100 Heighe Street · Bel Air, MD 21014 · 410-638-4600

The Bellarion

The Bellarion

The Bellarion

Search Engines: Pick What’s Right for the Job

Is Google your default? Consider your options.
3D+illustration.
Creative Commons Credit: Peachaya Tanomsup
3D illustration.

Tech Tuesday: November 14, 2023

What is the difference between a search engine and browser? A search engine is a site that compiles a selection of sites based on your search (A popular example is Google Search Engine by Alphabet Inc.). Meanwhile, a browser is an application that formats the websites to be shown on your screen (Popular examples include Google Chrome and Firefox).  

Well, why is this distinction important? To make your search go farther. Some search engines prioritize sites that pay them money to be put at the top of your search. While others refuse to show some sites at all, which can have their pros and cons depending on what you’re looking for. 

Here is a list of various academic, kid friendly, scientific, and/or large database search engines and their descriptions. 

Story continues below advertisement

kidzsearch.com  

metacrawler.com  

kiddle.co  

refseek.com  

science.gov  

BASE  

Semantic Scholar  

The Analytical Sciences Digital Library 

arXiv 

U.S. Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information  

Ingenta Connect 

National Academy of Sciences (NAS) 

U.S. National Institutes of Health’s National Library of Medicine (NIH/NLM)  

Scientific Electronic Library Online 

Scienceresearch.com 

WorldWideScience.org