How to do research on the internet

Metasearch engines

How do they work?

Rather than searching the Web, a search request is sent to several other search engines simultaneously. The results are then compiled into the metasearch engine.

Use a metasearch engine as a starting point when you are looking for a unique word or name, or an overview of what is available.

Examples:
Dogpile http://www.dogpile.com/
search.com http://www.search.com

Advantages of a metasearch engine:

• searches in many different search engines
• some are able to eliminate duplicate records, or pages on similar topics at the same address
• some will sort your pages into topics, or will eliminate duplicate pages

Disadvantages of a metasearch engine:

• can often return too much material
• because they are searching in many different search engines, all with different rules, complex searching techniques may not be possible
• some don't sort the records very well, or will only show some of the search results