best search engine for eclectic websites
google does a pretty good job, but i know a long time ago when i first got my computer and did not have google, whatever my browser used at the time found me lots of really great “little” sites, blogs, etc. lately, a couple of threads here have inspired me to go hunting for images that i’m not finding, even with the “image” function on google. i seem to keep coming up with the “blockbusters” instead of the “indies”- if you see what i mean.
what other engines do a good job when you really want to ferret out some arcand pics and info? thanks-“…lost in an orchestral maelstrom of lunacy…”
Edited 7/6/2007 5:25 pm ET by msm-s
Replies
Do you go to google and search out the blogs? Try Yahoo for blogs as well. Googles listings are in order of hits, in other words, the sites with the most hits under that heading come first. Sometimes I go pages into the results and find interesting things.
yes, lately i have been specifying blogs. but i think you pointed out something i'm doing wrong: i thought the pages came up in order of relevance, not 'popularity'. i'll start browsing further back now, thanks!
I use altavista when I don't want to have to scroll down past the most popular items. I've found some good sites that were deeply buried in the google search.
thank you! altavista has already given me so many hits very specific to what i'm looking for. i used to have it ages ago, but simply couldn't remember the names of any of the old SEs. using different SEs yeilds very different results, which is nice for variety's sake. thanks!"...lost in an orchestral maelstrom of lunacy..."
Edited 7/7/2007 11:42 am ET by msm-s
The way search engines are working these days are not at all like you would think or want. They used to list results based on relevance and then they went to the listing the sites with the most hits or most popular sites. Now they are using Meta tags which have always been around and the big search engines are using the information in the headers and tags to include or exclude sites based on all sorts of criteria. It is called SEO - Search Engine Optimization - the criteria can be as simple as relevant keywords or as something not relevant as how many other sites link into this site. They exclude them if a keyword is used twice in the same list, they didn't specific a date that the page expires, the page load dynamically instead of being a static page.
To make sure you are getting the most information for your search I would suggest using at least two different search engines. One of the big ones - Google, Internet Explorer and then one of the less popular search engines.
These are General Search Engines. The bottom are called meta search engines:
Alexa Internet
Ask.com (formerly Ask Jeeves)
Baidu
Exalead
Gigablast
MozDex
Windows Live Search (formerly MSN Search)
WiseNut
Yahoo! Search
Dogpile
Excite
HotBot
Info.com
These are called Blog Search engines:
Amatomu
Bloglines
BlogScope
IceRocket
Sphere
Technorati
I found the list of search engines (there are so many more for specific topics) on Wikipedia. You can get more information there if you would like it.
jane
Edited 7/7/2007 11:28 pm ET by ctirish
thank you too, jane! wikipedia crashes my internet connection so i avoid it, but i am saving your list.
it's been so frustrating; like wanting to buy a car but having a salesman trying to convince you you only have a choice of 3 modes when you know there's so much more out there. i'm so glad i posted this question! thanks to you both!
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