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Last checked 3/10/2024
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DuckDuckGo
- Research Buzz has a weekly newsletter about what's happening in the search engine world - additions, changes, deaths, merges, deaths, etc. The site contains a wealth of information about finding information.
- Search Engine Watch is a pretty good site for info on search engines.
- Windweaver Search Guide is a pretty good source for info on how to use the different search engines. It also has info which helps to decide which search engine is the best to use in a given situation.
There are hundreds of applications available on the Web that will help you find what you are looking for. Some of these search programs work a little bit differently from each other and plow through slightly different pastures. Sometimes, more than one search engine is needed to insure an exhaustive and thorough search. The following links are both useful and easy to use. Note, however, when you visit most of these sites, information is collected about you without your permission.
- Alternative Search Engines that find stuff that Google doesn't. This 2024 article highlights a dozen or so search sites that you may find more useful that Google.
- Alternative Search Engines This 2024 article highlights 15 search sites that have been rated (by PCMag) better than Google depending on your specific search needs.
- OneSearch is Verizon's attempt at providing a useful search function without stealing your personal data or recording your activity and selling it to others. It is too soon to see how useful it will be. As a test, when searching for "Pauls Big List", OneSearch listed the site on the first page of results.
- DuckDuckGo
 finds stuff that you won't see on Google and does not collect as much personal information as other search services. As a test, when searching for "Pauls Big List", DuckDuckGo listed the site on the first page of results.
- Brave Search is a privacy project sponsored by the same folks that produce the recommended Brave browser. The results are based on an index that is different from the major search engines and may produce different results than those found with Google. As a test, Brave Search did not list Paul's Big List on it's first page of results.
- Wolfram Alpha is a "computaton engine" that lets you calculate all kinds of things including inflation rates, statistical data (enter a string of number and calculate the mean), definition of words, etc.
- Info.com uses multiple search engines and aggregates the results. You can search for audio, images, white pages, yellow pages, etc. Searching for things to buy will usually bring up reviews first before the vendor sites, which is good. As a test, Info.com did not list Paul's Big List on it's five pages of results.
- Searchapedia has a huge list of over 250 search engines. Each is categorized and described briefly.
- Webcrawler
 provides good results. As a test, Webcrawler listed Paul's Big List on it's first page of results.
- Qwant advertises that they do not collect any data on the searches that are performed through their service. Results are presented in a clear manner without ads. As a test, when searching for "Pauls Big List", Qwant listed the site on the first page of results.
- StartPage actually uses the Google search engine but does not collect as much personal information as other search services. It advertizes itself as the world's most private search engine. As a test, StartPage did not list Paul's Big List on it's first page of results.
- Best Private Search Engines (2024) MakeUseOf article that reviews seven search sites that advertise themselves as being private and do not collect your search data.
- Yahoo Search has improved. As a test, when searching for "Pauls Big List", Yahoo Search listed the site on the first page of results.
- WikiSeek searches wikipedia sites and some of the sites that are mentioned in the wikipedia articles.
- 10 Deep Web Search Tools - as reviewed by MakeUseOf.
- 11 Search Tricks - also compiled by MakeUseOf.
- Best Google Tricks PDF - compiled by MakeUseOf.
- GoogleTutor has some great information about using Google.
- Google Operands has some great information about using Google operands like '-'.
- Advanced Google Operators has some great, advanced information about using Google search operators.
- Google Toolbar Download it and add it to Internet Explorer.
- Pro Guide to Google Searches - Part I Has excellent tips on using Google search syntax.
- Pro Guide to Google Searches - Part II Has more, advanced and excellent tips on using Google search syntax.
- Excite The content on this site keeps changing but it does include a search engine.
- Draze combines Yahoo, Google, and MSN. Advertised as a family friendly site. However, it requires that you allow Google to have access to your cookies.
- USA.gov is a portal site to a very large variety of federal government agencies, services, and data. Since it focuses on the gov domain, it may be more inclusive than less specific search engines like Google.
- Eliphind is a search engine for newspaper articles. It's database includes large amounts of time and geography.
- Educator's Directory searches sites for material relevant to educators.
- Search Engine Guide has over 1,000 search engines arranged in various categories.
- Search IQ has a list of focused search engines, news, tips and tutorials on using search engines.
- Best Journal Search Engines PaperPile advertizes itself as a reference management site.
- Academic Search Engines reviews 28 academic search engines. The site is sponsored by Sci Journal.
- Find Sounds finds sound files on the Web.
- Google News Group Search lets you search for any communication to any news group (listserv) for the last 20 years.
- iLOR uses Google, Altavista, etc. Highly customizable.
- Google Scholar is a research tool that allows you to search and examine full scholarly articles on just about any subject.
- Exalead - interesting search engine shows thumbnails of the Web sites that result from the search as well as alternative search terms that deserve additional searches.
- Google's Code Search has been discontinued but archives are available. It searches the Web for programming code.
- Google's Book Search searches the Web for books containing the word or phrase that you enter.
- TinEye You upload a picture and the site will search the Web for other pictures that look similar to it.
- Top-Rated.Online This is a map search engine that is advertised as being AI assisted. It reportedly can tell you what the highest rated places are in a given area for a given category. When you enter a city, just enter the city name and let it display the available choices. If you add the state abbreviation, the search will fail. After you have get the location issues managed, you can select a number of filters to limit the scope of the search.
Search Engines for Kids
- Awesome Library for Kids
- Bagoodex is better for general queries as its source databases are not very current. The interface is pretty clear. You can ask followup questions to clarify or refocus the results. It is free and does not require a subscription.
- Perplexity uses AI databases (including GPT) to answer your questions. The page presentation is clean and is easy to use and the results include some links to the sources for the answer. Followup questions are supported, to refocus or clarify results. The privacy statement for the site does not have a lot of yadda-yadda in it but there are enough caveats to make it unclear how private this engine is. You can limit the focus of the inquirie to academic databases, Reddit, or YouTube. There is a paid subscription and a free service. The latter limits your inquiries to a couple per session. There are enough other features to make this an interesting page.
- ChatGPT This is an article that shows how to use the free version of the AI search engine. You still need an account so there is probably no end to the tracking that is going on in the background.
- ChatGPT ChatGPT can be used without an account and is free. Additional features are available if one pays the subscription fees but the free version is useful if you can limit your queries.
- AI Tools is a massive index of available AI tools. Since this is mostly a marketing tool for marketing tools, you can search for tools by popularity or market share. They also rank by "best" but that is just another word for popularity when it comes to marketing.
- Top 20 AI Tools according to ZDNet (2025). Ranked by popularity and definitely not utility.
- Best AI Search Engines according to PCMag (2025). This is a small list of AI search sites that are free (at least at the intro level). The site reviews the engines and recommends their use for specific needs.
- Free No Signup AI Tools is a review of 20 free AI tools for specific purposes such as translating text to speech, PDF summarizer, or even an AI prompt generator.
- Best AI Tools For Web Research (2025) according to the MakeUseOf folks - handful of sites are reviewed.
- How To Use ChatGPT - a good guide for beginners.
- 27 Ways To Make Generational AI Work For You has some good tips with many links to associated material.
- Best Apps To Run Local LLMs (2025) is a review of apps that you get as a frontend to locally stored LLMs (Large Language Models) which you can acquire elsewhere on the Web. This avoids (presumably) all of the security problems with using AI search engines.
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