Search Engines

If you are exploring the Web for information on a particular topic, four types of websites can help you find what you are looking for:

Directory Sites: these are websites which catalogue information on the Web according to subject matter, e.g. www.yahoo.co.uk/, www.yahoo.com/

Search Engines: these are websites which search the Web for keywords - occurrences of specified words or phrases, e.g. www.google.co.uk/, www.google.com/

Meta Search Engines: these are websites which submit keywords to several search engines. In effect, they allow you to use multiple search engines at once, eg www.ixquick.co.uk/, www.ixquick.com/

Natural Language Search Engines: these are websites which accept queries in plain English, for example, "Who is the Prime Minister of New Zealand?" e.g. www.theanswerbank.co.uk/ (ask.co.uk)

Here are search engines we use regularly.

www.myguide.gov.uk/ A simple email account which is very easy to set up. Suitable for the beginner. It is also a search engine
uk.altavista.com/ Altavista UK Search by subject or keyword
www.theanswerbank.co.uk/ Ask questions, get answers. No matter how outrageous or practical your questions may be, you will get answers from real people
uk.ask.com/ Ask UK Natural language search engine
www.bbc.co.uk BBC's website. You can use the search box to search website for information on all sorts of subjects, or to search the web.
www.direct.gov.uk British Government. Entry point to public sector information
www.dogpile.co.uk/ Dogpile Meta search engine
www.excite.co.uk/ Excite Uk provides the very latest in personalised portal and search services.
www.google.co.uk Google comprehensive coverage of the web along with great relevancy. It is highly recommended as a first stop in your hunt for whatever you are looking for.
uk.yahoo.com/ Largest subject database on the web. Its headings and links are well-organised and easy to use. A great place for the beginner
www.lycos.co.uk/ Lycos UK Search by subject or keyword
www.mirago.co.uk/ Mirago UK Search by subject or keyword
uk.msn.com/ MSN UK Search by subject or keyword
www.picsearch.com/ Picture search is a search engine for pictures and images.
www.ukindex.co.uk/ UK Index Search by subject or keyword
www.ukplus.co.uk/ UK Plus Search by subject or keyword
www.wolframalpha.com/ Wolframalpha is a computational knowledge engine. It generates output by doing computations from its own internal knowledge base, instead of searching the web and returning links. It is not really a search engine as such.