The IED Open Learning Team often uses Web Search Engines to help us find information from among the many billions of Web pages. Over some time, we have collected our own list of search engines that you too may find useful.
Our most favourite engines include Google and AltaVista. Below, you will find details on these engines. The Starting Your Quest page will tell you more about Search Engines in general.
Google is currently seen as one of the largest and fastest Web Search engines. The site claims to have indexed almost 1.4 billion web pages. In addition to the basic search page, Google also offers an advanced search page. More recently Google has also introduced an Image Search feature that claims to cover over 150 million images.
We like Google because it is a fast, neat search engine without "extra features" that many other search engines offer. Google also contains a well-written Help Section.
AltaVista was the first Web Search service to offer full-text search facilities on the Web. Today, the engine is among the best in terms of the accuracy and relevance of results. Like other search engines AltaVista also offers basic search and advanced search facilities. In addition, AltaVista also allows searching for images, audio, and video files.
We like AltaVista because it usually gives us results that are very close to our needs. We also like the extensive search options, but find parts of the Help Section a bit difficult to understand.
Google and Alta Vista are just two of the many search engines available and, at times, it is useful to be able to compare these search engines. Such a comparison of engines is available at the Search Engines Showdown - Search Engines Features Chart.
Do not depend on just one search engine or tool for all your needs. Instead, explore the various options based on the information given in the Starting your Quest page.