Jefferson County Library | Search Tool Descriptions

Search Engines

Google Uses link popularity as a primary way to rank web sites. It is helpful in finding good sites for general searches.

Hot Bot Has some unique search features that make this a very useful search engine, including sorting results by date or media type.

Alta Vista One of the largest and most comprehensive search engines available.

Fast Search Is the world's biggest, fastest search engine; 300 million web pages search in under one half second with highly relevant results.

Go.com Can search the Web, Gopher, FTP and Usenet newsgroups as well as many other parts of the Internet.

Northern Light Has good extensive content and a feature for classification of hits by division into custom search folders.

Excite Has the feature "More Like This" which can be helpful in narrowing down your search.

Search Directories

Librarian's Index to the Internet A subject directory of more than 6,600 Internet resources selected and evaluated by librarians.

Yahoo A subject guide to the web, good for searching general topics.

Meta Search

(Search multiple engines at once.) Since meta search engines do not allow for input of many search variables, the best use is to find hits on obscure items or to see if something is on the Internet.

Dogpile Another meta seach tool that uses 18 search engines. Phrase searching is allowed by entering search terms in double quotation marks.
Metacrawler A meta search site that sends searches to 15 different engines, most of which are not listed above.

Search Engines for Kids

Ask Jeeves for Kids Young people can ask this search engine questions in "natural language," such as "Where are the Cascade Mountains?" The design discourages "wandering" on the web. This site is screened for inappropriate content.

KidsClick! A database of over 5,000 sites compiled by Librarians for kids grade K-7. A good source for homework help.

Searchopolis A great search tool for education and homework help web sites that allows students to limit their searches to elementary, middle, or high school levels. This site is screened for inappropriate content.

Yahooligans A web guide designed for kids. It features kid-safe web-cams, trivia, voting booths and many more links, as well as a parent and teacher guide. This site is screened for inappropriate content.