Search Engine Reviews and Search Tips: Liszt and WebCrawler
(i.e. how many people are using each channel).
You can connect to chat rooms directly from Liszt if you have the right software. (Liszt provides a link to a site where you can download this software.) Since I have no experience with IRC chat rooms, I can't evaluate the effectiveness of Liszt's IRC-searching capability.
WEBCRAWLER - USER-FRIENDLY WITH WELL-CRAFTED SUBJECT "CHANNELS," BUT LIMITED IN SIZE
WebCrawler (http://webcrawler.com), one of the first search engines, has long been surpassed in size by the other leading search engines. However, it's still popular probably because due to its user-friendly, uncluttered design and excellent collections of recommended sites about many subjects.
If you use it, be aware that it's much smaller than the other major search engines (i.e., one-fiftieth the size of Alta Vista, and about one-fifteenth the size of Lycos).
Because of its limited size, WebCrawler is usually best for locating the major sites about a subject rather than detailed searching. For example, a recent search in WebCrawler for +"gregory peck" +"academy awards" resulted in seven items. In contrast, the same search in Alta Vista yielded 278 items.
WebCrawler's channels, which are reviewed sites divided into fairly detailed subject categories, are selective yet do a good job of covering the various topics. The reviews are brief, but do convey the main highlights of the sites.
Its search system, which is powered by Excite, supports basic search syntax and Boolean searching, plus the option of finding similar items after every result. WebCrawler offers links to the standard services such as weather, stock quotes, a people finder, maps and classified ads.
Excite (which now owns WebCrawler) has announced that big changes are in store for WebCrawler in the near future. I'll keep you up-to-date.
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