# Web Search Engines

I've put together a list of 135 general web search engines; that is to say, search engines that search the web. It does not include site or subject specific search engines, or country based search engines. I've created a list of country based search engines which cover 200 countries and regions and a total of over 2,000 search engines (as at September 2004). If you need country/region based search engines, feel free to visit the country search engine page.
If you know of a general search engine that I've not included, please email me!
I've not yet had chance to annotate all the various search engines listed, but have tried to indicate what most of the web search engines are. If I've not commented it's because it's either obvious, or there's nothing noteworthy to say about that particular web search engine.

## The Search engines

My weblog |  | Web search engines and comments | Please consider visiting my sponsors (when I get some!)
|  | A9 Amazon books, Live results |  |
| Abbreviations For abbreviations
|  | Abcsearchengine Index based, fairly small
About Lots of articles on lots of things
Accoona Excellent for news, good for focussed searching
Acronymfinder Find acronyms
Aftervote Social search engine
Ajaxwhois Great for site statistics searches
Alexa Good for background information on a site
AllPlus Good meta engine, lots of options
Alltheweb Part of the Yahoo family
Altavista Oldie, but still a goodie, suprising enough |  |
Answers Good for factual information |  |
AOL Search Google in a different guise
Archive, Internet Good for older versions of a site
Ask One of the big four
Azoos Painfully bright yellow index engine
Beaucoup Index based, not impressed
Better Who Is Information about a website owner etc
Blinkx Multimedia search engine |  |
Brainboost Part of the Answers family |  |
Buzzle Index based, not impressed
ChaCha Search with a human guide
Clusty Good all rounder
Collarity Personalised search engine. Very good.
Complete Planet Excellent for hidden/invisible web
Convert To convert from one to another
Country Search Engines 4,000 country search engines
Definitions Good for various definitions |  |
Digital-librarian Collection of links from a librarian |  |
DMOZ (Open Directory Project) Good index/directory |  |
Dogpile Multisearch GYMA |  |
Draze Compare GYM on one screen |  |
Ebingbong Social search, lets users rate results. |  |
|  | Eurekster Good for building your own engine |  |
|  | ExaleadSuperb functionality, good advanced options |  |
|  | ExciteDoes anyone still use that any more? |  |
|  | Factbites Factual information |  |
|  | FaganFinder Superb collection of engines |  |
|  | Fazzle Good all round meta search engine |  |
|  | Feedster |  |
|  | Findsounds Audio/sound search engine |  |
|  | FinQoo Multi search engine, doesn't say what the sources are |  |
|  | Freesearch UK based engine, global scope |  |
|  | Galaxy Index based |  |
|  | Google Do I need to say anything about this one? |  |
|  | Google Blogsearch Best blog search engine going |  |
|  | Google Directory Same as DMOZ |  |
|  | Google Groups Good for obscure information |  |
|  | Google Images Yahoo image search is superior |  |
|  | Google Local Local to the UK that is. |  |
|  | Google News Adequate. Good for email alerts |  |
|  | Google Personalised Tailor results to your interests |  |
|  | Google Scholar Good(ish) for academic stuff |  |
|  | Google Trends Who is looking for what? |  |
|  | Healia Excellent medical search engine |  |
|  | Hotbot Blast from the past! |  |
|  | IAF People search Searches for people! US biased. |  |
|  | iBoogie Multi search engine, strong on clustering |  |
|  | Icerocket Good for blog searching |  |
|  | Illumirate Index based |  |
|  | InfoMine For scholarly internet resource collections |  |
|  | Infopeople People search |  |
|  | Infoservice Index based, bizarre collection of headings |  |
|  | Intute Superb directory, very authoritative |  |
|  | Irazoo Social search engine, vote for results |  |
|  | Ixquick Excellent meta search engine |  |
|  | Jayde Business to business |  |
|  | Jux2 Excellent meta search & compare results |  |
|  | Kartoo Visual search engine, good reputation |  |
|  | Kazazz Free text search engine, not particularly exciting |  |
|  | KidsclickChildren's search engine |  |
|  | Librarians Internet Index Superb resource |  |
|  | Linkopedia Index based, not exciting |  |
|  | Live Search One of the big 4 |  |
|  | Lycos Almost lost in the midst of time, but still trying |  |
|  | Mahalo Social search engine, some like it, I don't |  |
|  | MammaMulti meta search engine that's been around for years |  |
|  | Mastersite Calls itself #1 though I can't work out why |  |
|  | Metacrawler Meta search engine |  |
|  | Monstercrawler Meta search engine |  |
|  | Mooter Visual search engine |  |
|  | MsDewey Microsoft folly; annoying and pointless |  |
|  | Oaister Emphasis on hidden web academic material |  |
|  | Omnimedicalsearch Excellent medical search engine |  |
|  | Peerbot Very unusual engine, as it searches for favicons |  |
|  | Pepesearch Does not stand out |  |
|  | Pinakes Superb collection of Virtual Libraries |  |
|  | Questfinder Selective web directory |  |
|  | Quotations for Quotations |  |
|  | Quintura First rate, uses clouds of terms. Recommended |  |
|  | RedZee Visual search. Awful. Used to be excellent |  |
|  | References Good all round resource |  |
|  | Re-quest Index/Directory web search engine |  |
|  | Scandoo accurately indicates a level of trustworthiness |  |
|  | Scirus Scientific search of web and selected journals |  |
|  | Scrubtheweb Nothing to recommend it |  |
|  | Search-beat Uses Google's database |  |
|  | Searchbug Search for people and companies in the US |  |
|  | Search.com Metasearch engine |  |
|  | Searchhippo Metasearch engine, unimpressed |  |
|  | Searchy Personalised search |  |
|  | Searchmash Google test bed |  |
|  | Search Medica Excellent medical search engine |  |
|  | Searchthe.net Meta search engine |  |
|  | Searchtheweb Index/Directory |  |
|  | Selectsurf Selective web directory |  |
|  | Similicio.us Find similar sites |  |
|  | Silobreaker Superb news resource |  |
|  | Slider Full text search engine that searches DMOZ |  |
|  | Smartlinks Index/Directory |  |
|  | SMEALSearch Academic authoritative content |  |
|  | Sproose Social search engine |  |
|  | Sunsteam Index/Directory |  |
|  | Supercrawler Index/Directory |  |
|  | Synonyms Good reference resource |  |
|  | Technorati Excellent weblog search engine |  |
|  | Thenet1 Index/Directory |  |
|  | Thunderstone Index/Directory |  |
|  | Trooker Superb video search engine |  |
|  | Turbo 10 Great for hidden/invisible web |  |
|  | TurboScout Very good multi search engine |  |
|  | Ujiko Visual search engine |  |
|  | Zip codes Information about US zip code areas |  |
|  | Web Brain Visual search engine |  |
|  | Webcrawler Meta search engine for GYMA |  |
|  | Web-search Meta search engine, one at a time |  |
|  | Webworldindex Index/Directory |  |
|  | Whatuseek Web/Index based, not worth the trouble |  |
|  | Windseek Meta search engine |  |
|  | WWW Virtual Library Second only to Pinakes |  |
|  | Yahoo! One of the big 4 |  |
|  | Yahoo Buzz What's going on? |  |
|  | Yahoo Directory Yahoo as it used to be |  |
|  | Yahooligans For children |  |
|  | Yahoo Local Local information |  |
|  | Yahoo Mindset Emphasis research or shopping |  |
|  | YouTube Video engine. Use Trooker instead |  |
|  | Zapmeta Allows for various methods of re-ranking |  |
|  | Zensearch Uses the Google database |  |

If you're reading this as a paper handout, this page can be found at http://www.philb.com/webse.htm

###### This page last updated 13th November 2008