Photo by Jakob Bowman
I’ve been hearing a lot these days from friends who are finding it more difficult to find pertinent information from their Google searches? There are many reasons for this, one is the way the search is written. I’m a big advocate of Search Strings, and have a comprehensive list in my full Internet Research workshop. There is a lot more information in the Deep Web if you know how to find it.
These databases and search engines offer a “deep dive” into the Internet and will help you get closer to the specific types of information you are looking. Be aware these don’t respond to typical Google type searches. They will ask you for more information and you will need to spend more time creating your search. However, the result will be more specific than a typical Web search.
1. SurfWax. This search engine works very well for reaching deep into the web for information.
2. Academic Index. Created by the former chair of Texas Association of School Librarians, this meta-search engine only pulls from databases and resources that are approved by librarians and educators.
3. Dogpile. Dogpile searches rely on several top search engines for the results then remove duplicates and strives to present only relevant results.
4. Yippy. Save yourself the work by using this search engine that looks among major search engines, social networks, flickr for photos, Wikipedia, and many more sites.
5. Clusty. Clusty searches through top search engines, and then clusters the results so that information that may have been hidden deep in the search results is now readily available.
6. Mamma. Click on the Power Search option to customize your search experience with this meta-search engine.
7. World Curry Guide. This meta-search tool with a strong European influence has been around since 1997 and is still growing strong.
8. Fazzle.com. Give this meta-search engine a try. It accesses a large number of databases and claims to have more access to information than Google.
9. Meltwater. Search blogs as well as the general Internet, the news, and more to receive results by posting date.
10. iZito. Get results from a variety of major search engines that come to you clustered in groups. You can also receive only US website results or receive results with a more international perspective.
11. pipl. Specifically designed for searching the deep web for people, this search engine claims to be the most powerful for finding someone.
12. Mensur . Metrics from Scholarly Usage of Resources. The project's major objective is enriching the toolkit used for the assessment of the impact of scholarly communication.
I hope these additional tools will help you with your search process.