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Click here to see how subject directories and search engines differ

About		http://www.about.com Includes annotated guides to Internet resources on a variety of topics.
AltaVista		http://www.altavista.com A keyword search engine. Also includes a subject directory and other features.
The Big Hub		http://www.thebighub.com Formerly The Internet Sleuth. Searches multiple engines and provides results in one summary. Also provides access to over 1500 speciality search engines that search speciality databases invisible to most search engines.
DejaNews		http://www.dejanews.com A search engine for Internet discussion groups.
Direct Hit		http://www.directhit.com Second generation search engine. Ranks results according to sites other searchers have chosen from their results to similar queries.
Excite		http://www.excite.com Offers a keyword search engine, subject searches, news, and personalization options.
Go.com		http://www.go.com Includes both a keyword search engine and subject “channels” for browsing.
Google !		http://www.google.com Second generation search engine. Ranks results by the number of links from pages ranked high by the service.
HotBot		http://www.hotbot.com Uses drop-down menus and buttons to allow users to customize Web searches.
The Invisible Web		http://www.invisibleweb.com Links to over 10,000 Web-accessible databases invisible to search engines.
Librarians’ Index to the Internet		http://lii.org An annotated subject directory of evaluated, reference-oriented sites.
Lycos		http://www.lycos.com Another search service that offers both keyword searches and subject “guides”.
MetaCrawler		http://www.metacrawler.com Queries a number of search engines at once.
Northern Light		http://www.northernlight.com Second generation search engine. Ranks results into Custom Search Folder representing concepts and/or types of sites.
OPLIN Ohio Public Library Information Network		http://new.oplin.org A subject directory of particular interest to citizens of Ohio. Includes access to databases such as Electric Library (indexes periodicals, television and radio transcripts and includes full text articles), Encyclopedia Britannica, and NetWellness (health).
Webcrawler		http://www.webcrawler.com A search service, part of the Excite group, that offers natural language searching as well as keyword searching and a subject directory compiled by experts.
Yahoo		http://www.yahoo.com A subject index. Also offers news, e-mail, classified ads, regional guides, and other services. TOP

Key Points

Subject Directories arrange World Wide Web resources under subject headings. They are useful for browsing to see what sites are available related to a subject category. They vary in how selective they are and in whether they evaluate the resources included. Two examples of subject directories are the Librarian's Index to the Internet (http://lii.org), which is selective and focuses on reference-oriented sites, and Yahoo (http://www.yahoo.com), which is less selective and includes more commercial sites.

Search Engines allow you to search the Web by typing in keywords and phrases. They utilize automated robots to include millions of Web pages in their databases. Seach engines are therefore good at finding obscure and specific information. It is useful to be as targeted as possible in your search. Each search engine looks and operates somewhat differently, and each has a "help" or "tips" page that can help you construct a good search. Two major search engines are AltaVista (http://www.altavista.com/) and HotBot(http://www.hotbot.com/).

Another good method of finding sites on a particular topic is to start with the Web site of a major institution related to that topic. Often, that institution will maintain a directory of related Web resources, and your search can branch out from there.

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