Search Engines and Search Tips
 
 

Inference Find		MetaEngine, groups results
AltaVista	Simple Query Advanced Query	Largest database
Google		Check it out!
HotBot		Large database
Northern Light		Web index + News, Magazine, Scientific journals
Excite
Yahoo	10 25 50 100 hits	Categorized, hand-built database

Searching Hints (including Boolean Operations)

Inference Find Use this engine for quick and dirty searches.  It gets you results fast.	You can use search modifiers, but because Inference Find uses many search engines, not all retrievals will reflect the modification request.  It is probably best to follow the Alta Vista modifiers.
Alta Vista There are many advanced search options. Click link above for information.	Match Any Automatic jobs work Match All Preceding plus sign to force use of term +jobs +work Exclude Leading minus sign to force exclusion jobs -work Phrase Search Surround phrase with quotation marks "job jar" Proximity Link terms with NEAR job NEAR jar Wildcards Trailing asterisk job*
HotBot Click the link above to gain access to many advanced search features	Match Any Link terms with OR jobs OR work Match All Automatic jobs work Exclude Leading AND NOT to force exclusion jobs AND NOT work Phrase Search Menu selection job jar (plus menu selection) Proximity Not available   Wildcards Not available
Northern Light Note: full Boolean supported (AND, OR, NOT) and nesting with parentheses. You can substitute + and - for AND and NOT.	Match Any Automatic jobs work Match All Link terms with AND or use preceding plus sign. jobs AND work, +jobs +work Exclude Leading NOT to force exclusion jobs NOT work, jobs -work Phrase Search Surround phrase with quotation marks "job jar" Proximity     Wildcards Asterisk for multiple letters, percent for single letter. Can occur anywhere in word. Plurals are handled automatically. colo%r (for "color" and "colour"), miss* (for missing, misses, etc.)
Excite Full Boolean supported (AND, OR, NOT) and nesting with parentheses. You can substitute + and - for AND and NOT.	Match Any Automatic jobs work Match All Link terms with AND or use preceding plus sign. jobs AND work, +jobs +work Exclude Leading NOT to force exclusion or preceding minus sign. jobs NOT work, jobs -work Phrase Search Surround phrase with quotation marks. "job jar" Proximity Not available.   Wildcards Not available.
Yahoo The default search is for the Yahoo categories.	Match Any Automatic jobs work Match All Preceding plus sign. +jobs +work Exclude Preceding minus sign jobs -work Phrase Search Surround prhase with quotation marks "job jar" Proximity Not available.   Wildcards Trailing asterisk. job*

Other Search Engines & Important Search Sites

Ideas for making tables in HTML	Ideas for making and designing Tables in HTML.
All-in-One	Access to more search engines than you would ever imagine.
Rankdex Data Easy	An unusual search engine that gets its data from links to pages, not the page content itself.  Experimental.  Try this for searches on popular topics.
Search Engine Watch	Monitor the developments in search engine technology and application.