Hamilton Heights High School Library

Since you cannot directly search the Internet, you must use a tool to find the information you need. Internet search tools include search engines, news directories, general directories and subscription databases such as those found on our electronic databases page.

Primary Search Engines

• Google -- The largest search engine with consistently good results. Google Review.
• MSN Search -- Another large search engine that uses LookSmart for its search directory and Inktomi (the same database as Yahoo) for its search engine.   MSN Review.
• Teoma -- This search engine will help find similar sites by allowing you to select a related category.  It is owned by the same company as the popular Ask Jeeves.  Teoma Review.
• Yahoo -- Another very large and popular search engine. Yahoo Review.

Secondary Search Engines

• HotBot -- Allows you to search the Inktomi (MSN and Yahoo), Google,  or Teoma (Ask Jeeves) database at the same time.  Hotbot Review (searches multiple search engines),
• WiseNut -- Although small, this is a relatively new database so the results may include things different than the old reliables -- Google and Yahoo.  WiseNut Review

News Databases

The following are databases that search several newspapers at once. For individual news source coverage, see news sources on the Resources by Subject page.

• Hamilton Heights subscribes to Newsbank
• Yahoo News -- also offers an alert service.
• AltaVista News
• News Index
• Total News

Search Directories

• The Open Directory Project -- the largest. Run entirely by volunteers.
• LookSmart -- offers personalized answers to e-mail questions.
• About.com -- very good place to look for general information.
• Infomine -- scholarly Internet resource collections.

Although there are many other search engines on the Internet, these are the largest. Many of the others use the database owned by one of the above companies. For example, All The Web uses the Yahoo database For a complete review of all the different search engines, go to the Search Engine Showdown Reviews

The best search engine often depends on what information you are trying to find. Check out NoodleTools chart to help you choose the best tools for your information needs.

Better results come from learning more about search engines and how they work. These are a few guides to searching the Internet:

• The Spider's Apprentice at http://www.monash.com/spidap.html -- One of the best of the scores of guides to searching the Internet and using search engines. Recommended by Kathy Shrock in Discovery School's Kathy Shrock's Guide for Educators.
  
  
• Finding Information on the Internet from the University of California at Berkeley, this guide starts with the basics and and includes features such as MLA style sheets for electronic and Internet resources and information on finding things on the "invisible web" (web pages that are not linked to any other pages and therefore will never show up in most general search engine databases).