Searching The Net

Helpful Strategies

If you're having trouble finding an item: Try searching for the plural form of the word. Try at least two search engines. Try putting phrases in quotes. Try using a hyphen to exclude a term (i.e. fruit baskets-wicker). Try using a + if the word must be included (i.e. +midwest weather). Be aware that not all search engines will make use of the quotes, hyphen, and plus signs.

If you're looking for the right word, One Look scans 743 online dictionaries all at the same time.

Search Internet for a dictionary with the word (Powered by OneLook® Dictionaries)

HINTS: Adding wild cards expands the search. (* = any number of characters and ? = exactly one character). For example, "tomo*ow", "tomo??ow" or "tomor*" will find "tomorrow".

The FREE DICTIONARY is a combo dictionary, search engine, almanac, research tool and more.

	Online Reference Dictionary, Encyclopedia & more
Word:
Look in:	Dictionary & thesaurus Computing Dictionary Medical Dictionary Legal Dictionary Financial Dictionary Acronyms Wikipedia Encyclopedia Columbia Encyclopedia
by:

SearchEdu has over 15 million university and education pages indexed and ranked in order of popularity.

20,000 links to every reference tool imaginable.	Alex Catalog of Electronic Texts is a collection of digital documents for literature and philosophy.
ALL REFER is a combination search engine, research tool, and full encyclopedia.	SCIRUS is a search engine for scientific topics.

The Internet Open Directory Project is fairly new and very fast. Limited graphics and "just the facts" make this a new favorite.

Search Open Directory
Arts Business Computers Games Health Home News	Recreation Reference Regional Science Shopping Society Sports

The Columbia Encyclopedia is part of Bartleby.com, the most comprehensive set of reference tools on the Web.

Reference

Yahoo! was on of the first search engines and is still one of the best.

Google has become the Internet's number one search engine.

Web Crawler brings results from several search engines together.

THE VISUAL DICTIONARY uses images in six thematic categories to explain each object in detail. Great for ESL students.

TEACH-NOLOGY offers a lesson plans search for over 100,000 plans. Awesome teacher tool!

ASK lets you expand and narrow your search criteria of web pages.

IXQUICK bills itself as the world's largest meta-search engine.

InfoPlease is acts like an almanac for finding facts and information.

Elementary students may want to give these a try. They act just like "adult" search engines, except they're set up for kids (topics, categories, graphics, filters). You might also want to check out Child-Safe Searching on the Web.

More Search Engines

DOGPILE -- Searches several engines at once and brings back a "pile" of information.
ASK A LIBRARIAN -- Live help from the Library of Congress.
NY TIMES CYBERTIMES NAVIGATOR -- Guide to useful research resources.
SEARCH ENGINE COLOSSUS -- Takes you to search engines in 149 countries.
START SQUAD -- A listing of age-appropriate websites for elementary students.
INTERNET PICTURE DICTIONARY -- Search for pictures (in 5 languages).
GOOGLE MAPS -- Satellite views of every location on earth.