largest search engines, indexing more than 54 million pages. Use quotation marks to specify a phrase search.

Metasearch Engines/Specialized Search Engines: The following are links to metasearch engines, web sites that send a search to several search engines all at once. Also included are specialized engines, those that search through only specific portions of the web.

Ask Jeeves is a Web site that searches its own extensive answer database, as well as some of the more popular search engines to retrieve answers and related links to your questions.
Google Groups (formerly DejaNews) allows searchers to find information from Internet Discussion Groups and mailing lists. More than 150,000 newsgroups are covered, providing access to a wide range of information and interests.
Dogpile allows you to query 26 different search engines simultaneously. It also allows you to specify the order of the search engines, which one you would like to be searched first, second, third, etc.
All the Web Multimedia: Database of more than 66 million images, videos and sounds.
Gimenei: searches Google, Yahoo!, AllTheWeb and MSN Search and allows Boolean and phrase searching.
The Internet Sleuth is a "one stop" search site that allows you to search about 2000 free databases on the Web, ranging from CNN to the Washington Post, reference sources, business databases, and more.
IxQuick: describes itself as "the world's largest metasearch engine." Allows for title and other field searching.
MetaCrawler searches several popular search engines and sorts the results.
Metor: allows you to search specifically for Business/Finance topics in Business2, CNNfn, Fast Company, Forbes, Fortune, Money, Silicon Investor, and Smart Money.
Profusion lets you select the search engines you wish to search, including AltaVista, InfoSeek, Lycos, Webcrawler and others. Duplicate entries are removed.
Finderseeker is a directory of links to worldwide search engines, allowing searcher to find country-specific web sites. Listings are posted alphabetically by country, and include the search engine link and also a short description of the site.
QueryServer: queries return a single merged, ranked and conceptually clustered list.
Search.com: allows you to Metasearch more than 800 search engines from around the world.
SurfWax: allows you to sort your results by source, alphabetically, or by relevance.
Vivisimo: automatically organizes documents into an easy-to-browse and crisply labelled hierarchy.

Image Searches:

About.com's image search site, with more than 50 links to searchable image databases.
The Whole Internet Clipart Guide: Public domain images of all kinds.
The Whole Internet Guide to Clipart: Theme-specific free clipart.
Animation Factory: Over 30,000 original animations and web designs for use on web pages, email and presentations.

In the News Search Sites listed below, only news sites are scanned for news. Most allow searchers to specify how far back they wish to see news updates, from 6 hours, to 3 days, to whenever!

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