List of search engines and directories

The databases used by search engines are made by "robots" or "spiders" that automatically map the Web by following the links between sites. The directories, on the other hand, contain sites that are hand picked by human beings. Still, most search sites present search engine as well as directory results. Metasearch engines gather results from several search engines and directories. They are not that good at advanced Boolean searching, but may provide you with a broad sweep of the Web.
Traditional search engines list normal webpages and some other file types that are interlinked to from such webpages. The database sites, however, give you access to data that are not part of the Web as such. See also sites focusing on the hidden Web below.


Search Engines:
About the best...
Google
Yahoo!
Yahoo!/Alta Vista
Yahoo!/All The Web
Ask
Bing (Live Search)
Exalead
GigaBlast
Cuil
Snap
iWon
Seekport UK
SearchUK
Aesop.com
FyberSearch
factbites
MoJeek
Accoona
Yoono
more...
Multisearch services
MsFreckles
Trexy
A9

Local search:
Goolge Local
Yahoo! Local
MSN City Guides
Ask Local
AOL local
Bing Local
Infospace Local
Local Search Guide
Pandia Plus Regional Search Engines
Maps
Google Maps Local
Bing Maps
Yahoo! Maps


Metasearch:
Pandia Metasearch
Search.com
Metacrawler
Mamma
Dogpile
RedeSearch.com
Kartoo
Ixquick
Clusty
HotBot
Pagebull visual search
Alohah! (the long tail)
eTools
Findelio
Kosmix
more...

Custom Search:
Directories over vertical and custom search engines:
Custom Search Engines
CSE Links
CustomSearchEngine.com
vErtical sEarch
Directories
About the best...
Pandia Plus [Q]
Yahoo! [Q]
Best of the Web
Mahalo
UKPlus
Femina Cybergrrl
Backwash
Joe Ant
Goguides.org
Tygo.com
Small Business Directory
v7n
Seven Seek
Romow
WOW

Databases:
Beaucoup!
Search Engine Links
Congoo
Directories
About.com
Academic Info
Alive
Argus
Aviva Directory of Directories
BUBL UK
Directory Journal
Gimpsy
IllumiRate
Infomine
Librarians' index
Open Directory [Q]
Rubber Stamped
Skaffe
Undum
more...

Microblog search:
AskTwitR
Back Tweets
Flaptor Twitter Search
MicroPlaza
Monitter
Twibs Business Search
TweepSearch
Tweetzi
Twingly Microblog Search
Twithaurithy
Twitscoop
Twitterfall
Twitter Search
We follow
Social search
Mahalo
Rollyo
Metafilter
diigo
Sproose
collarity
similicio.us (find similar pages)
Scour
nexplore
50 matches

Social news:
digg
Mixx
Shoutwire
Propeller
reddit
Yahoo! Buzz
Wikio

Bookmark based search:
Delicious
del.izzy
nsyght
Bookmark inSuggest