Specialist Search Engines

This page gives access to a range of specialist search engines.

There are search engines designed for children. These are designed to access child safe material from the web and to exclude explicit, adult and other undesirable material. A number of the links access further collections of search engines suitable for children.

The Deep Web, sometimes also known as the Invisible, Hidden or Dark Web and even Deepnet is an immense collection of material not normally searched by ordinary search engines and not covered fully, even by the search engines that do search it. Primarily it is an area designed to assist researchers. The Deep Web provides an easy to understand tutorial explaining this area.

Finally, there is an ever expanding collection of specialist search engines in topics from Animals to World, with an added section of miscellaneous, specialist search engines.

For ordinary search engines, metasearch engines and search directories, visit the Other Search Engines page.

Children’s Search Engines

ALA Great Web Sites for Kids
‘A directory of sites selected by members of the American Library Association using rigorous evaluation guidelines’.
Ask For Kids
‘Answers vetted for appropriateness’.
Awesome Library
‘30 000 carefully reviewed resources, including the top 5% in education’.
Dibdabdoo
‘Smarter, safer way to search the Internet’.
Family Source
‘Searching 955 235 family safe web pages’.
Ivy’s Search Engine Resources for Kids
‘Search forms for major Internet search engines for kids, links to web guides for kids, some specialized search engine forms and specialised search engine links of interest to kids. At the bottom there are links to family friendly or general WWW filtered search engines, links to more pages like this’.
Excellent !
KidsClick
Kids.net.au
Database of suitable sites, information.
Kids Search Tools
Search many children’s engines from one page.
Know Play
Links to atlases, dictionaries, encyclopaedias, world information, art information, acronyms, other language help.
Kids & Teens
Open Directory Project. ‘Kids and Teens is targeted for audiences 18 and under. This directory is For kids, Not About kids’.
TekMom
Suitable search engines for younger people. Some for specific study areas.
Yahoo Kids

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Deep Web Searching

Most useful for in-depth information or answers, particularly academic. Also when after reference materials.

99 Resources to Research & Mine the Invisible Web
‘The following resources were designed to help you find specialised search engines, directories and more places to find the complex and obscure’.
Deep Web Research Resources and Sites
‘Subject Tracer™ Information Blog developed and created by the Virtual Private Library™. Designed to bring together the latest resources and sources on an ongoing basis from the Internet for deep web research’.
Highly Regarded !
99 Resources to Research
And Mine the Invisible Web. ‘The following resources were designed to help you mine the invisible web, offering specialised search engines, directories, and more places to find the complex and obscure’.
Complete Planet
Probably the best. Also check their Help Site
DeepDyve
‘We are DeepDyve, the research engine for the Deep Web’.
FindFiles.net
‘FindFiles.net is a general purpose file search engine for all kinds of data types, such as pdf, ppt and ods documents, audio and video files, executables, source codes and software packages, biochemical and CAD database files’.
Gateway of Library Catalogues
Via the US Library of Congress.
Google Scholar
‘Specifically for scholarly literature, including peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, preprints, abstracts and technical reports from all broad areas of research, articles from a wide variety of academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories and universities, scholarly articles available across the web’. Also access Google Scholar Help.
Invisible Web
Northern Light

Using the Invisible/Deep Web

Articles and guides to help use this valuable resource.

Invisible or Deep Web
‘What it is, How to find it, Its inherent ambiguity’. University of California, Berkeley Library.
The Deep Web
Tutorial about this from Internet Tutorials.
The Invisible Web
How To Find and Search the Invisible Web. Article, embedded and other links. From About.
The Ultimate Guide to the Invisible Web
Online Education Database. Information with links to clarification, further information. Search tools, references, resources.
What is the Deep Web ?
‘In this podcast from WhatIs.com, learn what the deep Web is, kind of content exists there - and how you can start moving beyond Google to get much more from your research online’.

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