Search Engines

International Search Engines Top Choices Strongly Recommended Subject Searching Media Searching Meta Crawlers

New Zealand Search Engines Evaluating Websites Search Hints and Tips Useful downloads

International Search Engines

Top Choices:

Advanced Search	For Wintec Library Books online see: eBooks	For Wintec Library Journals online see: Ebsco A-Z

AND is assumed between words. Use quotation marks for phrases "…", - for AND NOT.
Example: beatles "the long and winding road" -lyrics

• Search Hints and Tips

Strongly Recommended:

Similar to Yahoo	Formerly 'Ask Jeeves'	Most established

Subject Searching:

Search scientific literature	Search by category	Indexes ScienceDirect

• Best Free Reference Websites
• eHow - How to do (just about) everything.
• Internet by classification number
• Internet by subject
• Librarian's index to the internet
• NoodleTools - Strategic search guide based on information need.
• OneLook Dictionary Search - Easy, quick word searches in over 600 on-line dictionaries.
• OAIster - A digital library of freely available, academically-oriented digital resources.
• Refdesk.com - The essential reference tool.
• Resource Discovery Network (RDN). A free guide to the best of the Web. Dedicated to providing effective access to high quality Internet resources for the learning, teaching and research community.
• Wintec Library Resources:
  Databases A-Z - search a known online resource.
  Ebsco A-Z - find a known journal (serial/magazine) title fulltext online.

Media Searching:

Digital media downloads	See also Google Help Center

• Animation Station - Free animations, backgrounds and graphics.
• Flickr - Online photo management and copyright free images.
• YouTube - A consumer media company for people to watch and share original videos worldwide through a Web experience.

Meta Crawlers:

Voted the best Meta Crawler	Newest. Indexes CiteSeer	Provides Clustered results.
Fast and ad-free

• Search in several search engines all at once. Use with caution.

New Zealand Search Engines:

See Also Te Puna Subjects

• Attitude's New Zealand Search Guide - Engines and Directories.

Search Hints and Tips:

General search rules for Ask, Google and Yahoo:

• Exclude word using -
• Required word use + will allow you to retrieve "stop words" (e.g., +in)
• Phrase searching " " will search strings of words in order. (e.g. "in truth")
• Quick browse: Use the Cached or View as HTML options to highlight your search words. Ctrl+F ( Edit - Find on This Page) will locate words within the page you are viewing.

Understand Google results.

Boolean Operators: a way of combining terms using "AND," "OR," "AND NOT".

• Partial. AND assumed between words.
• Capitalize OR.
• - excludes.

Examples:

• "global warming" OR "greenhouse effect" Zealand
• "the long and winding road" beatles -lyrics

Field Limits: requires a specific word or phrase in that field.

• link:
• site:
• intitle:
• inurl:

Other Hints and Tips

• Search features of the BEST Search Engines.
• Search Engine Watch - includes Guides to Search Engines and Metacrawlers.
• Why meta-search engines are not recommended.
• Librarians Tips of the Trade.
• Your search strategy.

Evaluating Websites

• Criteria for evaluation of Internet Information Resources. A Webpage produced by Alastair Smith, VUW Department of Library and Information Studies, New Zealand.
• Evaluating Web Pages - from UC Berkeley.
• Internet Detective - wise up to the web, with this free internet tutorial.
• Search Engine Watch

Useful downloads

• Adobe Acrobat Reader - to view pdf files.
• Copernic - leading Web search software which maximises your information searching.
• Firefox - a useful optional web browser which stops popups and spyware.