Internet Search: Meta Search

InfoSpace created the Dogpile search engine because your time is important to us. Powered by Metasearch technology, Dogpile returns all the best results from leading search engines including Google and Yahoo!, so you find what you’re looking for faster.
Each search engine has its own method of searching and each will return different results. Dogpile looks at all of them, decides which are most relevant to your search, eliminates duplicates and reveals them to you. In the end, you get a list of results more complete than anywhere else on the Web.
The time-saving philosophy of metasearch is so important to us that it even inspired our name! In rugby, players come together and pile on top of one another. This is exactly what Dogpile’s metasearch technology does – it compiles all the best results in one easy-to-access place!
And because every good team needs a loyal mascot, we adopted Arfie. You can find him any time on Dogpile, where he works as a retriever of sorts. When you search the Web on Dogpile, he’s quick to fetch the exact results you want when you want them.-- from the website

LightSwitch is an educational search tool developed at Middletown Thrall Library with the intent of helping online researchers improve their searches and information awareness. LightSwitch links you with some of the very best general and specific search engines in the world.

LightSwitch Search Tools seek to motivate you to contemplate every single aspect of your search:
which search terms you select or leave out
standardized words, names, or phrases which might benefit your searches
how you structure or logically group your searches
how advanced search techniques can improve your searches and overall research
the destination of your search terms - which search engine you choose
the quality and relevancy of the search results you receive
how your searches perform in various search engines

LightSwitch searches are not automated: you must think and construct your searches mindfully, drawing inspiration or ideas, if you wish, from keywords provided in LightSwitch's "enlightenment" section (which appears when you click the "+ enlighten your search" link)

It is our hope that you can use LightSwitch to enrich your searches and increase their specificity by adding standardized terms, subject headings, and otherwise challenging words and phrases (such as "onomatopoeia" or "quantum chromodynamics").

As different search engines produce a variety of search results, you are encouraged to see which search engines work best for each query. This is a major reason LightSwitch exists: to help you educate and expand your search techniques, to help you part with less effective research strategies, and to open your mind to other and possibly more appropriate search tools for any given search.

LightSwitch begins in a "General Topics" mode. You can quickly switch to other modes, such as Art or Astronomy, and incorporate related keywords, names, phrases, titles, and more into your searches. -- From the website; more info available at http://www.thrall.org/lightswitch/about.html#about

On waves, surf wax helps surfers grip their surfboard; for Web surfing, SurfWax helps you get the best grip on information -- providing the "best use" of relevant search results. SurfWax's design/UI was the first to make searching a "visual process," seamlessly integrating meaning-based search with key knowledge-finding elements for effective association and recall. -- from the website

WebCrawler.com utilizes metasearch technology to compile results from many of the Web's major search properties, delivering more relevant and comprehensive results every time you search. The search results you receive include the top commercial (sponsored advertising) and non-commercial (algorithmic) results from the most popular search engines on the Web. By accessing multiple search engines for each query, WebCrawler.com provides you with a richer and more relevant spectrum of results than you would from using any single search engine.