What is a Meta Search engine? Examples of meta search engines

We use Google every day! Google has been one of the most essential website and search engine. We search every small thing on Google. Our general search tags on Google include- Search for some tags, files to download them, topics to read, etc.,

But, lets talk about a different kind of search engine – Meta Search Engine!

Meta search engines are very specific in their search. For example- a meta search engine will be for a particular type of file (say .doc) or searching people’s profiles online, etc.,

The main advantage of using a Meta Search Engine is- You can avoid all the Junk or unwanted results. So, when you do a search on any meta search engine, you will be getting specific results that will match your requirements.

We have listed out some Meta Search engines that are used for specific purposes.

Examples of Meta Search Engines-

1. www.pipl.com

This is really a very exciting search engines which gives data about a person. Just type his/her name or email or user name or phone number, it will display the details of that person. It searches the web and provides details like: user name, profile photos, the places where I have signed up, Picassa photos etc., Some hackers use this search engine to learn more about the person, and his personal information. Why so? Because, majority of them will have their nick name, date of birth or something related to their personal life as their PASSWORDS.

2. www.whereisdoc.com

This is a very useful search engine which will allow you to search documents on the web. You can search these formats on this website – PDF, DOC, PPT, XLS, RTF, HWP, TXT, AI, PS, DWF, SWF, KML, KMZ. Just check the file type, and type in your search keyword. When you click on search, filtered results of your specific file search will be displayed.

3. www.keyboardr.com

This is just another meta search engine that displays results for almost everything. The specialty of this search engine is that the results are displays the next instant the letter/word is typed and doesn’t wait for you to press Enter key or Search button. You can navigate through the search results using your keyboard.

4. www.justhearit.com

This is basically a search engine where you can search for any song. You will find them. Its a legal site, no piracy issues at all. So, go listen to your favorite music. It has a decent flash based-interface. You can share your favorite songs too.

5. www.dooblet.com

This is a unique search engine that provides alternatives to any search term or product that you specify. Let me explain it with an example. When you search for Google as your keyword, you will find Bing as the best alternative to Google, following Bing is Yahoo! and others (check this link). Another example, we know ebuddy, which is one of the most popular IM client. When ebuddy was searched in the dooblet search engine, we got Meebo, then Nimbuzz as the best alternatives.

6. www.search.io

This can be called as a Multi-Meta search engine. You can search for any topic under the category specified. This reduces the work to find meta specific search engine. This is one of the most popular meta search engine. You can choose the category of meta, and type your keyword and click on search.
Here I set the search varieties to “Recipe” and search for “pizza”. It gave all the recipes with pizza.

7. www.shopzilla.com

Shopzilla is a meta search engine, where you search for any item that you would like to purchase. Shopzilla gives you a list of search results. You can easily compare, and purchase the cheapest and the best. Shopzilla actually helps a lot. For example- instead of searching for Digital Camera in many sites, you can search for it at shopzilla, getting the following results – digital camera at shopzilla