Search Engines, Web Directories,
and Librarians' Dreams:

Still dreamin'

Vickie L. Kline

Associate Professor
York College of Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania Library Association
1999 Annual Conference
October 1, 1999

http://faculty.ycp.edu/~vkline/pala99/pala99.html


Last year's Web Site:      http://faculty.ycp.edu/~vkline/pla98/pla98.html

 
 
 
Old Dogs, New Tricks
New Kids on the Block
Niche Wars
More News is Good News
Media Blitz
Just for Kids
The Next Generation
Keeping Track


 

Old Dogs, New Tricks

 
About.com Web directory
  • Formerly Mining Co.
  • Subject areas hosted by human "Guides

Answers.com

Online Reference Service
  • Search a database of existing questions and answers
  • Email their experts
  • The ultimate in trivial pursuit
C4
(formerly Cyber411)
Metasearcher
  • 16 search engines
  • Choose faster or smarter
  • Customizable 

LookSmart Live!

(LookSmart directory still active)
Online Reference
  • Added service for an established web directory
  • Questions answered within 24 hours.
Netscape Search Web directory / Search Engine
  • 140,000 categories
  • 800,000 sites
  • 14,000 subject experts
  • web searching by Google

 

New Kids on the Block

 
 
Euroseek Web directory and search engine
  • Limit searches by region, country, domain, language
  • Interfaces for many languages!
  • WOW!!!! 
AllTheWeb (formerly Fast Search) Web directory
  • Largest search engine
  • 200 million pages
  • Goal: 1 billion pages
Galaxy Web directory
  • "The professional's guide to a world of information"
  • Results include an Excerpt, Frequent Words, Outline, Date Entered, Date Indexed
  • Originally a DARPA-funded prototype
Mamma.com: The Mother of All Search Engines Metasearcher
  • Search 10 engines
  • Translates search syntax
  • Relevancy ranking
Proteus Search Engine Intermediary
  • Search 35 different engines from one form
  • Build Searches
  • Links to help pages for search engines

Searchling

Now only sells search technology to companies.

Metasearcher
  • Combines AltaVista, Excite, HotBot, InfoSeek
  • Yes, No, Maybe
  • Light Searchling - quick search
  • Heavy Searchling - more extensive search

Yep.com

Reincarnated as a casino directory.

Web directory and search engine
  • Customize for popularity or quality
  • My first impression: Nope.

 
 

Niche Wars

 
 

dowjones.com

Web directory no longer available on site.

Web directory
  • "It's all business"
  • 29 industries
  • 2,000 business web sites
  • Newswires 
Go2Net Adult Web directory
  • Adults only
  • It was only a matter of time...
GovSpot.com Portal
  • Friendly design
  • Links to goverment web sites
  • Some world goverment info

GovStartPage.com

Replaced by a porn site. Hostile browser takeover.

Web directory
  • No frills
  • US government
  • Arranged by branch of government
  • Links to government-related search engines
IVillage Portal
  • For women
Nurses.com Vertical Portal
  • Targets a single profession
Political Information .com Search Engine and Web Directory
  • Politics and Policy web sites
  • Annotated

 

More News is Good News

 
 

NewsPage

Search Engine
  • Free version of NewsEdge
  • Default search - today only
  • Can only go back 5 days
NewsDirectory Web directory
  • Newspapers by country
  • Magazines by subject
  • Television 
  • City Governments!
NewsNow Newsfeed
  • Updated every 5 minutes
  • News channels 
  • Arranged by age
  • Archive - 30 days - searchable
NewsTrawler Metasearcher
  • Search by media type, country, or subject
  • Choose your databases
  • Some news sites charge

 
 
 

Media Blitz

 
 
Lycos Music (formerly Fast MP3 Search) Search Engine
  • Digital audio clips
  • Search by performer or song title
  • Servers rated on reliability
MP3.com Directory with links to other Search Engines
  • Many independent recordings

 

Just for Kids

 
 
Alfy Web portal
  • Ages 3-10
  • Uses images to represent categories
  • Filtered 
KidsConnect Reference Service
  • Sponsored by ALA
  • Question and answer service for K-12 

 
 
 
 

The Next Generation

 
 
Infomine Web directory
  • Scholarly Internet resources
  • Selected by librarians at the University of California
  • Search or browse by keywords or LC subject headings
Clever Project Research Project
  • Not publically available
  • New algorhythms for identifying authoritative sites
  • Uses classification and focused crawling
SurfWax Metasearcher
  • Unusual design
  • Site Snap - view metadata for sites
  • Detailed help files
theinfo.com Metasearcher 
  • Clusters databases by topics
  • Pop up windows for each database searched

Keeping Track

 
 
 
 
ResearchBuzz.com Web Site
  • Companion to The Official Netscape Guide to Internet Research
  • Weekly newsletter available
Search Engine Showdown Web Site
  • Feature comparisons
  • Size comparisons
  • Overlap
  • Dead Links
  • News 
Search Engine Watch Web Site
  • Web Searching Tips
  • Search Engine Lists
  • Reviews, Ratings & Tests
  • Search Engine News

 
 

Send questions about this page to vkline@ycp.edu.

Copyright (C)1999 Vickie L. Kline

Called documents are copyright by Vickie L. Kline and others.