Web Searcher Sites

Home page > This Web Searchers page

! Note !
More links may be added ... and 'dead' links removed
... AND slow and/or really-obnoxious links removed,
if/when I re-visit this page for editing.

Table of Contents:

(links to sections of this page, below)

  1. PRIVACY web searchers

  2. GOOGLE web searchers

  3. 'WEB DIRECTORIES' of searchers

  4. YAHOO web searchers

  5. 'DIRECT' web searchers
    (more --- in addition to Google, Yahoo, and 'privacy' searchers)

  6. 'META' web searchers
    (searchers that use combinations of direct searchers)

  7. SITES WITH LINKS to many web searchers
    (including sites that 'search for searchers' or 'find finders')

  8. Web REFERENCE resources
    (encyclopedia, dictionary, thesarus, etc.)

  9. Bottom of this page


The 'DIRECT' and 'META' groups are basically in numero-alphabetical order by site name.

Some of the web searchers in the 'DIRECT' group are actually meta-searchers, but they are so 'smooth' that they appear to be doing their own searching. I may move some of these to the 'META' group, someday.

End of Table of Contents.   Start of Groups of Web Search Links.

Note :
You can use the Find-text facility of your browser to find keywords in this page --- such as 'privacy' or 'proximity' or 'google' or 'directory' or 'dictionary' or 'archive' or 'meta'.

PRIVACY web searchers

< Go to Table of Contents, above. >

Around 2013 to 2018, some privacy-friendly web searchers
began to appear --- especially when the European Union
became concerned about the way Google had become so
invasive of people's privacy. Here are some of that
kind of web searcher.

GOOGLE web searchers

< Go to Table of Contents, above. >


Touch this image.

'WEB-DIRECTORIES' of web searchers

< Go to Table of Contents, above. >

It seems that 'web directories' are dying out. Google and Yahoo closed theirs down around 2014. Then around 2017, the directory from which the Google and Yahoo web-directories were spawned --- the DMOZ "Open Directory Project" closed down.

It seems that it is just not feasible for a team of people to keep up with all the sites that are going dead and the new sites that appear.

About a year after the dmoz.org site closed down, it appears that a new web-directory site --- curlie.org --- arose from the ashes of 'dmoz.org'. It remains to be seen how long that web-directory lasts.

Following are a few links related to 'web directory' sites.


YAHOO web searchers

< Go to Table of Contents, above. >

I repeatedly got a bad taste in my mouth concerning Yahoo. Whenever I have been looking for information on a topic and I landed on one of the Yahoo 'Answers' pages (at answers.yahoo.com), the RIDICULOUSLY poor quality of answers on those pages has left me wondering why Yahoo did not shut down that project.

Yahoo seemed to have NO moderators to get rid of answers that are stupid and useless (like "I have not tried this, but have you tried ...." followed by something that just reveals the ignorance of the answer-poster). Yahoo deserved to be going down in flames in the 2010-2015 time period.

Their only site worth saving was their 'Yahoo Finance' site. But I present a few other Yahoo links for what they are worth. A pittance? (NOTE: Most Yahoo pages are slow to fully display due to lots of unnecessary processing.)


"DIRECT" web searchers

(in numero-alphabetical order by site name)

< Go to Table of Contents, above. >
  • AOL Search - at
    search.aol.com/aol/webhome
    (In 2014, seems to be simply a reformatting of Google results.)

  • Ask - at
    www.ask.com
    (In 2014, too many ads --- more ads per page than results.)

  • Bing - at
    www.bing.com
    (Microsoft search engine ; new in 2009 ; too many unwanted videos on some pages ; slows or blocks access to what the user wants to see)

  • Creative Commons Search - at
    search.creativecommons.org
    (Finds content that can be used, non-commercially, without having to pay or ask permission. Searches sites like SoundCloud, YouTube, Wikimedia Commons, Open Clip Art Library.)

  • DuckDuckGo - at
    duckduckgo.com
    (a privacy-oriented web search)

  • EntireWeb - at
    www.entireweb.com
    (developed in Sweden ; see "About" for their history ; in 2014, allowed search for pages changed in last 24-hours, week, month, year)

  • exalead - at
    www.exalead.com/search/
    (Around 2006, you could use "NEAR" to specify pairs of "words at proximity" of 16 words. Unfortunately, in 2014, it seems that "NEXT" is the only Proximity Search allowed. Click on "Help" and "Advanced Search" for other search options. Has a "Refine Your Search" option.)

  • Gigablast - at
    gigablast.com
    (In 2014, seems to show lots of old pages and no recently written pages. Not very useful like this.)

  • Google - at
    www.google.com
    (#1 in popularity, but WAY too much tracking & monkey-business)

  • LookSmart - at
    www.looksmart.com
    (In 2014, seemed to give relevant results with a moderate amount of ads --- but seems to desire to be VERY ad-oriented. Bad omen for the future.)

  • Lycos portal - at
    www.lycos.com
    (In 2014, seemed to give relevant results with a moderate amount of ads.)

  • MSN (Microsoft) portal - at
    www.msn.com
    ("busy" main page)

  • Netscape portal - at
    netscape.aol.com
    (a "busy" page ; netscape.com apparently was acquired by AOL sometime between 2006 and 2014)

  • search.com
    (Besides 'web' search, allows for search of 'images', 'news', 'shopping', ...)

  • Yahoo portal - at
    www.yahoo.com
    ("busy" main page)

  • Yahoo Search - at
    search.yahoo.com
    (simple main page ; see "Help" > "Filter Yahoo Results" ; offers past day, week, month time-frame filter on left of results pages)

  • StartPage - at
    www.startpage.com
    (Like DuckDuckGo, this is a privacy-oriented web search.)

  • Yandex - at
    yandex.com
    (In 2014, seems to give relevant results in a pretty good ranking order --- AND WITH ALMOST NO ADS! Yandex is one of the largest internet companies in Europe, operating Russia's most popular search engine and its most visited website. NOTE: Russia imposes censorship of many topics, but this search engine could be used to see some alternative results compared to Google and other search engines.)


"META" web searchers

(in numero-alphabetical order by site name)

< Go to Table of Contents, above. >
  • Beaucoup - at
    www.beaucoup.com
    (uses Google for search ; also offers a web directory of categories ; showed copyright 2009 in 2022 - no longer updated?)

  • Dan's Search Thingys - at
    www.danielc.com/thingy.html
    (offers a lot of different kinds of searches, like Wikipedia of various countries, archives, legal sites, etc.)

  • Dog Pile - at
    www.dogpile.com
    (In 2014, uses Google and Yahoo results. Besides 'web' search, searches 'images', 'video', 'news', 'local', 'shopping', 'white pages' ; showed copyright 2022 in 2022 - still functioning?)

  • Excite - at
    www.excite.com
    ("busy" main page ; too many ads and unwanted videos ; but comes up quickly if ads are blocked ; showed copyright 2022 in 2022 - still functioning?)

  • Freeality - at
    www.freeality.com
    (offers many search engines --- in about 10 categories ; annoying popup ad in the way ; showed copyright 2020 in 2022 - no longer updated?)

  • Freeality Meta Searches - at
    www.freeality.com/meta.htm
    (offers about 10 separate "meta" web searchers ; annoying popup ad in the way ; showed copyright 2020 in 2022 - no longer updated?)

  • Infospace - at
    www.infospace.com
    (more ads than results --- like ask.com ; showed copyright 2022 in 2022 - still functioning?)

  • MetaBear - at
    www.metabear.ru
    (Russian meta-search engine ; offers 'Russian search' or 'World search' or 'FTP search' or 'MP3/Video search' ; showed copyright 2000 in 2022 - no longer updated?)

  • Search.com - at
    www.search.com
    (returns as many ads per page as results --- like ask.com and infospace.com ; showed copyright 2022 in 2022 - still functioning?)

  • Surf Fast - at
    www.surffast.com
    (interface for about 5 search engines - Google, YouTube, Bing, Yahoo, Ask ; many categories/links in a 'web directory' ; "busy" main page ; showed copyright 2020 in 2022 - no longer updated?)

  • Vinden.NL - at
    www.vinden.nl
    (in Dutch ; returns as many ads per page as results --- like ask.com & infospace.com --- but in Dutch ; showed copyright 2022 in 2022 - still functioning?)

  • Web Crawler - at
    www.webcrawler.com
    (uses Google and Yahoo ; allows web, images, videos, and news searches ; showed copyright 2022 in 2022 - still functioning?)

  • ZapMeta - at
    www.zapmeta.com
    (returns almost as many ads per page as results --- like ask.com and infospace.com ; showed copyright 2022 in 2022 - still functioning?)


SITES WITH LINKS to many web searchers
(including sites that "search for searchers" or "find finders")

< Go to Table of Contents, above. >
  • Search Engine Colossus - at
    www.searchenginecolossus.com
    (organized by countries ; a world-wide directory ; showed copyright 2020 in 2022 - no longer updated?)

  • Search Engine Guide - at
    www.searchengineguide.com/searchengines.html
    ("busy" page ; shows some kid-friendly search sites ; showed copyright 2021 in 2022 - no longer updated?)

  • Search Enginez - at
    www.searchenginez.com
    (categories of search engines, including translators ; showed copyright 2008 in 2022 - no longer updated?)

  • Ultimate Search Engine Links page - at
    www.searchenginelinks.co.uk
    (takes several clicks to get to a search engine ; showed copyright 2021 in 2022 - no longer updated?)


Web REFERENCE resources
(encyclopedia, dictionary, thesarus, etc.)

< Go to Table of Contents, above. >

I'm still looking for a better search engine.
Here is a suggestion for a major improvement.

Bottom of this
Web Searchers page.

There may be many more 'meta' search engines out there. They come and go.

And 'direct' search engines seem to get absorbed/acquired/merged into others.

You can put the names of a few of these meta-searchers in Google --- to find web pages that provide links to even more "meta-search" engines. And, thus, you may also find more "direct-search" engines.


To see some current, best-of-class search engines, you could see the bottom of a search page of the DMOZ (dmoz.org) Open Directory Project (ODP).

In July 2006, the search engine links being shown at the bottom of DMOZ results pages were:

    AltaVista - A9 - AOL - Clusty - Gigablast - Google - Lycos - MSN - Teoma - WiseNut - Yahoo

In December 2014, the bottom of DMOZ results pages showed:

    AOL - Ask - Bing - Blekko - DuckDuckGo - Gigablast - Google - ixquick - Yahoo - Yandex - Yippy

After 2017 March, this way of seeing currently functioning web searchers will no longer work. DMOZ 'retired' in 2017 March.

About a year after 'dmoz.org' went dead, 'curlie.org' arose from the DMOZ ashes.

In August 2018, the bottom of Curlie results pages showed:

    AOL - Ask - Bing - DuckDuckGo - Gigablast - Google - StartPage - Yahoo - Yandex

In June 2022, the bottom of Curlie results pages showed:

    AOL - Ask - Bing - DuckDuckGo - Ecosia - Gigablast - Google - StartPage - Yahoo - Yandex


To return to a previously visited web page location, click on the Back button of your web browser, a sufficient number of times.

OR, use the History-list option of your web browser.

OR, ...

< Go to TOP of page, above. >

< Go to Table of Contents, above. >

Or you can scroll up, toward the top of this page.

Page history:

Page was created 2006 Apr 22.

Page was changed 2014 Dec 07.

Page was changed 2017 Apr 13.
(Showed DMOZ as 'retired'. Added some 'WEB SEARCH' links. Removed some dead links.)

Page was changed 2018 Aug 12.
(Added css and javascript to try to handle text-size for smartphones, esp. in portrait orientation. Replaced old 'dmoz.org' 'web-directory' link with 'curlie.org'.)

Page was changed 2018 Nov 30.
(Added 'PRIVACY' web searchers section.)

Page was changed 2022 Jun 21.
(Changed the external links so that they open in a separate window or tab - so that this page stays available.
Removed some dead links. Added some links, esp. WEB SEARCH and Wikipedia links.)