HotBot -- An excellent search engine from HotWired, searches 80 million sites, allows you to choose how you're going to search, i.e., using all words, using an exact phrase, using Boolean logic, and other search methods. It can also display up to 100 results at a time. NOTE: This search engine has recently had problems with its response time.

AltaVista -- Searches over 100 million web pages. Offers both simple and advanced search capabilities. It's the best engine for searching non-American sites. Unique feature: translation service from one major world language to another.

Excite -- Internet World says it's one of the best databases at staying current, and finding information deep inside of files. Will search newsgroups. Includes "query by example" feature--if you like one site, you can search for more just like it.

Go.com -- a newer more comprehensive version of the site Internet World described as the best at producing relevant hits.

Yahoo Search -- Searches ONLY Yahoo's own files, through titles, headers, 25 word descriptions of sites. Yields fewer results, but makes it easy for you to find an entire category of sites you're looking for. New, improved search engine.

Dogpile.com -- Allows you to see the number of hits on your topic in multiple search engines searched simultaneously.

Google.com -- Uses multiple search engines, merges results, removes duplicates, and arranges them in logical groups. It's one of the best search engines available..

Northern Light -- Searches both web sites and a document collection of 1800 journal titles; will deliver the articles themselves for $1 apiece.

FindSpot.Com -- Links to webcrawlers, usenet searchers, and metacrawlers, including a Finder's Digest and a Finders Forum that will answer your questions.

Deja News -- Merged with Google.Com. An old, but valuable search engine, it is the most extensive searchable repository of information posted on news groups.

Ask.Com -- A fairly new search engine that is gaining popularity. It's refreshingly simply and is not over inundated with advertisements.

HOW TO SEARCH

Search Engine Watch--excellent comparative data on how the different search engines search, their frequency of updating, etc., and regular e-mail updates you can subscribe to.

Advanced Searching: Tricks of the Trade--an excellent guide to using search engines, comparing them in terms of how they search, what they search, what boolean strategies they allow, etc., and offering sample searches across a variety of engines.

Evaluation of Information Sources--Alastair Smith's annotated links to sites explaining evaluation criteria, including his own excellent guide.

Evaluating Quality on the Net--Hope Tillman's excellent presentation at the Internet Librarians' Conference.

Finding Information on the Net--a Tutorial--a really well done presentation on how to analyze your information needs, phrase your search, select the search engine that will do what you need to do.