Google Shmoogle - oranges are not the only fruit, etc.
There are numerous search engines out there above and beyond the ubiquitous Google. But before we get on to the specifics of search engines it is important to realise that in the end they are only as good as your ability to use them.
Search Engine Tutorials
So, first off, here are a few resources to enable you to maximise your search technique.
There are various tutorials and tips on SearchEngineWatch and Pandia.
Brightplanet have produced a conprehensive Search Engine Tutorial.
You can use NoodleTools to help you to choose the best search engine for your research needs.
Google is perhaps the most obvious search engine to use in your research, and to help you maximise your searching, they have very kindly produced a cheat sheet and a list of operators.
However, to really get the most of Google, I suggest you check out Nancy Blachman's excellent Google Guide.
Google is worldwide now, of course, so do not confine your search to the British (or American) site if you wish to carry out research involving Liechtenstein, Russia, Thailand, Vietnam, etc. For a full list of foreign sites go to this page and scroll to the bottom.
There is loads of Google related stuff at Logoogle including the extraordinary Google mirror.
Check out the latest search developments with Google's test site, searchmash.
Finally, if you find yourself with a few minutes to spare, have a googlewhack.
Search Engines
Google is not the only search engine, of course, and to see why you should use more than one, just check out the results you get from comparing searches of Google, Yahoo and MSN on jux2 and the results you get (graphically illustrated) from Christian Langreiter's Yahoo vs Google site.
Here are the next five major search engines, in the order in which Information World Review ranked them in April 2007 using a very comprehensive series of tests:
From time to time I also use:
Metasearch Engines
Why confine your search to just one search engine, when you can perform a meta search?
Vivisimo and it's offshoot Clusty
Other Search Engines
In this day and age of web 2.0 and all that hyped bollocks, why just rely on Google, or the other bog standard search engines, when there is so much more out there.
Here are four search engines that are a little different and could prove useful in your ongoing research.
Blinkx is the world's largest and most advanced video search engine. Using automatic spiders that crawl the Web, and through partnerships with 200 leading content and media companies, blinkx has indexed over 12 million hours of video content and made it fully searchable using speech-to-text transcription and visual analysis.
Kartoo is a metasearch engine with visual display interfaces. When you click on OK, Kartoo launches the query which sends your search to a set of search engines, gathers the results, compiles them and represents them in a series of interactive maps through a proprietary algorithm, whatever the hell that is. Who cares? It looks good and could be useful for visualising a prospect's connections, interests, etc.
Chacha allows you to search the web using a guide (gosh!) who is "skilled at finding information on the internet and knowledgeable on the subject at hand so that you get the few exact results you want, not the millions of results you don't." So says the blurb, anyway. When I used it to search for global warming sceptics, I was less than satisfied with the results, but that was a few months ago. The guides should be better now, having had more practise.
Technorati is the recognized authority on what's happening on the World Live Web (or so they claim!). The website can search, surface, and organize blogs and the other forms of independent, user-generated content (photos, videos, voting, etc.) increasingly referred to as "citizen media."
Use the Way Back Machine to search the internet archive for websites from days of old (i.e. 1995).
For a comprehensive list of other search engines, check out Charles Knight's Top 100 Alternative Search Engines on ReadWriteWeb.
The Invisible Web
Ooooh, mysterious....! Well not really. Just the name for all the databases and other stuff on the internet that search engines have trouble searching.
In February 2008, Jessica Hupp compiled a list of 99 Resources to Research and Mine the Invisible Web, which as a good starting point.
pipl styles itself as "the most comprehensive people search on the web". Well, you would, wouldn't you? How can it justify such a bold statement? Unlike other search engines, it claims to be able to search the deep web (aka the invisible web) for information. Anyway, as with all such resources, the truth is in the searching, so what are you waiting for? Gordon the Goforit!
Gary Price's direct search site has "a growing compilation of links to the search interfaces of resources that contain data not easily or entirely searchable/accessible from general search tools." I.e. allows you to search what is known as the invisible web. Heavily weighted towards American sites, but also contains many UK and European sites. It's very comprehensive, so plan to take a day or two out from normal work if you're planning to go through it in any detail. And a day or two off work after that to recover.
BrightPlanet's Complete Planet has a list of over 70,000 searchable databases, many or most of which cannot be indexed by search engines. Like Gary Price's site, very comprehensive, but with so many databases, a large number of which are irrelevant to prospect research, you may find it more trouble than it is worth to look through them.
Charity Search Engines
A fairly recent phenomenon is the charity-helping search engine; with every search the search engine provider contributes to a particular charity. Given that search engines generate £billions a year in advertising revenue, this could prove to be a lucrative fundraiser.
Everyclick.com and Click Now allow you to choose which charity benefits from your searching.
Magic Taxi picks a different charity to support each day, or you can choose your own charity, but only from their list of charitable partners.
GoodSearch provides a similar service for American charities, although they do hope to go international in the future.
Page Updated 12/08/08