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Ezor's List of Internet Search Tools (ELIST) 
(last revised 1/2002) 

When it comes to Internet search engines, everyone knows about Yahoo! and the search features in major ISPs like AOL and MSN. Experienced Internet users, though, don't turn to these search engines first. Instead, they often utilize some very specialized tools which can be much more efficient and accurate in finding exactly what they want on the Internet.

Experienced users have collected these specialized search sites over many months and years, but now you too can have access to their knowledge. I've compiled the best-of-breed into what I'm calling the ELIST, which (modestly) stands for "Ezor's List of Internet Search Tools," which you'll find below. All of the ELIST tools are (currently) free to use.

Individuals and organizations of all sizes can benefit from many of these expert tools, whether for research purposes, competitive intelligence or to better find and communicate with family members, clients and vendors.

Please feel free to forward this document (in its entirety, please) to anyone you believe would find it useful. You can always get the most up-to-date version of this list at http://www.clickingthrough.com/elist. Additionally, if you'd like each update automatically e-mailed to you, please subscribe to the ELIST by sending e-mail to ELISTupdates@yahoogroups.com. Finally, if you come across any particularly good tools or sites you'd like to suggest for the ELIST, please e-mail me at jezor@panix.com. Thanks, and enjoy! {Jonathan Ezor}

THE ELIST:

GENERAL WEB SEARCHES

AllTheWeb.com (http://www.alltheweb.com): This lesser-known site, a product of Norway-based Fast Search & Transfer ASA, is lightning fast and contains many Web pages not found in other search engines. Different portions of the site allow searches of Web pages, news, pictures, videos, MP3 files, and FTP files in many languages, and advanced searching (by exact phrase, or multiple phrases) is available.

Google (http://www.google.com): Google shares many of the features of AllTheWeb.com (multimedia searches, languages, speed), but has a few unique elements of its own. Most importantly, Google ranks search results by how often the sites were linked to by other sites -thus, the most relevant searches often come up first. Also, Google is constantly expanding its search options; the Usenet archive acquired from Deja (http://groups.google.com) allows you to search Internet topical message board posts as far back as 20 years ago, well before the advent of the Web, and the new Catalog search (http://catalogs.google.com) indexes both the text and images of many popular mail order catalogs.

Raging: Raging is a bare-bones interface to the popular Altavista search engine, offering similar search options and depth of content with significantly increased speed.

INTERNET-RELATED SEARCHES

The Internet Archive Wayback Machine (http://www.archive.org): This is among the most useful Web sites for historical Internet research, bar none. Simply put, the Wayback Machine archives literally billions of Web pages from specific dates over the past five years. Need to know what your competitor's Web page, or even your own Web page, looked like in 1998? Just type in the URL in the Wayback machine, and choose the relevant date. The Wayback Machine also includes specialized collections (such as from the September 11 attacks on the United States, and even certain television and movies programs), but it's the overall Web archive that makes this a "must-have" for your Bookmarks or Favorite Places list.

WHOIS.NET (http://www.whois.net): Not only does this site allow you to do a standard availability search for Internet domain names, but the innovative Advanced Search feature (http://www.whois.net/search.cgi2?as=1) lets you punch in partial names and find out all the domains which include those names. For brandbuilding as well as infringement research, being able to look at permutations is invaluable. (Another good resource for domain name creation is Nameboy, found at http://www.nameboy.com.)

ARIN Whois (http://www.arin.net/whois/index.html): If all you have is an IP address (the numerical address for a computer attached to the Internet), and you need to find out to whom that number corresponds, the ARIN (American Registry for Internet Numbers) Whois tool can be a great way of tracking down who owns the IP address for machines located in North America, South America, the Caribbean and sub-Saharan Africa. Keep this one around for the next time you have to identify a "John Doe" who is posting slanderous information about your organization, or attempting to break into your company's computer system. Similar tools for other regions may be found at the RIPE Network Coordination Centre (http://www.ripe.net/) for Europe, the Middle East, and parts of Africa and at APNIC (http://www.apnic.net) for the Asia/Pacific Region.

Snopes (http://www.snopes.com): This has become the preeminent resource for verifying the truth of e-mail hoaxes and rumors, as well as offline urban legends. For checking into whether a computer virus warning is real or a hoax, you can also utilize sites such as The Computer Virus Myths homepage (http://www.vmyths.com/) or the U.S. Department of Energy-Computer Incident Advisory Capability's Hoaxbusters site (http://hoaxbusters.ciac.org).

The Liszt List/Topica (http://www.liszt.com): Liszt, now owned by mailing service provider Topica, is a free index of many of the thousands of e-mail newsletters and discussion lists available over the Internet. For almost any topic of interest to you, there is probably an e-mail community that is similarly interested. In addition to basic information, the Lizst site automates the subscription process for many of its featured lists. Yahoogroups (http://www.yahoogroups.com), formerly eGroups, offers a similar array of topical e-mail lists, all hosted within the Yahoo system.

The New York Times Navigator (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/navigator/index.html): This page, which describes itself as "the home page used by the newsroom of The New York Times for forays into the Web," is a overall index of useful sites, particularly focused on research. Another useful meta-index is Virtual Gumshoe (http://www.virtualgumshoe.com). The interface may be basic, but Dave Guss, the creator of Virtual Gumshoe, has done a great job of collecting links to many different types of governmental and business information.

PUBLICLY-AVAILABLE PERSONAL INFORMATION:

Anywho Reverse Telephone Directory (http://www.anywho.com/rl.html): Reverse telephone directories (which allow you to find an address when all you have is a telephone number) have been a staple of private investigators' methods for years. Now anyone can use this great service via AT&T's free Anywho Web site, which also offers traditional white and yellow pages listings. (Hint: If you can't find the owner of the number using the reverse directory, try typing it into AlltheWeb or Google as a search term.)

Ancestry.com Death Listings (http://www.ancestry.com): Want to know the date of birth, death or Social Security number of an American who died in the last few decades? Ancestry.com offers a free search of Social Security information for deceased Americans, along with many pay-per-use databases on genealogical information. Just type in the person's name (first and last if available), along with any other relevant information, and your search results are quickly returned. Ancestry.com will even generate a letter for you to send to the Social Security office requesting further information.

BUSINESS/LEGAL INFORMATION

Thomas (http://thomas.loc.gov): The Thomas Web site, a service of the U.S. Library of Congress, is the best starting point for information about the United States government, its processes, and its laws. From there, you can get to the text of current congressional bills, the Web sites for Federal and state legislatures and courts, and many other governmental resources. For the European Union, a similar starting point is Europa, found at (http://europa.eu.int).

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (http://www.uspto.gov): Want to know if your newly-imagined brand is in use by someone else? Want to find out whether your latest invention was created by someone else? The Patent and Trademark Office's Web site provides wonderful free tools for understanding and searching these business critical areas of law. While not as up-to-date or comprehensive as commercial services, the USPTO site is the right place to start. The U.S. Copyright Office Web site (http://www.copyright.gov) offers information and search features for understanding the protection of artistic and literary works.

Hoover's (http://www.hoovers.com): The Hoover's site has long been known for its broad database of information on both public and privately-held companies. Just type in the company name and see contact information, summaries, articles, and links to relevant information. As with some of the other sites in the ELIST, Hoover's also offers extra-price research tools.

FindArticles (http://www.findarticles.com): FindArticles is a partnership between the Internet search company LookSmart and research publisher The Gale Group. While there are many fine fee-based databases of publications available via the Internet (such as Lexis/Nexis), FindArticles has two strong features which make it a worthy addition to your Internet toolbox: (i) its broad coverage (according to FindArticles, the site "contains articles dating back to 1998 from more than 300 magazines and journals"), and (ii) the fact that it's free.

Copyright © 2000-2005 Jonathan Ezor. All rights reserved.