A number of upstarts are mentioned which could be of interest to the search engine nuts among us:
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,45905,00.html?tw=wn20010814
first…and last bump.
I think the best one, especially for internet dummies, is to simply type the info in your URL window of your browser.
Like if you wanted to find medical abbreviations, you’d just type "medical abbreviations’ as a URL, hit return, presto! Links.
That is so easy compared to remembering search engine urls.
You have a problem remembering google.com and ask.com?:D
For the past year or so, ask.com hasn’t been worth remembering.
Well, the problem with that, handy is that it means the search engine database you’ll be using will be that of Uncle Bastard Bill (Gates) - which you only want to do if you like information presented to you in an order that has more to do with what web sites he wants you to visit than it does with relevance to the keyword (s) you’ve used.
Can’t you simply save them as ‘Favorites’???
omni-not, as my post stated, I was talking about Internet Dummies, you know, people new to the Internet. Just show they how to use that URL box & they are happy & don’t have to remember the names for now. Later they can of course do the bookmark thing.
That system has its drawbacks, as anyone who tried [link deleted] found out.
[Edited by Coldfire on 08-17-2001 at 12:03 AM]
Uh, right. Sorry. Long day.
HANDY! I thought you were told to quit posting porn links!!!
…oh, wait… that wasn’t you. Sorry!! 
RealityChuck, I don’t care what purpose it serves, there will be no links to porn sites posted on the Straight Dope Message Board! How on earth can this rule possible have escaped you for so long?
I didnt tell!!! Honestly!! In fact I’ll post it again for you… http://www.whitehouse.gov
Whammo, if you type as a URL in Netscape this:
‘Whammo at the straightdope message board’ (no quotes)
You’ll be searching google & a couple of links show up. Spiffy huh?
Put Vivisimo and Teoma to the test. They officially kick ass! And they’re fast.
Try 'em: you’ll like 'em!
I will also add my endorsement of Teoma, I just wish it had a wider database, it is still in beta so it’s not quite broad enough. But the search algorithm is much more useful than Google’s.