We all know that different search engines produce different search results. Unfortunately, it seems we don’t always remember that when conducting research. Most people I talk to utilize Google as their primary search engine, others use Live Search.

  I would like to suggest another search engine to include when online – Exalead. It has a clean uncluttered home page. Tabs from the main search box include images and Wikipedia. A great feature is the ability to add shortcuts to favorite sites right to the main page.

  However, the main strength of the engine is its searching capabilities. Exalead allows for complex queries including proximity searches and the ability to truncate. There is the option to display only recent results, and a “narrow your search” window to refine your results based on topic, document type, or site type.

Another interesting feature is the “preview” thumbnail. Every result has a screenshot of the webpage where your results are located. One thing to remember is that (like many alternative search engines) the index of websites may not be as large as the more utilized engines.