Internet Search Tools

Keyword Search Engines

Google, Live Search, Ask.com, Exalead, Gigablast, and Yahoo! are all highly rated. Search Engine Showdown compares and reviews many of these popular search tools.

If your search is for articles from academic (peer-reviewed) journals,  these sources are the main targets of Google Scholar and Windows Live Academic. Academic journals are also searchable in several of our Special Subscription Databases (Electric Library, General Reference Center, etc.).

Metacrawler, Ixquick, Search.com and DogPile allow you to use multiple search engines simultaneously.

Subject Category Directories

Yahoo! Directory, The Open Directory, Internet Public Library, and LookSmart are all great places to browse your way to information using various subject headings. Most have keyword searching as well.

You can also try The Librarians' Index to the Internet,  The WWW Virtual Library, or Illinois Clicks!, which contains sites given the thumbs-up by Illinois librarians.  Another good guide to useful websites is FirstFind, which is specially designed for low-literacy adults. Last but not least, take a look at our own Quick-Pick "Short List" for links to some often-requested information.