Bizarre, yet useful, Search Sites

I'd like to point out a couple of search sites that I found courtesy of a James Fallows article in the New York Times.

The first is a search portal called Mr. Sapo. Mr. Sapo provides instant comparative access to all major search engines using a simple button metaphor. Enter a search term, then click any of the buttons to see the results for the specified engine. Bizarre name? Check. Odd interface? Checkety check. Pretty darn useful? Check and mate, beenizzle*.

The Mr. Sapo site pointed me to a new search engine with which I was unfamiliar: Exalead. It is very, very interesting. Search on a term and you get a plethora of sidebar windows along with the traditional results. The sidebar windows provide drill-down capabilities over a variety of categories:

Related terms

Related categories

Geographic location of web site

Document type

Screen captures of each resulting site

In other words, support for down-selecting the search results using several useful criteria. Check it out.

*I am licensed to use teen/hip-hop lingo, given two teens in my current household.