• offers a fast search, claims to be the largest Web index yet compiled
• 21 million Web page database containing more than 8 billion words, over 45 GB with more
• than 13,000 Usenet newsgroups
• simple search is easy and the one-line searching suggestions are very helpful

Excite:

• not the largest but one of the most useful, smart and user-friendly
• more than 1.5 million Web pages which uses keywords as well as concepts searches
• like searching an index combined with a thesaurus, can find a page related to the words you search on even if those words are not actually on the Web page

Lycos:

• large number of binary files, GIF, JPEG, WAV and MPEG
• indexes FTP archives and Gopher menus

InfoSeek Guide:

• claims to be fastest
• searches can include newsgroups, Usenet FAQ's, and reviewed sites
• results displayed in order of relevance
• any match from a search can be used to find similar pages
• downside - limits search to first 100 hits
• InfoSeek Professional cost $495 mo. for 50 transactions but offers more powerful searches

Hot Bot:

• has an interface that allows novice users to execute complex queries with a few simple clicks
• new comer, but highly rated
• great page with search tips
  

Open Text:

• powerful search options, easy to use
• search tool uses pop-up menus for specifying Boolean or proximity operators
• offers a weighted search and orders results
• covers every word of every page it indexes

It takes several days to several weeks for a new site to appear, so use a "What's New"
directory of Web sites. Some additional sources with basic search options and large data
bases are:

PathFinder
BookMark
EarthNet
InkTomi
WWW Worm
WebCrawler
WebMasters Guide to Search Engines
Canada - Links to Search Engines
France - Links to Search Engines
Europe - Links to Search Engines