Research Sources

Sixty Sites in Sixty Minutes
Jenny Levine aka The Shifted Librarian, and Susan Skyzinski shared these for the Texas Library Association - good starting points for research and exploring.

Smarter Surfing - Better Use of Your Web Time
Comprehensive list of links and resources from Sreenath Sreenivasan, Professor of Journalism at Columbia University.

He says
Be wary when you surf. Watch for giant waves of misinformation and the jagged rocks of hidden agendas. But there's plenty of useful stuff; you just need to know where to look

Search Engine Optimisation Tips & Tools

Ask Kalena
Informative Q & A blog on search engines, optimisation and Google etc updated daily

Organic SEO Wiki
A collaborative effort to bring together SEO resources & tips

Page Strength Tool
Test your page strength out of 10 for free. According to the makers -
- It tells you The Relative Importance/Visibility of a Webpage
- The Potential Strength/Ability of a Page to Rank in the Search Engines
- Data on Popularity, Links & Mentions of the Page Across the Web

Search Engine Watch
Search engine placement, optimisation, marketing and news

Search Engine Placement Tips from Search Engine Watch

Cluster Search Engines - Favourite Links

I will update this list with new cluster search engine links as found

Once upon a time
Long long ago in the days when there were just a few standard well known search engines, luddites would ask tech types "Which is the best search engine? If you'd used Alta Vista, Lycos or HotBot, and a handful of others whose names escape me, you could consider yourself "up" on the latest in search engines.

Different place, Different Time
Today it depends on what you want to use the search engine for. Different search engines operate in different ways. What you want to use it helps to determine which type to use.

I've discovered some Cluster Search Engines -

Clusty
Kartoo
Mooter
Vivisimo

Clusty - A Cluster Search Engine

Some search engines such as Clusty, group results in clusters, so you can further refine the search.

Clusty Search by Topic
My search term:
search engine
Search Results: over 487 million general results

On the left of the Clusty screen, some key results are sorted into clickable categories.

In this case -

⇨Optimization (53)
⇨Google (16)
⇨Search Engine Marketing (19)
⇨Microsoft (13)
⇨Blog (9)
⇨Images (9)
⇨Category (9)
⇨Watch (5)
⇨Major (7)
⇨Program (4)

You can then click on the general search results or on one of the categories.

Clusty Search by Sources
You can also search by sources. The left category results for my "search engine" search were -

⇨Ask (86)
⇨Gigablast (18)
⇨MSN (84)
⇨NY Times (6)
⇨Open Directory (50)
⇨Sponsored Listings (4)
⇨Wikipedia (10)
⇨Wisenut (30)

The general search results also differ from the original topic search.

Clusty Search by URL Extension

All Results (263)
⇨com (219)
⇨org (24)
⇨co.uk (11)
⇨net (6)
⇨us (2)
⇨ Other

Granny Bytes Verdict

Useful for refining searches or for brainstorming related ideas in the planning stage of a project or research on any topic.

The Right Search Engine for the Job

Google
While the most popular, for some searches the Big G might not be the first or the best choice. It depends on the type of info you need.

Here are a few others to try -

General Searches
Yahoo
The world's oldest search engine

Ask
Used to be known as Ask Jeeves

All the Web
Owned by Yahoo

Teoma
Owned by Ask. Has a refine search function

Hot Bot
Gives results from Google, Yahoo and Teoma