Research Tip - Don't Get Caught Without a Search Engine

Last week, as a result of viruses and denial of service attacks directed at it, Google was down for several hours. Several newspapers ran articles about people who couldn't do research because Google was down. See Horrors! Google AWOL!.

Don't let this happen to you! As researchers, you should not fall into the trap of relying on only one search engine. Different engines perform different searches better. No one search engine database covers all the information available on the web - in fact, none of them covers even half the web. And you never know when your favorite search engine might be down for a couple of days, or get sold and disappear forever.

A couple of good search engines to add to your research tool box are Teoma and Vivísimo. Click to read more ->

Teoma returns search results based upon their authority. Besides relevant web page Results, Teoma displays suggestions to narrow or Refine your search and the Resources of link collections from experts and enthusiasts.

Vivísimo is a clustering engine, which clusters or sorts your search results into categories. Besides a general search, Vivísimo has several special searches of news topics and individual news sites; other search engines and directories; eBay and government sites - including FirstGov, PubMed and USDA.

To find a specialized search engines, see our page on Legal Search Engines, Directories, and Other Research Tools, or try one of these directories of search engines: GeniusFind and Beaucoup.

If you have a favorite legal research tool we haven't mentioned, please email us at llibweb@siu.edu.