LibGuides: Search the Web: Search Engines

Google

Search Engines

Ask.com
Started out as Ask Jeeves -- first engine to use natural language searching. Still a search engine, but it now publishes magazine-type articles and is owned by Google.
Bing.com
Microsoft's search engine. Interactive image on the home page changes daily. Can browse popular topics or search by category from the menu: Images, Videos, Maps, & News.
Brave
In addition to private search, Brave also advertises a private web browser for better security.
DuckDuckGo
A search engine that prides itself on privacy and "breaking out of the filter bubble."
Google
Certainly the best known, with dozens of added features like image searching, maps and shopping. Extensive advanced search capabilities allow fine-tuning for better results.
iseek
Searches the web, or you can choose health, education or finance. Easy to use, with helpful filters including source and date.
StartPage
Pulls results from Google, but with strong privacy protection.
Sweet Search
"A search engine for students" with pre-screened websites.
Yahoo!
Front page is designed to short-circuit many common searches with instant access.

Specialized Search Engines

These engines search only a specific piece of the Internet. See the "Vertical Search Engines" on our Deep Web guide for more of these.

BASE
Bielefeld Academic Search Engine - searches online scholarly resources; from Bielefeld University in Germany. (A bit like Google Scholar for Europe).
Boardreader
Searches web forums and message boards.
CC Search
Searches openly licensed and public domain images.
Google Scholar
Google for scholarly research journal articles.
OpenMD.com
Directory and search engine for high quality, freely accessible medical information.
ScienceResearch.com
One search of several highly credible science research collections.
Tin Eye
Reverse image search.
USA.gov
U.S. Government web sites
Wikiview
Uses a graphical interface to search images in wikimedia.
Wolfram Alpha
Calculations and data

Metasearch Engines

Why use a single search engine when you can use a Meta? All web search engines are based on algorithms --complex series of lexical orders -- when they are combined, they may actually compete/delete results from some searches. Combining results from two or more engines assures the researcher of a more complete list of informative websites.

Dogpile
Designed to save time by pulling results from Google, Yahoo, and others search engines. Tabs include News, Videos, Images, and Shopping.
Excite.com
The portal is unique, including mail and news features, but the search results are similar to Info.com.
Info.com
Includes results from 14 different search engines, including Google and Ask.com
Search.com
Now part of CBS (orginally from CNet). Heavy on commercial and shopping sites.
WebCrawler
Searches Google, Yahoo!, and "other popular search engines."
ZapMeta
Searches Google, Yahoo, Bing and others. Includes suggestions for related searches.

More information

"11 Alternative Search Engines that Find What Google Can't"
Article by Denise Lim in MakeUseOf, May 24, 2022.

Related Guides from STLCC Libraries:

Deep Web
by Janice Hovis Last Updated Jun 10, 2024 6248 views this year
Evaluating Sources
by Janice Hovis Last Updated May 24, 2024 22657 views this year