# What is the Best Web Search Engine for Me? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 1, 1999, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-web-search-engine-for-me/4397 "1999-11-01T19:19:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Timothy\_Campbell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/958977/32.png) [@Timothy\_Campbell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Timothy_Campbell)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 1999, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-web-search-engine-for-me/4397/1 "1999-11-02T06:50:00Z")
As you know, there are lots of search engines on the web (Excite, Yahoo, Alta Vista, Hotbot, Lycos, Northern Lights etc.). I hate all of them. When I have a topic in mind, I have a list of words that I _know_ will appear in the article I want. So, I don’t want a heirarchical engine (like Yahoo or Mining Company). I also don’t want overly clever engines like Excite. Let me take that last one as an example of my problem. It has an input field labelled “Must contain [the phrase]”. Well, when I input the phrase, I get lots of hits from pages that most certainly do _not_ contain that text. (Yes, I realize that web sites change their content, but this problem occurs so often that the reason must be a bit more complicated than that.) As an experiment, last night I tried searching the web for my name (“Timothy Campbell”). So far, all the search engines I’ve tried have utterly disappointed me. I know my name is listed on many web sites, exactly as shown, but the engines would try to “guess” what I “meant”. So I’d get hits on “Timothy X. Campbell”, “Fred Campbell/Timothy Smith”, along with some other brilliant “hits” that I simply can’t fathom. Taking what I’ve said into account, can I hear some opinions on which search engines produce the best results from specific words and phrases? ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 1999, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-web-search-engine-for-me/4397/2 "1999-11-02T06:52:00Z")
Have you tried [Google](http://www.google.com)? * * * J’ai assez vécu pour voir que différence engendre haine. Stendhal ---
**Author:** ![UncleBeer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/977dab/32.png) [@UncleBeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBeer)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 1999, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-web-search-engine-for-me/4397/3 "1999-11-01T19:19:00Z")
I typically use dogpile, just because I like the name. It is similar to google. [www.dogpile.com](http://www.dogpile.com) * * * **Dopeler effect:** The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly. ---
**Author:** ![theuglytruth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6a8cbe/32.png) [@theuglytruth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/theuglytruth)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 1999, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-web-search-engine-for-me/4397/4 "1999-11-01T19:33:00Z")
Along the lines of [google.com](http://google.com) and [dogpile.com](http://dogpile.com), you may want to try [superseek.com](http://superseek.com)… What it does is bring up about 15 webbrowsers at once. I cannot think of a SINGLE browser that will do what you want. * * * [http://www.geocities.com/capitolhill/parliament/1685/](http://www.geocities.com/capitolhill/parliament/1685/) ---
**Author:** ![aaronp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bbe5ce/32.png) [@aaronp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aaronp)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 1999, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-web-search-engine-for-me/4397/5 "1999-11-01T19:55:00Z")
The most comprehensive one I’ve found is [http://www.alltheweb.com](http://www.alltheweb.com) ---
**Author:** ![bantmof](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/96bed5/32.png) [@bantmof](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bantmof)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 1999, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-web-search-engine-for-me/4397/6 "1999-11-01T19:56:00Z")
Timothy, > [@](#): > > When I have a topic in mind, I have a list of words that I know will appear in the article I want. I believe you can do this with most search engines, but you may need to use the advanced search modes. By default, if you just type in Timothy Campbell, the search engine may just and those two together (or maybe even or them) giving you a bunch of matches you don’t want. Several things to note: Often (depending on the search engine) you can quote a phrase, like this: ``` "Timothy Campbell" ``` Which will then match those words _in that order_, instead of the two words appearing anywhere on the page. Also, you can (also depending on the search engine) often use your own boolean logic, with parens if you want, to specify things as accurately as you want. For instance, “Timothy Campbell” & (“web pages” | ardvaarks) The exact semantics are different for different search engines. But most of the major ones have a pretty decent boolean language. Often there are limitations for searching on very short or common words that almost every web page has (like “the”). Try going to [www.altavista.com,](http://www.altavista.com,) clicking over to advanced search, and entering your name surrounded by doublequotes. That should give you closer to what you want. Also note that just because a web page doesn’t display the string you searched for does not mean it doesn’t contain it. The HTML may contain that phrase somewhere even if it’s not visible to you. I use google a lot, which does NOT have a boolean search language, but often returns good results anyway. You can still quote phrases in google, even if it lacks a boolean “or”. Hope this helps, – peas on earth ---
**Author:** ![torq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dfb087/32.png) [@torq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/torq)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 1999, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-web-search-engine-for-me/4397/7 "1999-11-01T20:19:00Z")
Personally I feel that as long as you limit yourself to the major players, which search engine you choose makes less difference than whether you use that search engine optimally or not. Pick one you can stand and then practice with it until you get a feeling for how it works. I’ve tried others, but when the crunch is on I still go back to AltaVista because I know how to use its advanced search features and I can keep refining my question until I get just what I’m looking for. The only specific advice I’d have regarding which site to use is to pick one with a porno filtering option (or which filters those out ab initio). I find that when searching for terms that I would expect to occur only rarely together (“Virgin Mary” and “Star Trek”, for instance, if I happened to be interested in Picard’s views on Catholicism) I get dozens if not hundreds of porno sites. Something like AltaVista’s family filter cuts those down to a manageable number. ---
**Author:** ![counterattackii](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/41988e/32.png) [@counterattackii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/counterattackii)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 1999, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-web-search-engine-for-me/4397/8 "1999-11-01T20:43:00Z")
I dunno= I always liked [www.37.com](http://www.37.com) because it allows you to pick from 37 engines… ---
**Author:** ![Timothy\_Campbell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/958977/32.png) [@Timothy\_Campbell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Timothy_Campbell)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 1999, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-web-search-engine-for-me/4397/9 "1999-11-01T21:30:00Z")
Thanks for the comments, folks. Yes, I know about “Advanced Search Options”. They still don’t behave the way I want. I must say, though, that [http://www.alltheweb.com](http://www.alltheweb.com) appears to behave precisely the way I _want_ a search engine to behave. Thanks, **aaronp** , for suggesting it! ---
**Author:** ![E1skeptic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3da27b/32.png) [@E1skeptic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E1skeptic)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 1999, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-web-search-engine-for-me/4397/10 "1999-11-01T22:10:00Z")
Try this: [www.metacrawler.com](http://www.metacrawler.com) ---
**Author:** ![Mojo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Mojo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mojo)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 1999, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-web-search-engine-for-me/4397/11 "1999-11-01T23:34:00Z")
I like Infoseek for the fact that you can do a Boolean search (Timothy+Campbell) and then refine. Unfortunately, the results aren’t as reliable as Google or Altavista. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 1999, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-web-search-engine-for-me/4397/12 "1999-11-02T00:09:00Z")
[www.webcrawler.com](http://www.webcrawler.com) It can be slow at times, but if I want to be specific I use it. Example “american horses” AND competetion NOT sex “Exact phrase” \ additional word \ additional word ---
**Author:** ![DW3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@DW3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DW3)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 1999, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-web-search-engine-for-me/4397/13 "1999-11-02T00:18:00Z")
Mass Search Engines: [http://800go.com/800go.html](http://800go.com/800go.html) [http://www.allsearchengines.com](http://www.allsearchengines.com) [http://www.askjeeves.com](http://www.askjeeves.com) [http://www.dogpile.com](http://www.dogpile.com) [http://www.gohip.com](http://www.gohip.com) [http://www.hotsheet.com](http://www.hotsheet.com) [http://www.mamma.com](http://www.mamma.com) [http://www.metacrawler.com](http://www.metacrawler.com) [http://www.savvysearch.com](http://www.savvysearch.com) [http://www.seeko.com](http://www.seeko.com) [http://www.goforit.com/Tsunami/search.html](http://www.goforit.com/Tsunami/search.html) Regular Search Engines: [http://www.4anything.com](http://www.4anything.com) [http://about.com](http://about.com) [http://search.aol.com](http://search.aol.com) [http://www.alltheweb.com](http://www.alltheweb.com) [http://www.altavista.com](http://www.altavista.com) [http://www.directhit.com](http://www.directhit.com) [http://dmoz.org](http://dmoz.org) [http://www.excite.com](http://www.excite.com) [http://www.funkycat.com](http://www.funkycat.com) [http://www.go.com](http://www.go.com) [http://www.google.com](http://www.google.com) [http://www.google.com](http://www.google.com) [http://www.google.com](http://www.google.com) [http://www.goto.com](http://www.goto.com) [http://www.hotbot.com](http://www.hotbot.com) [http://www.infohiway.com](http://www.infohiway.com) [http://infoseek.go.com](http://infoseek.go.com) [http://www.looksmart.com](http://www.looksmart.com) [http://www.lycos.com](http://www.lycos.com) [http://magellan.excite.com](http://magellan.excite.com) [http://search.msn.com](http://search.msn.com) [http://www.netguide.com](http://www.netguide.com) [http://www.northernlight.com](http://www.northernlight.com) [http://www.nerdworld.com](http://www.nerdworld.com) [http://www.refer-it.com/main.cfm](http://www.refer-it.com/main.cfm) [http://www.suite101.com](http://www.suite101.com) [http://search.cnet.com](http://search.cnet.com) [http://home.snap.com](http://home.snap.com) [http://search.bess.net](http://search.bess.net) [http://webcrawler.com](http://webcrawler.com) [http://www.whatuseek.com](http://www.whatuseek.com) [http://www.yep.com](http://www.yep.com) [http://www.yahoo.com](http://www.yahoo.com) And for Alaskans: [http://www.alcanseek.com](http://www.alcanseek.com) [http://www.alaskasearch.com](http://www.alaskasearch.com) My favorite is Alta Vista. My favorite mass earch engine is Metacrawler. My suggestion is stick to one and learn its idiosyncracies. There are newsgroups and forums just on how a webmaster can get their website onto a search engine and towards the top of the list. Search engines don’t always search the entire web but only webpages registered to them. Sometimes you’ll luck out and find a webpage that matches your criteria and is/isn’t registered to them. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 1999, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-web-search-engine-for-me/4397/14 "1999-11-02T00:55:00Z")
Given the parameters you’ve described, what you want is the Advanced version of Alta Vista. [http://www.altavista.digital.com/cgi-bin/query?pg=aq&what=web](http://www.altavista.digital.com/cgi-bin/query?pg=aq&what=web) This page supports the best Boolean searches. If you want the words to a speech by an orator named James Jones in which he spoke about the hidden meanings of the phrase in a song that went something like “I’ve been riding across the desert on a horse with no name” but you aren’t sure of the exact words, and you know he was addressing the Rotary Club of Portland Maine, you can set it up without ripping your hair out and without getting a hit for every damn web page that has any mention of either Portland or horse or desert or Rotary Club somewhere on it: \*“James Jones” and ((“been through the desert” or “been across the desert” or “gone across the desert”) and “horse with no name”) and “Rotary Club” and “Portland” and not “Oregon” \* * * * Designated Optional Signature at Bottom of Post ---
**Author:** ![Timothy\_Campbell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/958977/32.png) [@Timothy\_Campbell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Timothy_Campbell)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 1999, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-web-search-engine-for-me/4397/15 "1999-11-02T00:58:00Z")
**E1Skeptic** : Thanks for recommending [www.metacrawler.com](http://www.metacrawler.com) – it also does what I want, the _way_ I want it. To everybody else whom I haven’t thanked: thanks for the many suggestions, even if I can’t apply them all to my case (and personal preferences). I pointedly _reject_ any search engine that requires a URL to be manually registered. I run three web sites and I can’t tell you how many hours (nay, _days_) I’ve spent registering my URL’s with these guys – and you have to go back and check them, because it doesn’t always “take” the first time. An engine like that doesn’t elicit in me any confidence. I always wonder how many zillion web pages it _doesn’t_ know about that might have precisely what I’m looking for. All I can say is that I’ve done several searches today using [www.alltheweb.com,](http://www.alltheweb.com,) and it has been _bang on_ every time. I’ve never before been happy with a search engine. Now I am. Whee! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Timothy\_Campbell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/958977/32.png) [@Timothy\_Campbell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Timothy_Campbell)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 1999, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-web-search-engine-for-me/4397/16 "1999-11-02T01:01:00Z")
Uh, for some reason, my link to [www.alltheweb.com](http://www.alltheweb.com) didn’t work in my last post. I have no idea why. It’s a good URL. If it doesn’t work in _this_ post, I’m baffled. ---
**Author:** ![Timothy\_Campbell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/958977/32.png) [@Timothy\_Campbell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Timothy_Campbell)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 1999, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-web-search-engine-for-me/4397/17 "1999-11-02T01:02:00Z")
That’s better. I see now that in the earlier post, this SD message board thought that a comma was part of the URL. ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 1999, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-web-search-engine-for-me/4397/18 "1999-11-02T15:33:00Z")
[www.ask.com](http://www.ask.com) I try this one first as it weighs each word you input into it so that you don’t get 24M sites with one or part of w a word in it.