The Journalist's Toolbox: Search Engines/Subject Directories/Weblogs

Note: This page has been audited, and broken links have been removed or repaired. Sections have been reorganized by Search Engines, Subject Directories, Meta-Search Tools, Search Guidelines, Weblogs and Invisible Web sections. Pages will launch into a new browser.

Related Toolbox Pages: General Research/Fact-Checking Phone/Map Directories

Recent Additions to This Section
(This section features sites added to the page in the last few weeks.
Each link is cross-referenced on the page in its proper category.)

Kids.net.au
A search engine just for kids!

Search-22
Serves as a portal to scores of other engines, although you can't easily switch back and forth between results as you can on HotBot.

SEARCH GUIDELINES AND TRENDS

UC Berkeley: Types of Search Tools
This library clearly explains differences in search engines, subject directories and searchable databases or "invisible Web" sites. Includes tips on how they work and the best kinds of tools in each category.

Deadline Surfing Tips
Advice from SPJ's Staci Kramer.

Caught in the Web: A Journalist's Guide to Web Searches
A great set of tips, both basic and advanced.

Web Search Techniques for Journalists
A great set of tips, both basic and advanced.

NuevaSchool Search Tips and Links
A great quick-reference index of how to use search engines and other online research tools.

Google's Search Tips
Guidelines for using Google and other search engines.

Searching Tips
A short, but thorough quick reference on searches.

SearchEnginewatch.com
Detailed info. on search engines.

SearchDay
A free newsletter from Search Engine Watch featuring web search news, reviews, tools, tips, and search engine headlines from across the web. SearchDay is published daily, with headlines only on Fridays.

Poynter.org: Basics of Search Engines

SearchEngineGuide.com
Full of tips and other resources.

SearchEngineHeadlines.com
News and tips on the search industry.

Google Labs
Check out Google technologies in development.

MetaSpy.com
Get a list of 10 in-progress searches being conducted on the MetaCrawler search engine. It's updated every 15 seconds.

Altavista Real Searches
Top recent searches in specific categories.

Ask Jeeves: Peek Through the Keyhole
Get a list of 10 in-progress searches being conducted on this search engine. It's updated every 30 seconds.

Jeremy Caplan's Web Tips
From an editor at the now defunct Yahoo! Internet Life.

Introduction to Search Engines
Just the basics.

Forbes.com: Best of the Web
Tracks trends in many e-industries and includes lists of links.

Google Zeitgeist
An archive of what people are searching for online.

AltaVista Search Trends

The Search Engine's Search Engine
Listings of search engine links as well as ranking of the
21 top search engines and search directories in the United States.

Yahoo! List of Most Viewed News Content (U.S.)

The Yahoo! Buzz Index Top 20 Searches

The Lycos 50
Track search trends for the week.

Google Search Trends
Tracks patterns and gaining queries.

SEARCH ENGINES

How They Work: Generally, you use these for broad searches of the Web. Each search engine scans a database of the full text of web pages selected from the billions of web pages out there residing on servers. Using automated Web "spiders" the search engines gather and index the pages. When you search the Web using a search engine, you are always searching a somewhat stale copy of the real web page. When you click on links provided in a search engine's search results, you retrieve from the server the current version of the page. Generally, they cannot access pay sites for information.

Google.com
One of the Web's hottest specialized search sites.

Google Toolbar
It's worth the download. Makes surfing the Web much easier.

Google News Users Guide

AlltheWeb.net
An incredibly fast, helpful search tool. The site's FAST search technology scans more than 3,000 news sources worldwide and adds more than 800 articles per minute to its news catalog.

Kids.net.au
A search engine just for kids!

Columbia Computer Science Newsblaster
According to Columbia, this tool automatically tracks news events, groups stories from multiple sources that deal with the same event, and writes summaries of the various news stories. It uses a computer technology called "natural language processing." Sources include ABC News, CBS News, CNN, FOX News, Reuters, the New York Post, the Washington Post, and USA TODAY. It's updated daily.

LookSmart.com
This ties to the mighty Microsoft network searches.

Lycos

Lycos Multimedia Search

Northernlight.com

Hotbot.com

Kartoo.com
A France-based search engine that piggybacks on Google and other engines but presents its results unconventionally: as "maps." The results are displayed in a way that allows you to tell which sites are more important.

WiseNut.com
A simple, easy-to-use search tool with more than 1.5 billion sites in its database.

EntireWeb.com

SearchBuzzard.com

Search Engine Colossus: International Directory of Search Engines

WhoisReport.com
This domain name search engine offers some unique features.

isleuth.com
More than 2,000 searchable databases.

Search-22

Infoplease.com Almanac Search Page

Ask2k.com
A listing of top web sites.

SpyonIt.com
A long-term search engine that notifies your by e-mail or IM when it has completed its search.

Newszap.com
Search engine and online news, tools.

Pandia Search Engine for News Sites

RocketNews.com
Like Google News Search, this engine finds current news from all around the Internet. It automatically searches major online national and city newspapers, newswires, magazines, trade publications and press releases.

FindArticles.com
A free online article search.

Glossarist.com
A searchable directory of glossaries and subject directories covering hundreds of topics.

NewsNow
A British site with many U.S. resources. Updates every five minutes.

SearchOnline.info
Supports UK, Canada, United States and French regional searches, multiple languages, mailing and saving of results directly from the result list, and many other features. Includes a comprehensive news system, powered by moreover.com, which delivers news from over 1,000 sources grouped into over 300 categories. All features are free, just enter your search in the box at the top of the page. Only advanced functions like news subscriptions require registration.

Search Moreover.com News Feeds
Searches many news feeds.

Fagan Finder
A great search tool that added several new features in May 2002. Journalists will be especially interested in the search engines, reference, news and law sections.

Datamonster.com
Links to many search engines and subject directories.

Findwhat.com
Search engine with great polls and surveys on user habits.

Overture.com
Formerly Goto.com, this search engine sells its search results to the highest bidder.

AltaVista Image Search

SearchSpell.com
Check your spelling as you submit a query.

Search SEC Filings

Findia.Net Search
A good general search tool.

Internets.com

FirstGov.Gov Search Database
The new database is built and powered by FAST Search and Transfer. FAST also provides the AllTheWeb engine. Limit terms by title, URL, text, state government, federal government or a specific domain.

WebSite-Watcher
A clipping-type tool that automatically looks for changes on web pages, any page at any level), as often as you like (every 30 minutes, hourly, daily, etc.) and then highlights precisely where on the page changes occur. Results are delivered via the tool or via e-mail.

TrackEngine.com
A clipping-type tool similar to WebSite-Watcher.

United States Constitution Search
This search engine allows you to search for words and phrases and find lists of links to the location within the text of your search terms.

Business.com
Business search engine.

Business Publications Search Engine
Find several great topics, including Internet business, intellectual property issues, industry publications, economics, management and more.

Onvia.com

Itzalist.com

Humansearch.com

Newswords.com
A global headline search site.

SearchIQ
An independent site that reviews and ranks dozens of sites on relevance, accuracy, and speed.

1st Headlines
Searches current news headlines and can be refined by topic, country, breaking news.

Alta Vista Advanced Search Engine
Click on advanced search button.

Infomak.com

Anzwers.com

Viola.net

ExactSeek.com
Descibes itself as "an intelligent search engine."

Inktorri.com

WhatUseek.com

Traffick.com
A guide to Web portals. Many helpful tools.

SpeechBot Audio/Video Search Engine

Ultimate Google Interface
From the Fagan Finder, this combines all of the options from all of the Google tools.

Fagan Finder Search Box

The Paperboy.com

Inference Find

Washington Post.com World News Search
Enter country name in a database for news and Web links.

Metahoo.com
Metahoo! is an AD-FREE Web portal dedicated to simplifying the search process for its users by bringing back relevant and timely results as efficiently as possible. It offers users the ability to quickly and easily find information on the Web by searching through indexes of web documents. A user may enter a search term or terms and review a list of the best matches from all indexed Web pages.

Niche Search Engines Index

SparkNotes
Search texts, newsfeeds, study guides and message boards.

Researchville.com

LawCrawler
Powered by Google, the Web?s best search engine, it hunts down anything legal online.

The Daily Globe Date Archive
Look up by date, month, day.

Direct Hit
A search engine in the spirit of Yahoo!

TVEyes.com
Search software that tracks what's being said on TV scripts.

Fund for Investigative Reporting and Editing (FIRE)
A non-profit organization that provides community media resources to the Appalachian Region, to raise awareness and make available FIRE's online searchable archive of regional community news. This online archive is a resource that contains news stories, oral histories and local features about Southeast Appalachia.

The Wayback Machine
Tied to a database of 10 billion archived Web pages that go back five years. See what old and defunct sites looked like. Heavy use, so download may be slow.

Best20Sites.com

Internet Archive
How to build an Internet library.

Alexa.com
Downloadable software that makes searching the Web easier. The site has many Web search tools.

The Cybercafe Search Engine

University of Michigan: NewsInEssence
"A prototype system for finding and summarizing multiple news articles on the Web."

CrossSearch
Major search engine for Christian and religious Web sites.

Global Catholic Search Engine

FinancialEngines.com

Agrisurf
Billed as "The Farmer's Search Engine" this site has a plethora of ag resources.

Shakespeare Search Engine
Look up anything on the Bard.

Cinema FreeNet
Search for a database of movies, actors, directors, and producers.

Office of Scientific and Technical Info. PrePrint Search Engine
A mega-search engine that will be available to science writers. Sign up for it here.

She Knows Search Engine
A women's resource search tool: arts, business, education, parenting, health/fitness, finance and more.

GolfFarm.com

CycleSearch.net
Links to thousands of motorcycle sites.

Celebrity Address Search Engine

ElvisFind.com
Billed as the ultimate Elvis search engine and site directory, this is your Internet guide to the King.

META-SEARCH TOOLS

How They Work: Submit keywords in the search box, and it transmits your search simultaneously to several individual search engines, subject directories and their databases of Web pages.

W3 Search Engines
Offers more than 100 links to meta-search, search engines, subject directories and more. A great bookmark!

OneSearch.com
Claims you need only one search -- this one.

Mamma.com
Billed as the "mother of all search engines," this tool keeps it simple.

Teoma.com
Provides three types of results: 1) a listing of Web links; 2) clustering related links into categories; 3) "expert links" that bring together resources on specific topics. It removes duplicate links as well, thus speeding your search.

Vivisimo
Results page groups links together, making it quicker to scan. Searches Yahoo, AltaVista, MSN/Hotbot, alltheweb, OpenDirectory/AOL, Excite, DirectHit, Looksmart, EuroSeek.

Copernic
This site searches Alta Vista, AOL.com, Direct Hit, EuroSeek, Excite, Fast Search, Google, GoTo, HotBot, LookSmart, Lycos, Magellan, MSN Web, Netscape Netcenter, Open Directory, Snap, Web Crawler,Yahoo! and some international sites.

DipBox.com
A metasearch thats search of Altavista, Fast & Wisenut.

ZenithMedia.com
Links to several search engines, subject directories and image banks.

Nelson Search: The Search Tool for Journalists
A great searchable archive of several interesting topics.

Freeality
Various search tools, people locator.

Dogpile
Surfs about 15 search engines and directories.

Ixquick
AOL, AltaVista, LookSmart, EuroSeek, Excite, FindWhat, MSN, alltheweb, GoTo, Hotbot, Yahoo! Translates your search into each search engine's syntax.

MetaCrawler
Searches AltaVista and some minor databases.

ProFusion
AltaVista, , LookSmart, Excite, Magellan, WebCrawler, GoTo, AllTheWeb/alltheweb, Yahoo! Can customize what is searched.

Proteus
A guide to the Web guides. This site makes it convenient to use many search tools all in one place.

W3 Search Engines
Offers more than 100 links to meta-search, search engines, subject directories and more. A great bookmark!

NoImages.com
Surf sites minus their photos and graphics. Great for quick queries.

NewsPlace.org
Features meta-search capabilities which scan sistes such as ixQuick, AllTheWeb News, and News search from Northern Light. The site also has a "Grammar Matters" review section.

RocketNews.com
A helpful, current news search tool.

Black Widow Search Tool

LastMinuteSearch.com

SavvySearch.com

Search Engines Worldwide
Search tools organized by country. Very cool.

SearchSpaniel.com
Search several sites simultaneously.

TotalSurf.com
Search several sites simultaneously.

WebInfoSearch.com

Surfwax.com
Good for general keyword searches.

Profusion
Search up to nine search engines at once.

DayPop
A current events search engine that indexes more than 5,000 news sites and weblogs each day.

Cyber411.com MetaSearch

Metaspy
Track what people are surfing online.

Planetsearch.com
Search 12 engines at once!

Debriefing Search Engine
Claims to be the "world's most powerful search engine."

The Big Hub Search Site

InfoPeople Guide
A resource guide for finding different search engines that underscores its strengths and special features.

StudytheWeb.com
Topic pages and keyword search thousands of pages.

SUBJECT DIRECTORIES

How They Work:You use these for searches for specific topics. They're managed by hand and not by automated Web spiders. Sites are broken into specific subject areas and not ranked.

Yahoo

About.com

Excite

Excite Precision Search

Dmoz.org/
Open directory project. Has look and feel of a Yahoo!

Librarians' Index to the Internet
A "thinking person's Yahoo" subject directory that's updated regularly.

Internet Public Library Pathfinder
University of Michigan librarians organize subject pages that included annotated suggestions for both the Web and library books. A great starting point for any story.

Infomine
A high-quality subject directory; librarian-selected with flexible search option.

Subjex.com
A dialogue-based format where search terms can be placed in natural language style.

Teoma
Organizes results by grouping into topic folders at the top, as well as listings of relevant authoritative sites and expert or "hub" links.

Mapping Cyberspace
An online directory full of resources.

AlphaSearch
This tool points you to gateways for a subject, discipline or idea.

Entertainment Weekly Search Tool
A searchable archive of 10 years of E-Weekly stories.

Webyah.com Portal

Phaster Lookups Reference Database
Do quick searches for reference tools: encylopedias, economic terms, legal dictionary, biblical reference, quotes and more. Great one-stop reference shopping.

Cyberjournalist Reporter's SuperSearch

AcademicInfo.net
Click on advanced search button.

U.S. City Directories
City directories, arguably one of the most over-looked resources by genealogists, have been around since the 1700s. This web site attempts to identify all printed, microfilmed, and online directories, and their repositories, for the United States.

Suite 101.com

AlphaSearch
This site's goal is "to collect the finest Internet 'gateway' sites." Also includes some databases, online journal links, and full-text sites.

Argus Clearinghouse
A collection of subject guides, mostly academic and not annotated.

Guidebeam.com
A directory listing subcategories to general search requests.

WWW Virtual Library
Subject guides are mostly academic. Browse by subject category or alphabetical list.recommended.

The New Atheneum
An Internet resource guide organizedby Dewey decimal classification.

Scout Report Signpost
More than 8,000 of the best internet resources chosen by Scout Report.

Martindale's The Reference Desk
An extensive set of health science links.

Zeal.com
A community of enthusiasts and editors building the world's most widely used Web directory.

4Anything.com
A great Web portal.

CyberPaperBoy.com
Helps you find any online newspaper in the world.

RhymeZone Shakespeare Search Engine

West Egg ClicheFinder Search Engine
More than 3,300 indexed cliches. Look them up and edit them out of stories.

Computer-Mediated Communication Information Sources
A vast collection of links on computers, the Internet, communications technology, including journals, major sites, major projects and more.

Subject Area Links
A vast collection of links on computers, the Internet, communications technology, including journals, major sites, major projects and more.

INVISIBLE WEB

How They Work:These are databases and online tools that the search engines and subject directories often miss. They're great for finding powerful databases and research on a a variety of topics.

The Invisible Web: Uncovering Information Sources Search Engines Can't See
This directory, the companion site to the book of the same name, is brought to us from Chris Sherman and Gary Price, to research specialists. In addition to the Invisible Web Directory, a useful annotated directory of sources for "invisible" resources on the Web, the site features the text from the book's chapter on business and investing resources as well as .pdf versions of the introduction and table of contents.

CNET Search.com
This "Invisible Web" tool offers specialized search topics such as business, government, people and travel.

HyperStat Searchable Stats Database
Powered by Rice University.

SearchSystems.net Database Links
Links to almost 5,000 public records databases. Claims to be the largest free collection of public records databases on the Web.

News Blues.com TV Sourcebook
Contact information for nearly 1,600 stations. Search by station, news directors, ownership group, etc.

WEBLOGS/WEB RINGS
(Use for specific topics)

What the heck is a Blog? Blogs are online journals with time-stamped postings by a person or group. Take the personal musings for what they're worth -- surfers can post anything they want, so don't rely on them for factual information. But blogs can be helpful for finding sources on offbeat topics. Many of them are designed to comment on or share interesting links, so it can help you navigate the Web. The best tip on accessing blogs when reporting: Use caution and check the facts.

The Scoop.org: How Journalists Can Use Weblogs

E-media Tidbits
A group Weblog organized by Steve Outing.

Portal.Eatonweb.com
A blog index organized by topic.

Daypop
This relatively new news and weblog search engine offers a "Top 40" list of the most popular links from various weblogs and news sources. You'll also see a list of the "Top 10" search terms/phrases. This is updated a couple of times a day.

Blogdex
This site from MIT also returns a constantly changing list of the most popular links from weblogs. It?s built to harness the power of personal news, amalgamating and organizing personal news content into one navigable source, moving democratic media to the masses. Currently, Blogdex is focused on the referential information provided by personal content, namely using the timeliness of weblogs to find important and interesting content on the web.

BloggingNetwork.com
Blogging Network is the easiest way to blog and the only site where you earn money blogging. You'll get readers right away, since your blog is automatically listed in the Blogging Network directory. The blogging system has a full set of features, from Microsoft Word-like rich text editing and up-to-date search to customizable templates and syndicated headlines. All you need is a Web browser -- there is no software to download.

Cyberjournalist.net: Weblog Blog
Links to stories about using Weblogs and journalism.

Weblogs and the News
Explores some of the emerging forms of journalism online, including weblogs, collaborative news and community journalism.

Paul Mallasch Journalism Blog
A journalism blog/community. The site contains news about journalism, the ability to rant and rave about your job as a journalist, material about the Internet and how it's affecting journalism, pointers to innovative and useful online tools for journalists, etc.

ResearchBuzz News Weblog
This site keeps you up on the latest research tools.

Malcontent Home for Disgruntled Journalists

Testy Copy Editors

Suite101.com: Journalism
Resources from Daryl Lease.

MicroContent News: News for Webloggers

MicroContent News: Blogging Code of Ethics

Andrew Sullivan's Journalism Weblog
Former writer for the NY Times Magazine, Sunday Times of London.

Linkwatcher.com
Similar to News blogger, this site searches headlines on various sites.

Metalink.com
A Weblog site with search function.

ContentSummit.com

InteractivePublishing.Net

MSNBC: Weblog Central
The site claims is "serves as a perch from which you can observe and participate in the brave new world of personal news." Will Femia writes a daily Blogspotting Weblog.

People?s Press
A non-commercial site that allows anyone in the world to share news stories with everyone else.

Blogger.com
Free software to create blogs.

WebRing
Web rings are loosely affiliated groups of sitesthat have agreed to link to one another because they share a common topic.

Livejournal.com
Lets users create blogs.

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