# Searches **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 3, 2000, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/searches/14349 "2000-03-03T19:16:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2000, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/searches/14349/1 "2000-03-03T19:16:00Z")
What search engine do you like the most? I am just discovering how much fun they can be and am curious to know what the folks here use regularly. If you could have only one, which would it be? * * * “Patriotism is the last refuge to which a scoundrel clings.” Bob Dylan ---
**Author:** ![Mullinator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c2a13f/32.png) [@Mullinator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mullinator)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2000, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/searches/14349/2 "2000-03-03T19:29:00Z")
[http://www.google.com](http://www.google.com) It hasn’t failed to help me out of a jam yet. * * * Voted Rookie of the Year in MPSIMs and the Pit, along with Best One-liners. And I don’t plan on keeping this as my sig for long, just until the winning buzz wears off. ---
**Author:** ![Dirty\_Devil](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Dirty\_Devil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dirty_Devil)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2000, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/searches/14349/3 "2000-03-03T19:40:00Z")
I use Google a lot, too, and almost always find what I’m looking for. Northern Lights is pretty thorough, as is Alta Vista. WebCrawler used to be really good, but seems to have fallen off lately. * * * Look, it’s people like you what cause unrest. ---
**Author:** ![cher3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@cher3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cher3)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2000, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/searches/14349/4 "2000-03-03T19:45:00Z")
I usually use Google or Excite. I used to use the Netscape one, but something happened to it and now it’s awful. ---
**Author:** ![xekul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/838e76/32.png) [@xekul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xekul)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2000, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/searches/14349/5 "2000-03-03T21:03:00Z")
Yes, Google rocks, but when I need to use operators like “” to search for phrases and - to exclude certain words, I use Altavista. Mostly Google though, just Altavista when I need to refine my search. * * * ``All of your dreams will come true. All of my dreams came true, but now… I have a bunch of other dreams.’’ – Sonic Youth. ---
**Author:** ![xekul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/838e76/32.png) [@xekul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xekul)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2000, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/searches/14349/6 "2000-03-03T21:04:00Z")
Oh yeah. And Altavista has a bigger index. I’ve found that the biggest index is FAST search at [http://www.alltheweb.com/](http://www.alltheweb.com/) but it sucks at sorting relevancy so I only go to it as a last resort. But it finds some stuff Altavista doesn’t… * * * ``All of your dreams will come true. All of my dreams came true, but now… I have a bunch of other dreams.’’ – Sonic Youth. ---
**Author:** ![Gilligan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Gilligan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gilligan)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2000, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/searches/14349/7 "2000-03-03T22:44:00Z")
I go with Google, too: clean and simple, and usually what I’m looking for is found within the first two or three pages of results. ---
**Author:** ![Gilligan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Gilligan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gilligan)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2000, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/searches/14349/8 "2000-03-03T22:49:00Z")
I go with Google, too: clean and simple, and what I’m looking for is usually within the first two or three pages of results. And I really don’t recall ever getting a porn result. ---
**Author:** ![funneefarmer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/9fc348/32.png) [@funneefarmer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/funneefarmer)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2000, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/searches/14349/9 "2000-03-03T23:19:00Z")
I did get an unexpected porn result from google but only once. I usually use google but will sometimes use alltheweb or altavista. For the tricky stuff I go to [Netstrider Directory](http://www.netstrider.com/search/directory.html) for a whole list of search engines and indexes. ---
**Author:** ![Kat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b19c9b/32.png) [@Kat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kat)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2000, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/searches/14349/10 "2000-03-04T05:01:00Z")
[www.dogpile.com](http://www.dogpile.com) * * * Your Official Cat Goddess since 10/20/99. _SD chat:_ **\** Kat’s here! the board must be down! ---
**Author:** ![Jo3sh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a587f6/32.png) [@Jo3sh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jo3sh)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2000, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/searches/14349/11 "2000-03-04T05:21:00Z")
I use a meta-search tool called Copernic which lets me enter a search string once, then hits many engines and sorts the results by relevance. Works pretty well. If I don’t find what I want the first go (and I’ve searched for some pretty esoteric things), a minor rephrase or slightly different keywords usually will give me the hit I want. * * * A committee is a lifeform with six or more legs and no brain. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2000, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/searches/14349/12 "2000-03-04T05:26:00Z")
I’ve always been an Alta Vista man myself, with occassional uses of Infoseek (or whatever they call themselves these days) when AV was giving me too many irrelevant links. Recently I started using [dmoz.org](http://dmoz.org) which seems to be a human edited search engine. Decent to excellent luck with it, but it’d not as complete. * * * “I guess one person can make a difference, although most of the time they probably shouldn’t.” ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2000, 8:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/searches/14349/13 "2000-03-04T08:29:00Z")
I use [http://www.cluestore.com](http://www.cluestore.com) because it searches most of the biggies at once, and gives you a real results list, not a broken up thing like dogpile. * * * – From an actual catalog" “Disco balls create an enchanting, dazzling effect of light shafts, adding movement and glamour to any occasion” _the Abrams’ bris was certainly memorable_ O p a l C a t [www.opalcat.com](http://www.opalcat.com) ---
**Author:** ![neutron\_star](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/51bf81/32.png) [@neutron\_star](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neutron_star)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2000, 8:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/searches/14349/14 "2000-03-04T08:38:00Z")
I’m pretty sure altavista has the biggest index on the web. * * * I am the user formerly known as puffington. ---
**Author:** ![Hanna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b3f665/32.png) [@Hanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hanna)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2000, 8:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/searches/14349/15 "2000-03-04T08:56:00Z")
I tried the ones you guys recommended and punched in my hobby–which I already have primo links for–Hey, I was curious. Google, altavista & dogpile gave me places to buy—but no real info. I cannot believe they didn’t include the _museum_ that I thought would show up. I guess the searches are very influenced by advertising…but to not list the _museum_…sheesh. There’s gotta be a better real SEARCH engine out there. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2000, 9:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/searches/14349/16 "2000-03-05T09:00:00Z")
Google didn’t give you what you thought? That’s weird. Google is built on the premise of searching links - it looks for how frequent pages are linked in other pages. It doesn’t use an ad directed database where companies can buy more attention. At least, that’s what they say. Maybe the museum you wanted sucks and nobody links to it. 😉