>> forwards << backwards (December 2001)

June 26 - Weblog, Page Info
Fagan Finder now has a weblog, updated frequently with news about searching and online research. Also, I have redone the 'site specific' page, replacing it with Page Info Viewer, which can be also be used with a Bookmarklet. Over the next few weeks, many pages on Fagan Finder will be updated.

May 31 [update] Law, Links, Basic Reference, Google, more
I am in the proccess of overhauling the Law section, and have already added five new search tools and four new links. Expect more within the next week or two. I have totally re-made the Searching Links and Resources page. The page is now smaller, with a lot more quality links. I've removed the descriptions and replaced them with symbols, and I've even added links to non-english searching related websites. If you have any suggestions, send them this way. I have added two new tools to the Basic Reference page, and one to the Directories page. Google Answers now has a search capability, and I have added this and made other small changes to the Google Ultimate Interface. Singingfish.com is working on a new project, I'll have news on that in a few days. Lastly, I have created a new tool for my own use which will drastically speed up the time it takes me to add new tools. Stay tuned.

May 25 [update] Biographies, Google
I have revamped the Biographies page, adding 8 search tools, 11 links, and fixing some errors. If there is a biography on the internet, you should be able to find it from that page. I've also added a number of tools and options to the Google Ultimate Interface, including adding the tools available at Google Labs. I've fixed some broken links, and I have added links to several high-quality and useful websites at the bottom of this page.

May 2 [update] Google, more
I haven't update the front page recently, but I have been updating Fagan Finder on a regular basis. I have added the Google Ultimate Interface, which combines all of the Google tools with all of their options in one page. It includes the web, directory, news, groups, images, catalogs, and translation, and it has more options than you'll find anywhere else, including date ranges, a country selector, quick subcategories, and alternate servers.

March 30 [update] Science, Medicine, Government, Open Directory, more
I have overhauled the Science page, adding about a dozen search tools and some new links and fixing errors. This includes a new page for Phibot, a science search engine. I have also made quite a few changes to the Health & Medicine page, adding several new sources and fixing errors. Also in that section, I have made a new page, MEDLINEplus. To the Government & Military page, I have added the official search tools of five more countries. I have added Gigablast to the Search Engines page (it is still experimental), and have repaired the Northern Light search. I have made a new page where you can browse the Open Directory on Fagan Finder. I have updated the Daypop page, the AllTheWeb page, the Google Catalogs page, the Site Specific page, the 2002 Predictions page, the Site Map, the Disclaimer, and a number of other pages. I added a link to the Biographies page, and had to redo some of the Search Online page because they have officially launched, making some changes and additions.

March 30 [news] Teoma
I haven't reported news in a while, so here's some to catch up. Teoma will release an second beta version very soon. Google has a new news search engine, which now allows you to sort results by date. Google is testing distributed computing with its Google Toolbar, allowing selected users to use their computer's idle time to aid science. Google had been in the news a lot lately because it removed and then replaced some anti-Scientology websites from its index after a request citing the Digital Millenium Copyright Act. After some initial problems, Google is now indexing https pages. WiseNut has been bought by LookSmart, and will presumably use it in replace of Inktomi soon. This makes LookSmart the only company to own both a large international directory and a large international search engine, and that two of the newest search engines are no longer independant. Daypop has a new page of top Amazon wishlist items. A number of About.com guides have sued Primedia, About's parent company. According to Pandia, HotBot may switch from using Inktomi to using Fast.

March 8 [update] Lycos, AltaVista, Ixquick, Ithaki, more, more
I have gone through and made updates to quite a few pages on Fagan Finder. I redid almost all of the Lycos and AltaVista pages because they redesigned their search engines. I added Zeal to the Directories page. I also updated the Ixquick, Ixquick Image Search, Ithaki, Google Catalogs, MSN Search, Invisible Web, AllTheWeb, Meta Search Engines, Meta Search Tools, Link to Us, and Site Map pages. I added a link and made some improvements to the Bookmarklets page, and fixed some problems on the Basic Reference and Advanced Reference pages. I added a link to the News page and the Health & Medicine page, and removed one from the Links page. I've also made a number of other small changes which I can't even remember.

March 8 [news]
I haven't updated with search engine news in a while, so here are some of important news items the past month to today. FirstGov, the US Government's portal will be powered by AllTheWeb by April. AltaVista has ended their e-mail services. Google has made their adwords program into a pay-per-click program, and has created a Search Appliance for intranets. Ithaki launched a new version of their meta search engine. Quigo opened in beta, and this new invisible web search tool is excellent. iLor switched to using Ask Jeeves/Teoma. Search Engine Watch announced their 2001 Awards, which I for the most part agree with. The best design, however, should definitely have been AllTheWeb. Research discovered that the web is self-organizing and this can be used to identify communties of related websites; a fact which was already known and is already being used by search engines like Teoma.

February 25 [update] Invisible Web, more
I have created a new page (and a new option on the front page), Invisible Web. I also fixed a problem on the Basic Reference page, and made the Search Engines page up-to-date. Webring has moved, so I updated the Groups page.

February 13 [update] Advanced Reference, AltaVista, more [news] Altavista
I have made some improvements to the Advanced Reference page including adding the Old Farmer's Almanac. I have also completed two new pages, Britannica and Information Please. I have also updated the Site Map. AltaVista has changed their default boolean operator from OR to AND, which is what Google uses. I have accordingly updated the AltaVista page. Lastly, I created a small icon which will show up beside Fagan Finder if you bookmark it (Internet Explorer only).

February 12 [update] Move, Scirus
I have been extremely busy for a while (and will continue to be so until March), however I have updated the Scirus page, as they have made significant improvements. I also added Ranks.com and removed Argus Clearinghouse from the Directories page, and made a number of other small changes. I have moved Fagan Finder to a new server, and so the new address is http://www.faganfinder.com.

January 19 [update] Daypop, Bookmarklets, Northern Light, Graveyard, Google, more [news] Google, Lycos
As Northern Light is now closed I have updated that page, and added NL to the Search Tool Graveyard along with WebTop. The NL search engine can still be searched here. I have also added two new Bookmarklets, and added another option and some info to the Daypop page. Google's Catalog Search which began with 600 catalogs, now has over 900, all of which are now on the Google Catalog page. Lycos has redone their advanced search, which now seems to be exactly like AllTheWeb's, however the old search is still functional. I have added a link to ResearchBuzz's predictions on my Predictions for 2002 page. I also added a link to the Weblogs page. Lastly, I added a '2002' option to all the pages which have date limits.

January 11 [update] Daypop, Government [news] Ask Jeeves & Teoma, Daypop, more
Not unlike my prediction, Ask Jeeves has integrated Teoma search results into its own results. Read the press release, where Ask Jeeves boasts that it increased user satisfaction by 25%. Search Engine Watch has more information. While only the usual search results from Teoma are on Ask Jeeves now, the other types of results will be in the future. Apparently, Teoma's index is now lists 110 million web pages. Ask Jeeves suggests that they do not plan on making it as large as the major search engines; too bad. MSN says that their search engine is now the most popular in the US, beating Yahoo. MSN is good, but there are better alternatives to Yahoo, unfortunately most people don't know this. Daypop has added the ability to hide or show summaries, and to sort by date or relevance, so I have added both of these options to the Daypop page. Northern Light, which is closing its public search engine (see below), will still provide their news search for free. I removed GovBot from the Government & Military page because it no longer exists.

January 8 [news] Northern Light
Northern Light is closing their public search engine to focus on enterprise customers. Pandia has more information. It's too bad; NL was quite good, not to mention that I just made a Northern Light page recently. NL will still be around until Jan 16.

January 7 [update] Biographies, Reviews [news] Mr. Showbiz
It seems that the Mr. Showbiz website (part of Disney's GO portal) has "retired," after six years. I removed it from the Biographies page. To make up for that, I added Starpages, Starpulse, Star Seeker, Celeblink, and also a search for US Congress member biographies, and I added three new links. Also, I added another Review of Fagan Finder.

January 6 [update] Bookmarklets, Predictions, Reference, more
I have completed a new tool, part of my new Bookmarklets page. Among other things, it lets you create custom search links, so that you can search with your options, on any search tool, automatically. I have also written some Predictions for 2002 about the world of search, and I invite you to submit your own. I have added Atomica to the Advanced Reference page. It is a neat tool which combines a number of reference sources together. I have also added VeriSign's WHOIS search to the Computers & Technology page. I have also made it so that so that you can press 'enter' instead of clicking the 'go' button, without ever causing an error (before, some searches such as Vivisimo would cause an error). From now on Fagan Finder will be located at www.faganfinder.com. Please use that URL when linking to Fagan Finder, as www.fagan.f2s.com will stop working soon. I have also made a few changes to the footer of every page. Lastly, I have added a review to the Reviews of Fagan Finder page.

January 6 [news] Google, Excite
I have resurected Excite, and the old excite database can still be searched on the Search Engines page, possibly the only place on the net where it can still be searched from. Google now permits asterixes (*) to be used as wildcards words within phrases, such as George * Bush; AltaVista is the only other search engine which supports this. In more Google news, they now have partners for their search results advertisements, which means that Google will be competing with Overture. Pandia has more information.

>> forwards << backwards (December 2001)