| Fields | |
| If you are searching for... | Choose one of these ... |
| Date last modified | AltaVista | Hotbot | iAtlas | Northern Light| |
| Domain/Site/URL | AltaVista | Amnesi | Clickey | FAST | HotBot | GO.com | iAtlas | Ixquick | Lycos | Northern Light | SearchEdu.com | |
| Geographic location | Fossick | HotBot| iAtlas | MetaCrawler | Northern Light |
| Images | AltaVista | AMICO | Corbis | Ditto | Excite | FtpFind | HotBot | iAtlas | Ixquick | Lycos | Savvy Search | Scour.Net | Yahoo! News Image Gallery |
| Language | AltaVista | Excite | FAST | Google | HotBot | Lycos | NorthernLight |
| Multimedia & video | AltaVista | Excite | HotBot | iAtlas | Lycos RichMedia Search | StreamSearch |
| Programming Language | HotBot | iAtlas |
| Proper name | AltaVista | GO.com | Excite | HotBot | Yahoo! Search Options |
| Title | AltaVista | FAST | Fossick | GO.com | HotBot | Ixquick | Lycos | Mamma | Northern Light | |
| Search logic | |
| If you need to search by... | Choose... |
| Boolean operators | AltaVista | C4 | Dogpile | Excite | HotBot | Ixquick | Lycos | Northern Light | ProFusion | WebCrawler |
| Full Boolean logic with parentheses e.g., behavior and (cats or felines) |
AltaVista | C4 | Excite | HotBot | Ixquick | Lycos | Northern Light | Snap |
| Implied Boolean +/- | Most search engines offer this option |
| Boolean logic by template terminology | Excite | Fossick | GO.com| HotBot | Lycos Pro | MetaBug | SavvySearch | Snap |
| Proximity searching | AltaVista | Google | Ixquick |
| Search options | |
| If you want... | Choose... |
| Alternative search terms | Direct Hit | Excite | Oingo | SimpliFind | SurfWax |
| A user fill-in template | Excite | GO.com | HotBot | Lycos | MetaBug | |
| Case sensitivity | AltaVista | GO.com | Ixquick |
| Search within existing results | Excite | GO.com | Google | HotBot | Lycos | SurfWax |
| Search for documents similar to existing results | GO.com | Google |
| Search on related search terms | Direct Hit | HotBot | Lycos |
| Truncation | AltaVista | Ixquick | Lycos | Northern Light |
| Automatic truncation | Excite | GO.com | HotBot | Lycos | Northern Light |
| Your search stated in the form of a question | AltaVista | Ask Jeeves | Fossick | Ixquick |
| Translation of pages retrieved as search results |
AltaVista Text & page translators: Babel Fish | GO Translator |
| An exact phrase within quotations | Many search engines offer this option but may require the use of quotation marks |
| Most phrases within quotations (i.e., phrases with stop words have special requirements) | Google | Lycos | Metacrawler |
| An exact phrase from a template choice | Excite | FAST| Fossick | GO.com | HotBot| MetaBug | Yahoo! Search Options |
| Search Results | |
| If you want... | Choose... |
| Natural language applied to your search | Ask Jeeves | Northern Light | Oingo | SimpliFind | SurfWax |
| Results grouped by concept and/or type of site | Inference Find | Northern Light |
| Results as a series of questions to help locate the relevant site(s) | Ask Jeeves |
| Results based on linking, i.e., number of links from highly rated Web pages | Excite | Google | Google Web Directory | Raging Search | TopClick |
| Results based on popularity by other searchers or ranked by engines/directories | Direct Hit | Ixquick Metasearch |
| Clustering of results into one hit per site with the option to see all | AltaVista | GO.com | GO.com | HotBot | Lycos Pro | Northern Light |
| Queries stored at the site and notification of new results | The Informant | Karnak | TracerLock |
| Database Quality, Size, and Type | |
| If you want to search... | Choose... |
| The invisible Web (not covered by search spiders) |
The BigHub.com | Direct Search | The InvisibleWeb | Lycos Directory: Searchable Databases | MetaIQ | Search.Com | Search Engines and News | Subject Directory of Search Engines |
| Multiple search engines simultaneously with duplicate records removed | Chubba | C4 | Fossick | Inference Find | Ixquick | Mamma | MetaCrawler | METAEUREKA | ProFusion | Savvy Search | SurfWax | more... |
| Usenet newsgroups | AltaVista | Chubba | Deja.com | GO.com | HotBot Usenet | Mamma | MetaCrawler | ProFusion UseNet | Yahoo! Search Options |
| Evaluated subject directory | Argus Clearinghouse | BUBL Link | Britannica | INFOMINE | Librarians' Index to the Internet | Scout Report Signpost | WWW Virtual Library |
| Web Page Contact |
Revised: 09/23/02 |