Checks By Fax software is a Small Business & Corporate checks
by fax, phone, and e-mail check and draft printing software program which allows
you to take checks by fax and now also SEND
Checks.
- General Search Engines and Directories
- 2look4it
.
- Very limited listings, not recommended.
- About
- Looking for previewed sites covering common
topics? About.com uses “professional Guides” to research and collect
over a million useful sites in over 700 topic areas. About.com is a great
place to start a web inquiry as long as you’re not looking for anything to
specific. Think of it as a resource library for popular subjects. Uses
Sprinks (powered by the competent Inktomi) as a default search engine if it
can’t find your query at about.com.
- Aesir
Custom Search
- Use filters to customize output from search
engines.
- Ahoy!
- Find homepages via metacrawler. We couldn't
get this engine to find anything.
- Aliweb
- Low relevancy of search results.
- AlltheSites
- Powered by FAST you can expect similar
results to Alltheweb.
- Alta Vista
- Has one of the largest databases. Good for
specific searches if you don't mind wading through tons of listings.
- ATTNet
- Uses Direct
Hit to bring you the most visited sitesfor your keywords.
- Bigstuff
- Limited database and search capability. Not
recommended.
- Bomis.Com
- Internet ring index with adult emphasis.
- Business Seek
.
- More than 150,000 companies, but don't
bother, the big engines have better listings.
- Colorstamps
- A poor quality search engine with moderately
accurate and highly redundant results. Business plan based on attracting
users by offering "colorstamps" (like greenstamps) for using the
search engine.
- CompletePlanet
- A searchable directory of search resources.
Claims that 100,000 searchable databases exist on the net and has over
17,000 in its present database. Our tests found that results included
multiple duplicate listings, sites with no significant databases, none
searchable sites, all mixed in with key search resources. What a mess! A
Fantastic idea but they forgot to edit the listings their robot gone wild
collected. Worth a look if you’re a search fanatic.
- Cozy
Cabin
- Very basic "clean" search engine
with finite scope.
- Crosslinkz
- Minimal database. Does include editor's site
picks.
- Direct Hit
- Supposedly gives you the most popular sites,
but search function and database is limited. If you are looking for the most
popular sites by keyword then this site maybe for you. If you're looking for
the best or most relevant sites than we suggest you use a search engine like
HotBot or Altavista or better yet a meta search engine. A number of other
search engines use DirectHit's database to provide a handful of listings at
the top of each search results page including: HotBot, MSN Search, LookSmart
and ATTNet.
- Electric Monk
- Searches its own database with somewhat
limited results.
- Excite
- Excites features, its personalized page with
news and portfolio tracking are tops. Unfortunately its search engine
relevancy could be improved.
- Fast
Search
- Using its spider this search engine is
working to collect a billion urls. To date their database has 300 million
making it the largest of the search engines. This puppy is fast as a
greyhound, but they forgot to train it to eliminate redundancy. If a site
has multiple pages on the same topic, it returns them all requiring you to
sift through many many redundant listings.
- FindLink
- Low relevancy of results. Search algorithm
lacks sophistication and pulls any item that has keywords in description.
- FindWhat
- FindWhat provides a clean and simple access
to an Inktomi powered search engine. Results are influenced by how much
sites pay for listings, not solely based on relevancy. FindWhat has jumped
on the wannabe a millionaire bandwagon and now offers users a chance to win
big bucks for searching.
- First-Search
- A search engine that limits results to the
first page of a site, eliminating redundant listings from the same site, but
not redundant listings from duplicate sites. Of course this also eliminates
millions of potentially relevant sites. Some sites consist of sections
covering 100s of significantly different topics. With First-Search you'll
never find these pages.
- Galaxy
- Search results are so low in relevancy that
they are essentially useless.
- Global Online
Directory
- European engine. Search for web sites by
country, state, province, county or even city by city narrowing down the
information and creating a more accurate result.
- GloStart
- Best sites on the net updated daily, though
last time we checked the add url function didn't work so how its updating
daily we don't know.
- Go
.
- Easy way to search news, newsgroups. For
searching web sites, we suggest using one of the top rated engines instead.
- Google
- Its robot collects pages whether they've
been submitted or not making it a very comprehensive engine. Technically its
not a meta search engine but it functions like one. Now searches Netscape's
Open Project Directory in addition to its own database. Ranks sites by
number of incoming links and the popularity of referring sites. Findings are
highly relevant, particularly for searches with two or more words. Includes
redundant listings.
- Goto.com
- Fast engine where placement is determined
not by relevancy but by how much sites pay for their listing. Search and
find out which sites are paying the most for your eyeballs.
- GTE SuperPages
- A form of yellow pages. Search businesses by
category. Is supposed to search by company name, actually just searches web
page titles, providing large numbers of irrelevant listings.
- HandiLinks
- Organized into sub categories/ directories.
Interesting concept but operating from a very limited database.
- HotBot
- HotBot uses both the Open Directory Project
and Inktomi's databases. Unfortunately like most search engines it suffers
when it comes to finding relevant listings. While the Open Directory Project
and Inktomi represent two of the largest databases their size doesn't mean
the algorithms used to sort the data can guarantee accurate results. While
HotBot provides listings that may be somewhat related to the search terms,
its accuracy, i.e. its ability to provide highly relevant listings is
limited as compared to the many meta search engines. (This is caused in part
by trying to be more comprehensive and including the increasingly inaccurate
results from the Open Project Directory.) Still HotBot it is one of the
better individual search engines and includes advanced search options on the
homepage!
- Hotrate
- Promises to provide relevant searches.
Actually its a combination door into Google's easy to use and comprehensive
search engine and a directory of reviewed sites, like the Open Directory
Project or About.com. Currently there aren't enough listings in the
directory to make it useful, but submit your sites and keep checking back.
- HumanSearch
- Use a human being to answer your question.
For $8, they'll find what the answer to any question.
- i-Explorer
- Just another front door to webcrawler.
- Infohiway
- Limited database but provides a preview
function. This lets you view text information from sites without having to
wait for graphics to download. You can buy your way to a top placement.
- IOPORT
- Searches the open resource project database.
- Irena
- Search the server of the Australian National
University, Coombs Computing Unit. Research Schools of Social Sciences &
Pacific and Asian Studies, Canberra.
- IWon
- Uses Inktomi's database and provides
listings of average comprehensiveness and accuracy. If you use this search
engine you can win millions. If you're the type that spends money on Lotto
tickets then this search engine is for you. You won't lose money here, but
we suggest you use a search tool that can survive on its merits rather than
need hold out the carrot of winning millions.
- Jassan
- Category based search engine.
- Jayde
- A searchable directory with a small
(750,000) selection of sites.
- Kanoodle
- Highest bidder gets the top listing in this
search engine which uses the Inktomi database.
- LinkGrinder
- Search engine of sorts with a growing
database of over a quarter million listings (as compared to two to three
hundred million listings of the big search engines). Mostly advertising
links and search results are low on relevance.
- LinkMaster
- A searchable set of links. Provides another
incoming link to your site.
- LivePerson
- Used by LookSmart
and other engines. Ask a live person online for help with your search.
Sounds like a great idea, but for it to work each helper at liveperson would
need to be an expert in everything. Instead of getting a set of possible
sites to choose from liveperson and WebHelp provide just one suggestion.
This is one case where the computer is smarter than a person, search engines
and meta search engines are a zillion times faster and smarter at sorting
through millions of web sites and providing relevant results.
- LookSmart
- A dumbed down version of Altavista's
search engine. In addition uses RealNames
and DirectHit. Worse
than average relevancy, provided on a confusing results page.
- Lycos
- Brings together data from FAST, Direct
Search and the Open Project Directory. Only limitation to being a truly
great search engine is its ability to provide relevant results and eliminate
redundant pages.
- Magellan
- A dumbed down version of excite. Almost the
same listings show but not as well organized by relevancy and without the
many free features that excite offers.
- MangaSeeker
- Maxisearch
- Poor relevancy.
- MOSHIx2
- Japanese and English search engine. Poor to
moderate relevancy of findings in English. Not sure about findings in
Japanese.
- MSN
Search
- Not well suited to finding specific
information.
- Netscape
- Netscape uses the Open
Project Directory database Read the review.
- Northern
Light
- Northern Light uses its own propietary
database covering 220 million web pages and 20 million articles. This search
engine is a mixed bag.
We like its use of folders. When you conduct a search it puts a column of
folders on the left of related topics (reminds us of looking for a book on a
libarry shelf and actually finding the best resource to the right or left of
where the book we were looking for was supposed to be). Below each site
listed, Northen Light puts a folder of additional pages from that site,
eliminating the appearance of multiple and or redundant listings from the
same site.
What we don’t like. Unlike meta search engines or the larger search
engines, Northern Light runs of a limited database covering only a slice of
net. Results are interspersed with articles from Northern Light’s special
collection, read pay for these to read them. Given how much information is
free on the net, we tend to avoid these pay to read services though we
don’t doubt that they may be worth the couple of bucks charged.
Depending on how you search, Northern Light may be for you, though we’d
recommend that you augment it with one of the better meta search engines.
- NetFlip
- Earn money while searching! If you think
earning 1 to 3 cents for visiting preselected sites via NetFlip is the way
to riches then this search engine is for you. Make up to $1-$2 per hour!!!
NetFlip uses demographic data you enter to target results. If you're looking
for a selection of sites purely based on merit rather than how much they pay
to NetFlip then go elsewhere.
- Oingo
- Attempts to improve relevancy via menu
options provided with each search term on your results page. This allows you
to refine your search further based on a specific meaning for each search
term. A great idea, but hindered by the quality of the initial database and
search algorithm which results in far too many irrelevant listings. While
not perfect w applaud this effort to improve on the standard search process.
Worth a look!
- Open Directory Project
- The goal of this new engine is to produce
the most comprehensive directory of the web, and its well on its way to
accomplishing this goal. Similar to Yahoo, listings are organized by
category and reviewed by editors, though the Open Directory Project relies
on a vast army of volunteer editors. While Yahoo can take months to
submissions are usually included in the Open Directory Project within weeks.
Until recently this meant that most listings were of high quality. We've
noticed that this has changed and numerous dubious listings are slipping
into the database reducing the value of the directory.
- Pandia
- New search engine using Netscape's open
project directory. Includes a meta search function.
- Pathfinder
- Search the Time Inc.'s database of articles
from Time, Fortune, People, Money, Entertainment Weekly, ParentTime, Ask Dr.
Ruth Weil, and more. Admittedly this is a limited database but has lots of
useful information.
- PlanetClick
- Search engine with sites ranked by users.
- Power Search
- Very limited database and dysfunctional
search. Supposably ranks by quality and popularity but a search for
"better meetings" showed the "Southwest Ohio Crochet
Guild" in the third spot.
- QuestFinder
- Presentation of results will have you
reaching for your glasses even if you normally don't wear any. Top listings
can be bought, so relevancy is related to dollars spent not content. Limited
database, only searches description not page content.
- QuickFindIt
- Uses LivePerson
to provide human assisted searches. Live person assistants are not
experts in any subject area but rather supposed to be akin to a reference
librarian, helping people find the right stuff. In our tests we found that a
quickfindit human assisted search provided us with only one suggested link
as compared to a reference librarian who can steer you to a whole section of
the library. Most good search engines can provide you with a broader and
equally relevant selection of links.
- Radar
- In English and Spanish.
- Raging
- A plain vanilla ad free search engine
running off of Altavista’s database of 350 million pages. Results are
similar to Altavista but appear to
show somewhat higher relevancy, especially as you move down the search
results page. (Uses the number of links to a site as a measure of the
site’s relevancy.)
Using the “customize” link you can turn Altavista’s family filter on
and custom search results. Without the standard data overload provided on
most search engine’s homepages, Raging’s simple and clean interface is a
breath of fresh air!
- RealNames
- If you know the name of a company or
organization and just want to go to their site and skip all the other sites
that mention their name, use RealNames. Also available via AltaVista. The
downside of this engine is that only companies that have ponyed up the $100
per listing are included, limiting the scope of searches.
- REX
- RocketLinks
- Search for listings and find which sites are
willing to pay the most for your attention. Sites pay for listings, the more
they pay the higher the site ranks. If you're looking for sites based on
relevancy, try one of the top ranked meta search engines or individual
search engines.
- SafeSearch
- Pages rated.
- Saluki Search
- A Family friendly search engine. Still
growing its database. Stop by and suggest appropriate sites.
- Scrub the Web
- Search
Engines Galore
- Search the Australian and New Zealand
Internet.
- Search4Info
- A very limited search directory.
- Search King
- Sites ranked based on surfer votes.
- Twirlix
- Twirlix is working hard to make the search
process easier. Where most search and metasearch engines are almost
identical Twirlix is trying something new and potentially better than the
industry standard. Unique features include a 5 dot "quality"
rating system, site homepage thumbnail, and separation of listings into
"Top Matches' and "Further Matches". For those of us who are
more visually oriented, this search engine's organization is a big step
forward.
- 7Search
- Search results not based on relevancy but on
how much sites are willing to pay per click to get your attention. In
addition has its own database of non paying sites.
- SimpleSearch
- Another site where paid for listings appear
at the top regardless of relevancy. A search for "dog" found
"The Ultimate Astrological Astrology" as the top listing.
- Snap! .
- Uses Inktomi's database (100 million pages
included versus 2-3 times that by the larger engines) and provides listings
of average comprehensiveness and accuracy.
- Snoopa
- Uses the quality Inktomi database with
similar features to Hotbot's advanced
search function but without easy to read graphic layout of Hotbot.
- Starting Point
.
- Just another way to use Altavista.
- Super Snooper
- Filters out sites to do with obscenity,
hatred, drug-promotion or bigotry.
- Thunderseek
.
- Supposably includes just the best of the
best sites. Unfortunately data base is so limited as to be less than useful.
Many fairly common terms resulted in one or no listings.
- Thunderstone
- Indexes sites, not individual pages.
- ToggleBot
- Claims to search over ten million pages.
Unfortunately its not as selective as one would wish. In a search for -
better meetings - the top listing was for a site selling kitchen remodeling
services, the third listing was for formal wear and only 2 out of 10 were
relevant.
- TopClick
- Uses the Goolge
engine with similar high caliber results. Offers the additional promise of
protecting your privacy. "Our Private Search Engine will never deliver
an unsolicited banner advertisement to you. It will also never use cookies
or other invasive Personal Profiling technologies to build any personal
profiles on your search requests."
