List of Popular Search Engines

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All The Web, All The Time (Fast) http://www.alltheweb.com/

All the Web, All the Time is the trademark for FAST's Web search engine, http://www.alltheweb.com. All the Web supports the plus/minus system, and the "Advanced Search" option includes a drop down menu with choices for "all of the words," "any of the words," or "the exact phrase." Specialized searches are available for WAP (Wireless Application Protocol), MP3, FTP, and multimedia resources. All the Web also offers customization features. (As of August 2001, the 2nd largest search engine.)

AltaVista http://www.altavista.com/

Provides good search tips and provides a visual breakdown of search results. The "Simple Search" option supports the plus/minus system. The "Advanced Search" option supports the Boolean operators, AND, OR, and AND NOT, and truncation. Both search options support phrase searching, and the "Advanced Search" supports the Near operator. AltaVista has a web page translation service that allows you to input the address of any web page and have that page translated from English to Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese or Spanish. Translation from these languages to English is also possible. AltaVista also offers specialized searching for Images, Shopping, Video, MP3/Audio, News, Autos, Real Estate, and Tech. To avoid retrieving adult Web pages AltaVista now offers an optional family-filtered search option.

Excite http://www.excite.com/

Excite is one of the smaller databases, but it features advanced personalization options. Boolean operators must be entered in UPPER case. Truncation is not supported.

Google http://www.google.com/

Google is a search engine that uses mathematical formulas to rank a web page based on the number of "quality" pages that link to it. This approach enables Google to retrieve high quality sites and list them first in their search results. Google uses an implied Boolean AND operator, retrieving only those pages that contain all of the keywords entered in the search. No plus sign or AND operator is necessary. Google automatically retrieves pages with keywords in close proximity. Google maintains a cached archive that provides access to pages at the time they were indexed. Limits include language, domain, date, and adult content. (As of August 2001, the largest search engine.)

HotBot http://hotbot.lycos.com

The advanced search features of HotBot make it a popular choice for searchers. Full Boolean searching is available. HotBot also supports the plus/minus system, phrase searching, and truncation is available by using an asterisk (*). HotBot can also search for pages with certain features such as JAVA applets, a variety of image and audio files, and embedded scripts. Check HotBot's FAQ for a current list of searchable fields and features. HotBot has a language limit for English, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, and Swedish.

Lycos http://www.lycos.com/

Lycos uses the plus/minus system, phrase searching, but does not support full Boolean searching or truncation. The "Advanced Search" option uses the Fast database and offers a drop down menu with choices for "all the words," "any of the words," or "the exact phrase." The "Advanced Search" option also supports limits, including: title words, URL, domain, and language.

MSN Search http://search.msn.com

MSN Search is both a directory and a search engine. The "Basic Search" displays few options, but the "Advanced Search" features a wide range of options, including Boolean searching, field searching, and limits. The truncation option is not reliable. MSN Search uses an implied AND operator for multiple search terms. (As of August 2001, the 3rd largest search engine.)

Yahoo http://www.yahoo.com/

Yahoo is a directory that categorizes web pages similar to the Yellow Pages. It is a good place to look for specific Web addresses for companies, organizations, educational institutions, etc. Yahoo supports the plus/minus system, phrase searching, and provides automatic truncation.