Finding information about specific topics on the Internet can be a daunting task. To help with this, a growing number of tools are being developed to allow you find whatever you need to find more easily.

These tools include:

• Search Engines allow you to conduct searches of Internet resources by typing in your own keywords or phrases. Some Search Engines are specific to certain types of resources, such as Usenet Newsgroups, or Gopher sites.
• Meta-search Engines, which will search several other Engines, and return comparative results.
• Multimedia Search Engines will help you locate sound, image or video files.
• General Subject Indexes attempt to organize the Internet into Subject categories.
• Guides to New Resources often take the form of WWW Newsletters, and provide listings of valuable new information.
• Finding people on the Internet - resources for finding addresses, phone numbers, and email address of people on the Internet.

There is considerable overlap between these types of tools. For instance, many Search Engines also include Indexes, and most Indexes also include searching tools. This list distinguishes between the two based on their primary focus. It attempts to provide pointers to the best tools currently available for finding information on the Internet, with brief annotations their most significant features.

SEARCH ENGINES

All-purpose Search Engines

These are good starting points when you are searching for information on a specific topic. Most of these tools conduct full-text keyword searches of World Wide Web pages, although some of them will search by concept. Thus, in most cases, your search results will include documents that contain your search terms, and will omit documents not containing those terms.

In addition, most of these Search Engines will list the results of your search according to some sort of weighting of their relevance. Although the methods used to rank relevance vary from Engine to Engine, in most cases the items listed first will tend to be the best. Note: each of these Search Engines maintains its own database of Web pages. This means that results from one Engine will not be the same as results from another Engine, although there may be considerable overlap. If you wish to find everything on a particular subject, it is recommended that you use all of the Engines.

An excellent overview of Search Engine capabilities and functions is available at Search Engine Watch, as is More Information on the Top 22 Search Engines listed below.

• Magellan allows searches of either an extensive database of Web sites, or of a smaller database of highly rated sites. Search results include very useful reviews and rankings from one to four stars. This is an excellent tool for retrieving smaller sets of excellent Web pages.
• BusinessWEB provides access to business-related Web content, news, resources and services across a variety of industries. Business Web is a service of b2bScene.com.

Meta-Search Engines

There are several WWW sites that attempt to combine access to a variety of different Search engines, allowing simultaneous searches of more than one database. Most will eliminate duplicate hits.

Multimedia Search Engines

GENERAL SUBJECT INDEXES

There have been numerous attempts to provide some subject access to the chaos that is the Internet, on the model of a Subject Catalog or a Classification Scheme in Library Science. Most of these tools maintain smaller databases than Search Engines. Consequently, they do not provide access to as many Web pages as the Search Engines. However, because most of them offer some degree of analysis by human indexers, they can be useful starting places for searches, and the results can be less daunting than they often are with Search Engines.

• Yahoo is the original Index to the Internet, and still an excellent starting point for many searches. Like so many other Web searching tools these days, Yahoo offers the option of creating personalized pages. You can now catalog all of your bookmarks from multiple computers with Yahoo as well as have a digital briefcase for your documents.
• Yahooligans is Yahoo's Web Guide for Kids, an Index of Internet Resources designed specifically for children. Like Yahoo itself, it provides extensive links to excellent resources, many with brief annotations.
• The Berkeley Public Library's Index. The Public Library in Berkeley, California, has created this excellent annotated Librarian's Index to the Internet. Like other Indexes, it is far from comprehensive, but still a great starting point. They also maintain an excellent Annotated List of Search Engines, as well as a Chart comparing the features and functions of a variety of Search Engines.
• CyberDewey provides Subject Access to Internet Resources by using the Dewey Decimal Classification Codes
• StudyWeb StudyWeb is a research-oriented Web Index, providing subject access to high quality Web resources appropriate for use in academic (kindergarten through postgraduate) work. It includes ranking of the resources that it indexes, indicating both the visual content of the pages and their approximate grade level.
• The Internet Library For Librarians. Although it is intended specifically for Librarians, the Internet Library for Librarians offers an excellent set of links to a wide range of online reference resources. It also includes information related to the profession.
• Hot Sheet. The Impreso Corporation's Hot Sheet offers to more than 400 of the most useful WWW resources via a single Web page, organized broadly according to categories like "Search," "News," "Reference," "Services." It is a useful tool for finding information without having to go through the hierarchical organization of other Indexes.
• About.com provides more than thousands of annotated Indexes to Web Resources, organized topically, and developed and maintained by expert "Guides."
• 212.Net offers a somewhat eccentric gathering of information, organized into categories such as "Fresh," Physical," "Social," "Intellectual," etc.

KEEPING CURRENT: GUIDES TO NEW RESOURCES

Well over 500 new Pages are added to the World Wide Web every day. These tools allow you to learn about the best of these new Resources.

• What's New Too What's New Too is the place to look if you want a definitive list of all of the new Web sites on any given day. It is, however, huge; for instance, as of 10:00 AM on Monday, February 3, 1997, there were 28 pages of links to New Resources available
• The Scout Report The Scout Report, provided by InterNIC, is the best weekly guide to resources on the Internet,with an emphasis on Educational Resources. The Scout Report has reports dedicated to Science and Engineering, Business and Economics, and the Social Sciences as some examples
• The Netsurfer Digest The Netsurfer Digest is another excellent weekly guide, with a stronger emphasis on Entertainment Resources and fun stuff.

FINDING PEOPLE ON THE INTERNET

There are a number of tools for finding email address and phone numbers for individuals via the Internet. Here are a couple of them:

• Yahoo People Search
• The Internet Address Finder is another easy-to-use tool for finding individual email addresses.

Note: because email addresses can change frequently, the listings you retrieve from these tools may be out of date. It is still true that the very best way to find someone's email address is to ask them for it.