Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind.
- Rudyard Kipling (1835-1936)

Keyword access is the most unpredictable tool at your disposal for locating Internet resources. Keyword searching allows the creator of a resource to partially determine which words will allow the resource to be located. Some of these indexes are built by web users who submit URL's for inclusion. Others have "spiders," intelligent agents that scour the web for pages to be included.

In any event, keyword searching is probably the most tempting, yet most frustrating way to search. Unless you know exactly what you are looking for, this should probably be your last resort. If you are just surfing, then this is as good a method as any.

The locations listed below allow you to submit a search to a remote computer and have the results sent back to you as a list of links to resources that matched your query. Unlike the previous resource types, these involve heavy use of remote computing resources. Thus, they can get very busy, and very slow. If one is refusing your connection, try another.

Metacrawler: A new and powerful way to search the web. Metacrawler searches through a variety of other subject guides and general indexes. It brings back a few from each, and eliminates the duplicates.
Lycos: Lycos is among the most popular search engines for the web. Lycos has a Yahho!-style subject guide, but I don't recommend it.
WebCrawler: The WebCrawler builds its database by sending a program out on the web to find pages for inclusion. Like Lycos, it includes a subject guide that is not worth your time.
Aliweb: This index is provided "as a public service of NEXOR. This UK index is mirrored elsewhere, so, theoretically, you should choose the mirror nearest you for fastest results.
Liszt Mailing List Search.: A searchable list of over 15,000 e-mail discussion groups. Search by a single word, and you will get information about signing onto lists that interest you.