Search tools to help you locate information

(Revised July 17, 2008)

Popular Web Search Engines

AltaVista
Ask Jeeves
Clusty
Findfast
Google (A Favorite)
HotBot
Lycos
Search.Com
WebCrawler Searching
Google Groups - Search Newsgroups (Formerly Deja News)
AltaVista Audio Search - Search for MP3's, Audio and Music

Meta-Search Tools

Dogpile (Metasearch - A good one!)
Mamma (Another good Metasearch engine)
"Find Fast" Search page. Easy access to 8 top search engines.

"Invisible" Search & Data Search Tools

FreePint - Source of information through invisible Web resources


The Original FreePint - a much better resource
(This DIRECT LINKS page has been discontinued for quite some time, but I found it in the "Way Back Machine." It consists of search resources to a large amount of "hidden" information that is not easily searchable from general search tools such as Alta Vista, Hotbot, and Infoseek. This is an example of what I call "Deep Search" or "Invisable Search")

Gary Prices “List of Lists”

Directories

Hotsheet
Beaucoup Search Engines
Librarian's Index to theInternet
Martindales “The Reference Desk” – good directory of information
Resources & References from “Consumer World”
Virtual Reference (by Frank Vad) - Over 2,500 Popular Reference Sites
LSU Library - Some great reference material!
Microsoft Search Directory
Billboard Online
How to Write an A+ Research Paper (includes good reference links)

Portals

Yahoo Portal
Excite Portal
MSN Portal
San Diego Links - Local Information
Sign-On San Diego - Local Information

People Search

Note: It is possible that if the information you are looking for is not freely available, the search engine may refer you instead to a site that charges for information. This is common in this type of search engine. Try to find as much information as you can for free, and be careful not to accidentally incur any expenses.

BeenVerified.com - Public records search for a fee
Internet Public Library Resources for Telephone and Address searches
Switchboard - Look up phone numbers and addresses
White Pages (People Search)
Yahoo People Search
Yellow Pages (includes good People Search tools)
Classmates.com - Renew old acquaintances
The Ultimates (People search Page)
1-800-US Search - Find Anyone!
The Seeker Magazine
IP-Lookup - Lookup IP addresses & Domains
Who Me Search Form - Find Out If Someone Is Looking For You (maybe An Old Friend)

Investigators, People Search, Background Check and Skip Tracing Companies (Fee for Services)

If the links above do not turn up what you are looking for, you may want to hire one of the following professionals to do the work for you, for a fee.

Do-It-Yourself Software you can purchase

Net Detective
Ultimate Internet Spy tool

Professional Background Search Companies

BackgroundChecks.org
Subscriber Signup Page - NCI - National Credit Information Network
Association Of Independent Information Professionals (AIIP)
Background America, Inc. - The Power Of Information
Background Information Services, Inc.
USATrace.com
Burwell Enterprises, Inc Focus On Information Brokering (Burwell Directory)
Purchase a Mailing List
InfoUSA white pages name search
Information Search Incorporated -ISI
Knowx Free and Pay Public Records Searches
Locateme.com - Public record People Finder
Merlin Information Services
Motor Vehicle records,license plates,driving records, VIN, etc. (Fee)
National Credit Information Network Website - Providing Online Searches Since 1983
Public Data Corporation (New York)
Redi-info Information Services
Vintage Data Solutions (Background Screening)

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