Kvetch's
Information Meta-Search (KIMS)
(see below for detailed instructions)
Search Google.com (accepts simple Boolean operators, etc.)
Search Project Gutenberg or Project Gutenberg of Australia etexts (using google) (accepts simple Boolean operators, etc.)
Search the Internet Archive (uses IA's proprietary search engine - keywords
only, no text search) (Accepts complex
Boolean operators - see advanced search)
Search the (English) Wikipedia - uses the Wikipedia search engine, about which I know little
Search Book databases (using google, not their own engines)
Notes on usage, copyright etc.
I do quite a lot of research into various esoteric subjects, and when searching
the internet I've found it awkward find the sites I want to search - whether I
can't remember the url, or the url is sesquipedalian, or the search
functionality is buried deep within the site, and awkward to find.
So, using cannibalised code (ONE day I will learn html properly) I've put
together this page - it is a jump-off point for searching a number of sites, as
detailed below (or above). Anyone is welcome to use it, and any suggestions for
other search bars welcomed (see email on home page). I
don't think I breach any copyright or fair usage guidelines doing this, but if I
do, I welcome being told. Anyone is welcome to copy and reuse and adjust this
page, provided they hold me innocent of any damage or lawsuits caused by their
code or use of code ;-). I'd love to know if anyone else uses this.
Google.com
Uses the google search engine (other search engines may or may not be
better, but google is the one I'm going to use)
'AND' 'OR' '+' and '-' are all accepted, as are various other codes (such as the
ever useful 'Site:'). See here for the
full documentation
Project Gutenberg / Project Gutenberg of Australia (use radio buttons to
change)
This performs a google search of all the pages in the Project Gutenberg eText
archives (unfortunately, I can't engineer a way to search both archives at
once). Good if you are searching for the appearance of certain phrases in
old books. Note that the content of the two Project Gutenbergs are very
different - check both.
Operators as google.com
Internet Archive
Searches archive.org's *huge* collection of digital media - etexts, film, audio
and a huge cache of old web-pages. This is archive.org's own search engine, and
does not pick up the actual text of the text files (hence the inclusion of
Project Gutenberg above, though archive.org contains a mirror of the archive).
The drop down menu will allow you to narrow the search to specific collections
or media types.
Has a huge number of complex operators - I suggest you follow the advanced
search link instead.
Wikipedia
Searches the English version of the Wikipedia, using MediaWiki's own search
engine (which I *think* performs a straight frequency analysis of the search
terms) - I'm not sure how to get this to work best, and I may well include a
google search as well.
NOTE: Wikipedia is freely editable, and is not peer-reviewed, so there is no
guarantee of the accuracy of any given article (Wikipedia is generally of high
quality, and looking at the quality of language and the article's talk page
should give you further clues about the article's quality)