Specialty Search Engines: For those times when it is necessary to search for more than just web pages and web sites, some of the "specialty search engines" below will prove useful. Also called topical search engines, "vertical" search engines or "vortals," they'll help the user to search through specific types of listings in different areas. Answers Searching, Computer Search Engines Domain Searching. Financial Search Engines, Government Search, Invisible Web Legal Search Engines, Mailing Lists, Medical Search Engines, Newsgroup Search, Science Search Engines, Shopping Search, Travel Search Engines, WAP Search Engines Other Specialty Services. (Thomson, 2002) A specialty search engine focuses on a particular topic, geographic region, or even a particular file format. You can find engines devoted to such diverse topics as computer science research papers, graphics files, shopping sites, and medical research sites. Some specialty search engines operate their own spiders that crawl through specific sites and index the information from those sites only (Thomson, 2002). That allows searchers to enter more general search terms and quickly locate the information they want. Other specialty search engines operate more like directories than standard search engines. A human editor with experience in the subject reviews submitted sites before they're listed. This means that search results from specialty engines are often of higher quality than the results from general search engines. This is especially true when searching on an extremely obscure or technical topic. Specialty search engines aren't hard to find; there are literally thousands to choose from. These are some subject specific specialty search engines:

• ArtNet, http://www.artnet.com/

• Biology Browser, http://www.biologybrowser.org/

•  CigarSearch, http://www.cigarsearch.com/

• Athenus: Engineering & Science Search, http://www.athenus.com

• FindLaw, http://findlaw.com/

• FirstGov, http://firstgov.gov (U.S. government)

• GrapeSeek, http://www.grapeseek.com/

• Inomics: The Internet Site for Economists http://www.inomics.com/cgi/show

• Math Forum: Search for Math on the Internet, http://www.mathsearch.com/grepform.html

• MedWorld: MEDBOT Searching Tool, http://www-med.stanford.edu/medworld/medbot/

• ParaSeek.com: The Paranormal Search Engine, http://www.paraseek.com/

• Political Information, http://www.politicalinformation.com/

• Religion Explorer, http://www.religionexplorer.com/

• Science.gov, http://www.science.gov/

• Sikh-Seek, http://www.sikhseek.com/

• Social Work Search, http://www.socialworksearch.com/

• SocioWeb, http://www.socioweb.com/~markbl/socioweb/

• TaxTopic.com, http://www.taxtopic.com/

• WWWomen.com: The Premier Search Directory for Women Online, http://wwwomen.com/

• These are language specific specialty search engines: Spanish Language Search Engines, http://www.fsu.edu/~modlang/sp-cai/coursesite/SearchEngines.htm

• Foreign Language Internet Search Engines, http://www.bizforms.com/search.htm

• AllSearchEngines.com, http://allsearchengines.com