Start with a subject directory for topics new to you. Browsing a subject directory can help identify aspects to questions not previously considered and will usually locate a list of Web resources related to the topic.
- we can get a sense of the words that are likely to be search terms by looking at the subject headings and site descriptions
- sites on the same subject are grouped together
Galaxy (www.galaxy.com) - Very commercial
LLEK Bookmarks (www.scientific-search-engines.com/index.html) -- thematic starting points - from Europe
Looksmart (http://www.looksmart.com/r?l&) - partly drawn from the volunteer run Zeal.com.
Open Directory (dmoz.org) -- Also used at Netscape NetCenter, AOL, Google, Exalead and many others.
Yahoo (dir.yahoo.com)
Academic Info (www.academicinfo.net) - "Gateway to quality educational resources".
AllLearn (www.alllearn.org/er/) From universities at Oxford, Stanford, Yale. Academic directories and learning guides.
AllInfo (www.allinfo.com) Claims to consider "site credibility". Uses information provided by web site producers for selection.
BUBL Link (bubl.ac.uk/link) - Strathglyde University, UK
InfoMine (infomine.ucr.edu) - University of California (USA) - about 26,000 librarian-selected links, and 75,000 crawled links.
Internet Public Library Reference Center (www.ipl.org) - University of Michigan (USA) - 42,000 links
Librarians' Index to the Internet (lii.org)- associated with the California State Library (USA) - around 17,000 links
Michigan eLibrary (www.mel.org/index.jsp) - "Best of the Internet" selected by librarians in Michigan.
Pinakes (www.hw.ac.uk/libWWW/irn/pinakes/pinakes.html) - Heriot Watt University (UK)
Resource Discovery Network (www.rdn.ac.uk). Eight hubs; 100,000 resources. See RDN Training Materials for guides on getting the most from RDN.
Scout Report - Archives (scout.cs.wisc.edu/archives) - Computer Sciences Department of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Searchable database of 17,000 selected sites indexed using Library of Congress Subject Headings.
Guides to Scholarly
The Web Library: Building a World Class Personal Library with Free Web Resources by Nick Tomaiuolo - companion to the book - essentially a guide to best sites in several categories. Updated frequently. (www.ccsu.edu/library/tomaiuolon/theweblibrary.htm)
Academic Index - a free reference meta-search engine - searches Resource Discovery Network and Internet Scout Project among other academic reference and research sites recommended by teachers and librarians.
(www.academicindex.net)
Academic and Scholar Search Engines and Sources: An Internet miniguide annotated link compilation by Marcus Zillman
http://virtualprivatelibrary.blogspot.com/Scholar.pdf
National Library of Canada Canadian Information by Subject (www.nlc-bnc.ca/caninfo/ecaninfo.htm) - 8,600 sites
Virtual Reference Library - Toronto Public Library (www.virtualreferencelibrary.ca) - Over 10,000 sites reviewed and classified.
About.com (www.about.com) Good guides but oaded with popups and ads.
Suite101 (www.suite101.com)
WWW Virtual Library (www.vlib.org)
Meta-Directories
See Directories to Search Engines and Subject Directories
AOL (www.aol.com) New full web portal for the public.
Excite (www.excite.com) - Owned by Ask Jeeves
MyWay (www.myway.com) - Owned by Ask Jeeves
MSN (www.msn.com) and Sympatico MSN (sympatico.msn.ca) -- Canadian content
Yahoo www.yahoo.com
Vertmarkets (www.vertmarkets.com/buyers.htm) -- 68 marketplaces in 8 industry groups
Vertical Portals (www.verticalportal.com) - 22 categories, 150 portals
A9 (www.a9.com) Uses Google. Alexa, Answers.com and Amazon. Can save results. Add other "verticals".
Alexa (www.alexa.com) Uses Google. Get site info.
AltaVista (www.av.com) Uses Yahoo database. Good multimedia.
Ask Jeeves (www.askjeeves.com) Uses Teoma for web results. Shortcuts. Can save results through MyJeeves.
AOL Search (search.aol.com) Google and Open Directory
AlltheWeb (www.alltheweb.com) Yahoo database.
Brainboost (www.brainboost.com) natural language engine
Eurekster (www.eurekster.com) Social networking. Uses Yahoo.
Exalead (www.exalead.com/search) New and attractive engine from France.
Gigablast (www.gigablast.com) No paid listings.
Google (www.google.com) World's most popular search engine. Has many search tools.
Grokker (www.grokker.com) Displays visual maps - uses Yahoo search. Added Oct 05
Mozbot (www.mozbot.com). Uses Yahoo. Exclude, include sites.
MSN (search.msn.com) MSN search engine
Teoma (www.teoma.com) Refine results.
Ujiko (www.ujiko.com) Uses Yahoo. Requires Flash and IE. Rate sites and keep them.
WISEnut (www.wisenut.com) Owned by Looksmart. Small index.
Yahoo Search (search.yahoo.com) Has many search tools plus personal MyWeb.
Multimedia Search Engines (Sample)
Altavista (www.altavista.com) - Select MP3/Audio or Video. Very large collection. Video is same as Yahoo's.
Blinkx.tv (www.blinkx.tv) - 1 million hours of TV and video. Excellent for current news. Now has some U.S. university content.
SingingFish (www.singingfish.com) "streaming content on the Internet including music, news, movies, sports, TV, radio, finance and live events".
Yahoo Video (video.yahoo.com) - 1 billion videos.
Yahoo Audio (audio.search.yahoo.com) - audio files and audio free and for-fee services Added Oct 05
Google Video (video.google.com) - TV, educational, personal Added Oct 05
Webseek (www.ctr.columbia.edu/webseek) "A Content-Based Image and Video Search and Catalog Tool for the Web".
Search Web Media (www.searchwebmedia.com/index.html) powered by GoFish. Has music, videos, ringtones and user-generated content.
