Metasearch Engines

Ixquick is an example of a metasearch engine.

Metasearch engines search the databases of several search engines at a time (e.g., HotBot, Excite, and Alta Vista).

Most eliminate duplicate listings.

Usually, you have little control over search options.

 Best for an overview of your topic on the Web, seeing which search engines will produce the best results, and for simple searches.

Downside, they aren't thorough.  Most metasearch engines omit Google, which is a highly-rated search engine.

Other metasearch engines: Dogpile, MetaCrawler, and Search.com.