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UE
Web Links
Directories and Search Engines
Want to find something, someplace or someone
on the net? Here's a great place to start: the major
search engines, people finders, place finders
(with maps and stuff), labor lists, and the U.S.
government are all here!
Whenever possible, we've listed websites by
using
their own descriptions (indicated by the use of opening
and closing quotes). Links verified: 10/24/2003.
Search the Net
Web Search!
Search the Net with 13 top search engines, metasearchers and directories — from the
UE Website! Whattayasay?! Give it a try! ...
About.com
Begun in 1997as "The Mining Company," this site has evolved
to become one of the most comprehensive directories on the internet.
"Each site in our unique network is run by ... professional Guide(s)
who ... build a comprehensive environment around each of their specific
topics, including the best new content, relevant links, how-to's, forums,
and answers to just about any question. ... ." Returns results
from the About directory, the web in general, and About's partner sites.
Strengths: original content (more than 50,000 subjects; over 1 million
links); weakness: not a good place to do complex por in-depth searches.
AltaVista
One of the best general-search engines ... with one of the largest databases.
If you need to do powerful and flexible searches, AltaVista is
a good choice as long as the information you're looking for is not easily
dated. AltaVista's database contains a surprising number of dated and
"dead" links. Offers: "Web pages, shopping, up-to-the-minute
news, live audio and video, community resources, AltaVista Shopping.com,
and AltaVista E-mail". Try it from
the UE Website ...
AOL
Search (AOL Anywhere)
From America On-Line, a search engine that uses the Open Directory Project
as its backbone (see below) as well as results from its partner sites.There
are also search sites for AOL White Pages, AOL Yellow Pages,
E-Mail Finder, Kids Only,
Maps & Directions, and Newsgroup and personal page searches.
Not the best place for anything more than casual searches.
Ask
Jeeves
A relatively good effort at allowing users to pose "natural language
questions" (i.e. "How do we organize a union?" ...
. Sometimes Jeeves is way off target, but often (especially with business
and shopping questions) you'll get a healthy selection of relevant results
to pursue. Try it from the UE Website ...
Excite!
Adequate search engine and directory and a popular "portal"
site. Smaller database than most of the other engines listed here; best
at "focused queries"; less stellar with broad questions. As
a portal, Excite can be personalized with your selection of news, stock
quoters and features. Try it from the UE Website
...
FAST
Search
Like Google and AltaVista's Raging Search (listed elsewhere on this
page), FAST Search does only one thing: seach. Search for documents, the
mobile web, FTP sites, MP3 content and for multimedia. It's relatively
new and may not perform quite as well as Google ... but it's been designed
with growth in mind. FAST wants to be able to catalog 10 billion (and
more) pages as the web expands ... and claims its design is ready to meet
the challenge. Try it from the UE Website
...
Galaxy
Essentially a directory. Downside: sites seeking to be listed must pay
between $49 and $99 to 'be guaranteed a review', making results somewhat
suspect in our minds. Here's what they say: "Galaxy is the original
searchable Internet directory. Our mission is to provide contextually
relevant information by integrating state-of-the-art technology with
the human touch ... Our information is compiled and organized by human Internet
Librarians rather than by computer."
Google!
The best general search engine? Generally, yes! Google began as a Stanford
University research project to find the most relevant web pages on
the internet, and has evolved to become one of the most popular (and accurate)
search engines on the internet. There's even an "I feel lucky"
option to skip the results of a search and go right to the top
return. A nice feature allows users to view "cached" pages —
how the pages looked when they were indexed by Google. Also allows
you to enter a first and last name and state to return a phone number.Try it from the UE Website ...
Hotbot
A high-powered, fast and generally accurate search engine (part of the
Terra Lycos network) that allows for highly refined searches. Often will
provide the "top ten" most popular links for a particular
search term or phrase. Lots of special search features (specified date range;
multiple languages and second search against your results)"
and you can target specific types of content (MP3 files, for example) on
the advanced search page. Try it from the UE
Website ...
iWon
Your chance to win cash while searching the 'net. Requires registration
... but it's at least an average search engine, so ... why not?
LookSmart
Billing itself as "the quality web directory", LookSmart will
return results only from its own directory (and its paid sponsors first!).
Looksmart says it "is committed to organizing the Web. LookSmart
directories are used by 83 percent, or more than 4 out of 5 US Internet
users." Not bad a bad site to conduct travel-related searches
... or for exploring topics that are listed in the LookSmart directory.
Lycos
Originally begun at Pittsburgh's Carnegie-Mellon University, the Lycos
Network is now owned by "Terra Lycos," based in Barcelona,
Spain (operations are based in Waltham, MA). Terra Lycos offers more than
19 web services (including HotBot and WhoWhere?) and claims to have the
"largest global footprint of any internet portal." Lycos returns
a good set of results, listing "four most popular" sites
first and links to related searches. Generally average performance. Try it from the UE Website ...
MSN
(The Microsoft Network)
Both a web directory and a search engine, MSN has become one of the
most popular internet search engines and portal page. This is also the home
of Hotmail ... and of course, the MSN internet service. Microsoft's
big bucks have made this site work. Very good at simple searches; about
average for complex queries.
NBCi
(NBC Internet)
Abitious plans to turn this site into major competition for Yahoo! and
MSN fell apart as General Electric's NBC television unit has announced
it would buy what it already didn't own of NBCi and scale it back. NBCi's
exact future is not known, but it is expected to continue promoting
NBC-TV, CNBC and MSNBC ... and retain its search function.
Northern
Light
NOTE: Currently closed to the public. A different type of search engine,
Northern Light offers substantive web searches augmented by access
to it's "Special Collections" -- news stories and book reviews
from some 7,100 journals, reviews, books, magazines and news wires not
found elsewhere on the Web. It's the best site to do a "topic"
search (as opposed to looking for a specific company or organization web
site). It's search results are placed into topical "folders"
to help you sort through the returns.
Open
Directory Project
"As the web grows, automated search engines and directories with
small editorial staffs will be unable to cope with the volume of sites.
The Open Directory Project's goal is to produce the most comprehensive
directory of the web, by relying on a vast army of volunteer editors."
What to be an editor? You can! Interesting idea.
Overture
(formerly GoTo.com)
Overture (formerly GoTo) was the the first search engine where advertisers
could pay for better rankings — the links presented as the result
of your search may be shown in part because a web-site owner paid
for being listed at the top. Overture insisits this helps improve relevance.
You be the judge! (Note: Overture results do not rely solely on paid
listings, but search results here are basically average in quality.)
Teoma
(formerly Direct Hit)
Direct Hit is now known as "Teoma", using the sales mark (sm)
"Search with Authority." Like its predicessor, Teoma attempts
to find the most relevant results for your searches by taking into account
"the activity of millions of previous Internet searchers"
... ranking those sites most often chosen for a particular search term
at the top of its results. A number of search engines use Teoma's data
in their own search results. Often quite accurate ... but only for the
most popular queries. Owned by Ask.com ("Ask Jeeves").
WebCrawler
Once independent, WebCrawler is now part of Excite. Features portal
page ("my page") setup, and more. Try
it from the UE Website ...
Yahoo!
The graddaddy of them all ... Yahoo remains the leading internet directory
and most popular portal site. Probably the most extensive listing
of sites available anywhere (there's even a good listing of unions); general
web searches are also available. Structure can be confusing, but it's
very complete. On the downside: Yahoo! now charges a fee for a guaranteed
staff review to add a new listing; complex searches should be taken
elsewhere. Try it from the UE Website ...
Alphabetical List of UE Links
| Communities | Daily Life
| Directories and Search Engines |
| Environment | Government | Health & Safety | International |
| Labor Resources | Legal | Organizations | Political Action | Research |
Metasearch the Net
Ixquick
Metasearch
Calling itself "the world's most powerful metasearch engine,"
Ixquick offers stellar results, searching several engines simultaneously,
ranking the results by popularity and eliminating duplicate results.
Power search functions as well, giving you an uncommonly high level of
control over your search queries. Try it from
the UE Website ...
Mamma.com
"Mamma.com - The Mother of All Search Engines - is recognized as
one of the top Meta Search Engines ... experiencing explosive growth since
its inception in 1996 ... Mamma.com is the largest independently owned
Meta Search Engine on the Internet. ... Mamma.com is a 'Smart Meta
Search Engine.' When the user enters a query at the Mamma.com website, Mamma's
powerful proprietary technology simultaneously queries 10 of the
major Search Engines ...". Visit your Momma?
Metacrawler
Now part of "InfoSpace" (formerly part of the "Go2Net"
Network), this is a "metasearch" engine — it queries
up to 13 search engines, combines the results, and presents them ranked
by confidence-level (by default) .Try the "Power Search" page
for an impressive set of search customization options. Try
it from the UE Website ...
Metor
Fast and comprehensive metasearch engine. You can ask Metor to search
ten top search engines; eight directories and five sites that provide
website reviews. Redundant listings are eliminated; There are also 19 specialized
search categories including Business, News, Health, Music, etc
... .
Query
Server
"The Query Server is an advanced meta search tool that broadcasts
a single query
(to a number of search) engines. One query returns a
single merged, ranked and conceptually clustered list ... We have set
up several focused search pages, each concentrating on a particular type
of search ... Web search (10 engines); News search (10 TV and newspaper
sites); Health search (12 health and medical info sites); Money search
(8 financial sites); Government search (13 US federal government sites)."
Search.com
(CNET)
Formerly SavvySearch, this is a metaserach engine is designed to query
multiple internet search engines simultaneously. One of the best all-in-one
type sites. Now promises to construct results from some 800 engines
in its "specialized search" categories.
SurfWax
This one is truly different (you'll either love it ... or hate it!).
Search 12 engines; get up to 400 listings back, alphabetically organized,
in the left column. Click the green arrow to get an instant "Site
Snap" (a surprisingly comprehensive overview) of the site you've
selected in the right column.
Vivisimo
If you're familiar with Northern Light, then you'll recognize this approach:
Vivisimo querys 8 search engines and directories and groups like
listings into folders on the left hand side of the page (unlike Northern
Light, category folders are grouped "on the fly" based on the
results of each search - not predetermined).
Alphabetical List of UE Links
| Communities | Daily Life
| Directories and Search Engines |
| Environment | Government | Health & Safety | International |
| Labor Resources | Legal | Organizations | Political Action | Research |
Specialized Searches
direct
search
"direct search is a growing compilation of links to ... data not
easily or entirely searchable/accessible from general search (engines).
Searchers often fail to realize that a massive amount of information (is
hidden in databases and other locations not found by the general search
engines.)" Be sure to check this entire page; links to much of the
information available are found below the search box.
Karnak
Library
You'll need to register to use this metasearch tool -- but it's unlike
any other that we've come across. "Karnak helps you structure your
research (query) then scours the Web, digging deeper than mundane search
engines. The best information is added to your personal library, which
you can access from any Internet-capable computer. It even checks for
dead and stale links before providing your results. Karnak regularly updates
you on the status of your research by email." For in-depth and
on-going research, this may be the tool to try!
Search
Engine Watch
Looking for more focused and/or specialized search engines? Information
that's hard to find (or even invisible to most search engines?) Here's
a good place to start looking. Search Engine Watch provides a listing
of specialized search engines in several categories.
SearchEdu.com
One of several specialized search sites from MaxBot.com, a search engine
technology company. A jump box lets you search "over 20 million
university and education pages" ... as well as online books, government
sites, military sites, the Merriam-Webster Dictionary and Thesarus,
the Encarta and Britannica Encyclopedias, Info Please Encyclopedia and
Almanacs and A&E Biographies.
WebData
Covering more than 19 categories, this site allows you to search a number
of databases and "hidden" information on the web. A little
confusing at first, but a good resource for specialized searches. This
link was not responding on 10/24/2003
Alphabetical List of UE Links
| Communities | Daily Life
| Directories and Search Engines |
| Environment | Government | Health & Safety | International |
| Labor Resources | Legal | Organizations | Political Action | Research |
Find People
555-1212.com
[Note: This service now requires paid registration]. When this service
was free, we found it to be one of the best-organized sites of its kind;
came in second on our test name.
AnyWho
From AT&T. Ranked fifth on our test name (average response). Includes
reverse telephone number lookup
(although it returned an incorrect response on our private test
number), as well as email, toll-free number and yellow page lookups. Driving
directions and maps provided ny MapQuest.
Infospace
White Pages
Data by Acxiom. Ranked fourth in finding our test name; includes reverse
number lookup as well as search near and business lookups (accessed
from the InfoSpace main page. Name
lookups for U.S., Canada and some European countries. Maps and driving
directions from MapQuest. Note: Acxiom also provides data for a number
of other "People Finders" including: WordPages, WhitePages.com, Verizon's
Superpages.com and Lycos/WhoWhere, among others.
infoUSA.com
- Directory Assistance
Formerly DataBase America - Find addresses, phone numbers - and reverse phone lookup. One of
the most thorough we found (best results on our test name); links to driving
directions provided by MapQuest. To go right to name lookup, click here.
InfoUSA also provides the data for Switchboard (see below),
Lycos/WhoWhere?
International Phone Directory
Links to phone directories from more than 65 countries.
SuperPages
- Global Directories
Links to phone directories on all continents.
Switchboard
From CBS. Although powered by infoUSA (see above), there were fewer
returns on our test name (coming in third). We've included this as a seperate
listing because maps are provided by "Maps on Us", an alternative
to the more commnly found MapQuest. Reverse lookup is provided.
Yahoo!
People Search
Last place (sixth) in returning results on our test name. Maps provided
by MapQuest. Email search function; no reverse lookup.
Alphabetical List of UE Links
| Communities | Daily Life
| Directories and Search Engines |
| Environment | Government | Health & Safety | International |
| Labor Resources | Legal | Organizations | Political Action | Research |
Find Places (maps, zip codes, travel)
Calculate
Distances
Find the distance between two locations; includes maps and driving directions.
Look
up a Zip Code
Zip-plus-four from the Postal Service (and more).
Look
up an Area Code
Find area codes, country codes and city codes for anyplace in the world
MapQuest
Anyplace, anywhere, with all the detail you could ever use: see and
find it here!
Maps
On Us
"A Map, Route and Yellow Pages Service" linked with Switchboard.com.
MSN
Maps and Directions (formerly MapBlast!)
"Maps, Driving Directions, Yellow Pages" ... and more. Good
driving directions section. Formerly MapBlast!
National
Address and ZIP-plus-4 Browser
Find any zip + 4, plus corrected addresses (United States).
Alphabetical List of UE Links
| Communities | Daily Life
| Directories and Search Engines |
| Environment | Government | Health & Safety | International |
| Labor Resources | Legal | Organizations | Political Action | Research |
Find Labor
Cyber
Picket Line
The most comprehensive directory of labor on the Web. Period. Organized
geographically. Clickable image map of the world. Includes other resources
for union leaders and members.
E-Mail
Directory of Labor Organizations in Latin America and the Caribbean
"The Instituto Laboral de Education Sindical (Labor Studies Institute)
of Puerto Rico presents this third edition of the e-mail directory
of labor organizations in Latin America and the Caribbean." This
site is dated: created in 1997. We've been unable to located an updated
edition on the web.
Global
Labour Directory of Directories
A directory of the top ten labor directories from around the world,
ranked by thoroughness. If it's a union you're looking for, check here first!
ICEM
- Labour Resources on the Internet
A well-organized list of unions and union resources on the net, maintained
by the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General
Workers' Unions (ICEM). Categories include: ICEM regional sites;
global labour news; ICEM affiliate sites; other trade-union websites; and
intergovernmental sites.
LaborNet's
Labor Resources on the Internet
Resource lists include: "Union Directory; Labor, Employment &
Government Statistics & Resources; Labor News Publications; Labor
- Relevant Legislation & Legal Information; Labor Cartoons, Art, Video,
Radio, Culture, History; Mainstream But Useful News Sources; International
Labor Information; Other Excellent Labor Resource Sites"
Open
Directory Project (dmoz) - Labor Movement: Unions
A growing list of labor union sites, compiled by volunteer editors.
Worth checking.
Alphabetical List of UE Links
| Communities | Daily Life
| Directories and Search Engines |
| Environment | Government | Health & Safety | International |
| Labor Resources | Legal | Organizations | Political Action | Research |
Find Government
Federal
Web Locator
"The Federal Web Locator is a service provided by the Villanova
Center for Information Law and Policy and is intended to be the one stop
shopping point for federal government information on the World Wide Web."
Translation: Check here to find government web sites and info.
FedWorld
"A comprehensive central access point for searching, locating,
ordering and acquiring government and business information" Operated
by the National Technical Information Service (NTIS).
FirstGov
"The official website for searching the U.S. Government: Welcome
to FirstGov — the first-ever government website to provide the public
with easy, one-stop access to all online U.S. Federal Government resources.
FirstGov allows users to browse a wealth of information —
everything from researching at the Library of Congress to tracking a NASA
mission. Conduct important business online — such as applying for
student loans, tracking Social Security benefits, comparing Medicare
options and even administering government grants and contracts."
Google's
U.S. Government Search
Search U.S. federal government websites with Googles uncanny accuracy.
UN
Organizations
Official Web Site Locator for the United Nations System of Organizations;
includes: "a listing of all United Nations Organizations (UNOs)
with their abbreviations and city locations of headquarters sites."
Alphabetical List of UE Links
| Communities | Daily Life
| Directories and Search Engines |
| Environment | Government | Health & Safety | International |
| Labor Resources | Legal | Organizations | Political Action | Research |
Find Activists
Adam
Rifkin's Activism Links Page
(No, he's not the movie guy). Not your normal links page. A long list
of links (more than 400), organized in a number of categories. Many links
are unusual and not-found on other links pages. ** Note: this site has
not been updated since 1998, and many links have "gone dead"
... but it's amazing how often this list appears on other websites, a
testimonial to the effort that went into creating this list of links.
Jay's
Leftist and 'Progressive' Alternative Media Links
Because you might miss this link on the main site, we've included another
part of Jay's links here -- a long list of alternative media outlets,
ranging from newspapers, bookstores and e-zines to radio, tv and film
...
Jay's
Leftist and 'Progressive' Internet Resources Directory
With lots of links to progressive and activist organizations, this web
site has long been a favorite of activists on the 'net. It can take quite
a while to check out all of the offerings, but it's well worth a visit!
Got a Link to Suggest? Tell Us!
Alphabetical List of UE Links
| Communities | Daily Life
| Directories and Search Engines |
| Environment | Government | Health & Safety | International |
| Labor Resources | Legal | Organizations | Political Action | Research |
This page was last updated on
10/24/2003
UE Web Links Manager (Visual FoxPro 5.0)
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