DON'T MISS:
Here is my
guide to search engines. There are over 30 engines listed here, including keyword
engines, directories and meta engines. All engines are reviewed, with links.
I use the following abbreviations:
KEY=Searches using keywords. Will give you very broad search results
DIRECT=Searches directories or subject categories; sites usually assigned to categories by people; sometimes sites are reviewed. Will give you narrower results; not as comprehensive.
ADT: WARNING: This engine brings up adult content sites, not suitable for use by children
DOLLS=X. Indicates how many web pages a broad search for "Dolls" turned up
META=Searches several search entines at one time, with one search request.
| SEARCH ENGINE | DESCRIPTION/COMMENTS |
 Not ONLY is About.com an excellent
search engine (see below) BUT they have an expert, Chris Sherman, who can tell you
all about HOW to web search, and how to get your web site site placed highly in the search
engines! |
|
| A relative newcomer, and my favorite search! The most accurate (and fast!) searches on the web. AND...you can find cached pages...pages which WERE on the web, but are no longer. Truly the best search out there today. | |
| Excite | Highly recommended! Broad but excellent. Has wonderful, customizable "My Excite" feature; can be portal to the web if you use an ISP--its starting page will shows you news, weather, stock quotes, etc--whatever you tell it to! Has great "News Tracker" feature which you may use as a clipping service for all articles on dolls! KEY; ADT; DOLLS=65,048 |
| AOL Netfind | Uses Excite! searches. However, they have a separate kids only area which will screen out the adult sites. KEY; ADT; DOLLS=52,943 |
| About.com | 700 Guides bring you 700 subject areas! More like individual websites with chats, message boards and lots of links PLUS a search engine! All sites have 100s of links. My Doll Collecting site, is part of this "engine;" there is also a Barbie site, plus historical, costuming, quilting and sewing, and toy sites.. DIRECT |
| Yahoo | Sorts sites by subject area; dolls are found in 14 different categories. Problem is, there doesn't seem to be a logical division of sites into categories sometimes, especially in "dolls" DIRECT; DOLLS=769 |
| Infoseek--now GO Network | Has keyword search and ALSO separate "topics" directory, which contains recommended sites (good, but not comprehensive and poorly organized--DOLLS are oraganized under Family/Toys and Games instead of Collecting!). Site owned by Disney. KEY and DIRECT; DOLLS=814,974. |
| Snap | Another subject index; a MORE disorganized index than Yahoo! if you do a general search, since many different categories have doll-related sites listed. Nice to browse the doll-related directories, though. DIRECT; DOLLS=22 pages of site listings |
| Alta Vista | Indexed site--good for a well-defined search, since contains many pages, but since it doesn't group results from individual websites, broad searches are very unsuccessful; DOLLS=988,930 |
| HotBot | Broad searches are unorganized; there is a new Directory supplied by the people-organized "Open Directory;" very few doll sites listed so far. KEY; ADT; DIRECT DOLLS=112,190 |
| Webcrawler | A good engine for broad searches. Very quick; run by excite. DIRECT; ADT; DOLLS =5,660 |
| Magellan | Taken over by Excite (hasn’t everyone been?) and is now becoming superfluous. Has "green light" option for kids; very useless; only turns up 10 sites; most weren’t even doll sites!. DIRECT; ADT; DOLLS=3,095 |
| Lycos | Used to be one of the better people-reviewed sites; now uses same "Open Directory" as HotBot. EXCELLENT advanced search option. DIRECT; ADT; DOLLS=? |
| Looksmart | Sorts by subject; has well-organized dolls page at hobbies & interests/collecting/toys/dolls. DIRECT and KEY; DOLLS=189 (reviewed) THEN 595,585 |
| Northern Light
|
Canadian engine. Interesting engine; basically a keyword directory, but will turn up "custom search folders" with subcategories; "dolls' turns up a separate section for dollhouses; another for antiques. For RESEARCH, has large database of articles you can purchase (For instance, an article on Ideal dolls by Izen for $1). Very adult content also comes up. KEY; ADT; DOLLS=212,701. |
| Dogpile | Best META engine; searches Yahoo!, Lycos' A2Z, Excite Guide, Goto.com, PlanetSearch, Thunderstone, What U Seek, Magellan, Lycos, WebCrawler, InfoSeek, Excite & AltaVista., as well as Usenet databases. Business news, newswires etc; in ONE search,. META searches are GREAT with narrow, directed searches; NOT very useful with a broad search such as "Dolls," turns up too much info. META: DOLLS=results from 13 search engines. |
| MetaCrawler | META; brings up top results from several search engines. ADT; DOLLS=19 top results from 5 engines. |
| Mamma | META; also brings up top results from several search engines--more comprehensive than MetaCrawler. DOLLS=74 top results from 5 engines. |
| All4One Search Machine | META; also brings up top results from several search engines--more comprehensive than MetaCrawler. DOLLS=74 top results from 5 engines. |
| Oneseek | META; 3 searches on one page; also "web chains" for surfing. META=results from 3 search engines |
| Electric Library | Great search engine for newspaper articles, magazine articles, radio and tv transcripts, books, etc. Excellent research tool. DOLLS=30 articles (subject heavily to change depending on stories in the news at any time). |
| Anzwers | Australian and New Zealand sites featured. KEY; ADT; DOLLS=12,481 |
| 2ask | "Best of the Planet Awards." Included here to show that not ALL search engines will help you out when researching dolls; DIRECT; DOLLS=4 (that's right; only 4 sites brought up in a broad search on dolls, and they are NOT the best of the planet!!! |
| Web411 | Search by NAMES of people; useful if you cannot find a card for a doll business, or you remember a name of a fellow collector from a convention or show, and you need to contact them. |
| Rex | Go Fetch, Rex! Rex is a competent, small engine. DOLLS=700. |
| WhatUSeek | Useful; has a search choice which enables you to find all sites LINKED to a site!! You can also do that on Infoseek and Hotbot. KEY; ADT. |
| Starting Point | Has customizable front page. KEY; DOLLS=595,558 |
| Scrub The Web | Reviewed sites; only contains current sites as listings are purged every 90 days. DIRECT. ADT. |
| Matilda | Australian search engine. Loud, brash site, but useful. Search Australian doll sites, or other international sites by country. Use DOGPILE from here (a meta search) search NEW websites. WARNING: dolls search does bring up adult sites. |
| ZenSearch | Reviewed sites; includes very few doll sites at this time. DIRECT |
| Linkstar | Business directory; full contact information for businesses; great to find doll businesses. Well organized. |
| OneKey | Kid-safe site; NO adult content guaranteed. DIRECT; DOLLS=74. |
| Internet Resources | NOT a search engine, but a resource on how to USE search engines and do research on the Internet. Excellent. |
| SeekHelp.com | HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. It's like having your own course on using search engines at home!! Tutorials on HOW to phrase searches on all the major search engines. How to find people, how to search newsgroups, etc. |
Don't miss the rest of www.dollymaker.com!!
