A Look at the Wider World of Search

Clearly, when we think search engines, only a few names pop to mind. Google, duh. And Yahoo!, of course. In fact, media research reveals that people conduct the majority of their searches on four search engines, in this order: Google, Yahoo!, MSN, and Ask.com. But Charles Knight, a search engine optimizer by profession, says there are many gems in the small, small percentage that get the rest of our queries. He narrows his favorites list to 100 in this well-written article, The Top 100 Alternative Search Engines.

You've got to read the whole piece to get a good look at the astounding multitude of options and why Knight says they are worth checking out. (An alphabetical list of the 100 follows the article.) But here are a few features offered by some of the more standout, persevering sites.

• Interactive search engines: Tired of a plain page with a box? Knight points to Ms. Dewey, which will appeal to some who may want a beautiful woman standing by to help them. (Not me.) On ChaCha, you can pose a search in the form of a question, then click on the "Search With Guide"  button to enter into an online chat until all of your questions are answered.

• 3-D searches: While we've become accustomed to 2-D lists of references in response to search queries, the web is a 3-D world. Search engines including KartOO (pictured) and Quintura return answers in a 3-D web form, with different subheadings that separate various responses to the query. My kids do organizing webs instead of linear outlines for writing and other projects at school, so I can see this approach being more in line with the way many kids and young adults approach research projects.

• Metasearch engines: There are some useful search tools that check all of the big-name search engines with one click. Dogpile searches the top four (Google, Yahoo!, MSN, and Ask.com). While others, such as Zuula and PlanetSearch, tap 16 search engines at once.

• Many, many more: There are some free mobile phone search tools worth trying, including the Slifter Mobile Demo. Knight gives special mention to shopping search engines, such as TheFind and Like, which searches for products based on images, not words.

Guaranteed, you'll find some worth bookmarking on the list. At the very least, it will open your eyes to the wider world of web search.