UKOLN WebWatch: UK University Search Engines

Survey Of UK HE Institutional Search Engines - January 2002



About This Document

This document provides information from a survey of UK University search engines. The survey was originally carried out between 16 July and 24 August 1999. The survey was carried out using the list of Higher Education Universities and Colleges provided by HESA.

A report on the survey was published in Ariadne issue 21.

Please note that this page contains a simplified interface to the institution's searching service.

Also note that this page contains an interface to search engines as originally recorded in July/August 1999. The information will be updated periodically in order to monitor trends. If you do notice any errors or changes please contact Brian Kelly.

Changes

The following changes were made since the last version was announced. Note that CHANGE indicates a change on the institution's Web site, ERROR indicates an error made by the author and UPDATE indicates a minor modification (e.g. URL has changed but same search engine used).

20 Nov 2001
Added duplicate entry for Reading (uses ht://Dig AND Google) DUPLICATE
Added duplicate entry for Bristol (uses ht://Dig AND Google) DUPLICATE
Added duplicate entry for Warwick (uses ht://Dig AND Google) DUPLICATE
13 Nov 2001
URL of SOAS search page changed and search engine changed from WebStar to ColdFusion CHANGE
Nottingham Trent (NTU) changed from Microsoft (SiteServer) to None CHANGE
Surrey Institute of Art and Design changed from Other to Not Available CHANGE
URL of Abertay search page changed and search engine changed from Verity to ColdFusion CHANGE
Form Action URL of Anglia Polytechnic University search page changed UPDATE
Form Action URL of Bournemouth University search page changed UPDATE
Form Action URL of Bournemouth University search page fixed ERROR
Form Action URL of Brighton University search page changed UPDATE
Derby changed from Microsoft to Google CHANGE
Glamorgan changed from None to ht://Dig CHANGE
Institute of Education changed from None to Home-grown CHANGE
London Business School changed from Unknown to Ultraseek CHANGE
Form Action URL of LSE search page fixed ERROR
Medicine, University of Wales College of (UWCM) changed from None to Microsoft CHANGE
Form Action URL of Middlesex changed CHANGE
Form Action URL of Oxford University search page changed UPDATE
Ripon and York St John, College of changed from Microsoft to Unknown CHANGE
Royal Veterinary College changed from None to Google CHANGE
Form Action URL of Sheffield University search page changed UPDATE
Form parameters of Southampton Institute search page changed UPDATE
Form parameters of Sunderland University search page changed UPDATE
St Mary's College changed from Freefind to None CHANGE
Welsh College of Music and Drama changed from SimpleSearch to Fluid Dynamics Search Engine CHANGE
Staffordshire changed from Not Available to AltaVista CHANGE
Teeside changed from None to ColdFusion CHANGE
Removed College of Guidance Studies (COGS) from list as college has merged UPDATE
Removed North Riding College Higher Education Corporation from list as college has merged UPDATE
Removed Westminster College from list UPDATE
24 Aug 2001
Derby changed from AltaVista (public) to Microsoft CHANGE
6 Aug 2001
URL for WCMD changed UPDATE
23 Jul 2001
Swansea Institute changed from None to ht://Dig CHANGE
18 Jul 2001
UWE changed from Excite to ht://Dig CHANGE
UCL changed from Netscape to ht://Dig CHANGE
Newport changed from Ultraseek to Google CHANGE
Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM) changed from None to Microsoft CHANGE
Queen Margaret University College changed from Lycos to Not Available CHANGE
URL for search engine at London School of Hygiene changed UPDATE
URL for search engine at Middlesex University changed UPDATE
KCL changed from SWISH to ht://Dig CHANGE
URL for search engine at Reading University changed UPDATE
URL for search engine at Napier University changed UPDATE
Lancaster changed from SWISH to Google CHANGE
24 May 2001
University of Wales College of Medicine changed from WWWWais to None CHANGE
Aberdeen changed from eXcite to ht://Dig CHANGE
Derby changed from None to AltaVista CHANGE
Birmingham changed from eXcite to Inktomi CHANGE
Manchester Business School changed from Microsoft to Google CHANGE
Lampeter changed from None to Google CHANGE
Cardiff changed from WWWWais to Ultraseek CHANGE
Glasgow Caledonia changed from Ultraseek to Inktomi CHANGE
Cambridge changed from Ultraseek to Inktomi CHANGE
Sussex changed from Ultraseek to Inktomi CHANGE
UNL changed from Ultraseek to Inktomi CHANGE
Swansea changed from Harvest to ht://Dig CHANGE
St Andrews changed from None to ht://Dig CHANGE
TVU incorrectly listed as Ultraseek. Changed to Netscape ERROR
17 Apr 2001
Nottingham changed from Excite to Google CHANGE
Changed URL details for Strathclyde UPDATE
20 Feb 2001
Glasgow School of Art changed from None to Google CHANGE
1 Feb 2001
Warwick changed from Harvest to ht://Dig CHANGE
Leeds changed from ht://Dig to Google CHANGE
12 Dec 00
Changed URL details for Paisley UPDATE
Changed URL details for Glasgow Caledonian University UPDATE
25 Sep 00
Changed URL details for Brighton UPDATE
Queen Margaret University College changed from Unknown to Lycos CHANGE
20 Sep 00
Bath Spa changed from None to FreeFind CHANGE
URL for Northern College changed UPDATE
Changed URL for Ulster search engine page UPDATE
Changed URL for Exeter search engine page UPDATE
31 Aug 00
Derby changed from AltaVista (Public) to None CHANGE
Exeter changed from eXcite to ht://Dig CHANGE
Glasgow Caledonia changed from eXcite to Ultraseek CHANGE
Thames Valley changed from eXcite to Ultraseek CHANGE
Anglia changed from Harvest to Webinator CHANGE
Aston changed from Harvest to ht://Dig CHANGE
UNN changed from Harvest to ht://Dig CHANGE
King ALfred's changed from Not Available to Microsoft CHANGE
10 Aug 00
UMIST changed from ht://Dig to Microsoft CHANGE
Kingston changed from eXcite to ht://Dig CHANGE
London Business School changed from None to Lotus Domino CHANGE
St. George's Hospital Medical School changed from eXcite to ht://Dig CHANGE
Heriott-Watt changed from None to ht://Dig CHANGE
URL for search page at UNL changed UPDATE
University of Greenwich changed from None to Picosearch CHANGE
Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College changed from None to Atomz CHANGE
CSSD changed from None to Atomz CHANGE
The URL for the search facility at Sunderland has changed UPDATE
The URL for the search facility at Royal Holloway has changed UPDATE
The URL for the search facility at Manchester has changed UPDATE
The URL for the search facility at LGU has changed UPDATE
UWIC has changed from MS (FrontPage) to MS (IIS) CHANGE
DMU has changed from Harvest to ht://Dig CHANGE
The URL for the search facility at the University of Cardiff has changed UPDATE
University of London has changed from Netscape to Atmoz CHANGE
23 Mar 00
LMU has changed from None to Ultraseek CHANGE
6 Mar 00
Sheffield Hallam (SHU) has changed from SWISH-E to ht://Dig CHANGE
28 Feb 00
Roehampton URL has changed UPDATE
14 Feb 00
LMU has changed from Unknown to None CHANGE
25 Jan 00
UNN changed from Unknown to Harvest ERROR
18 Jan 00
Chester changed from None to ht://Dig Change
Updated code for Open University to make it operational: Error
17 Jan 00
Updated URL for Southampton Institute Change
14 Jan 00
Welsh Collge of Music and Drama has changed from none to SimpleSearch: Change
11 Jan 00
Abertay has changed from none to Verity: Change
Aston has changed from none to Harvest: Change
Napier has changed from none to Microsoft: Change
Stirling has changed from none to ht://Dig: Change
11 Jan 00
Queen's University Belfast has changed from Harvest to ht://Dig Change
Cranfield has changed from Harvest to ht://Dig: Change
5 Jan 00
Reading has changed from Harvest to ht://Dig: Change
DMU changed URL details: Update
Nene changed URL details: Update
14 Dec 99
University of London (Institutes) changed from Unknown to Netscape: Change
13 Dec 99
Added search form for Anglia: Update
Changed location of search page for Northern College: Update
10 Dec 99
MMU now use AltaVista instead of ht://Dig: Change
5 Nov 99
Bournemouth have installed ht://Dig: Change
15 Oct 99
Warwick uses Harvest. Previously not found due to error by author: Error
Southampton have moved from Harvest to ht://Dig: Change
Strathclyde uses ht://Dig. Previously not found as not located on home page: Error
LGU uses ht://Dig. Previously was SWISH: Change
Roehampton uses MS Index. Previously none found: Change
SBU inform me they use SWISH. Previously labelled as home-grown, as they use unusual URL: Error
Sunderland have moved from Excite to MS SiteServer: Change
Details for NEWI were given twice - once (correcly) for Webinator, and once for Ultraseek. Deleted the Ultraseek entry: Error
Wolverhampton uses ht://Dig. Previously listed incorrectly as Excite: Error
Leeds have moved from Glimpse to ht://Dig: Change
Institution Name Search Location
Aberdeen ht://Dig
http://www.abdn.ac.uk/central/search/
Abertay ColdFusion
http://www.abertay-dundee.ac.uk/general/search/search_f.html
Aberystwyth Microsoft
http://www.aber.ac.uk/search.shtml
Anglia Polytechnic University Thunderstone Webinator
http://www.anglia.ac.uk/search/
Aston ht://Dig
http://www.aston.ac.uk/search/
Bangor Netscape (Web Publisher)
http://www.bangor.ac.uk/search.html
Bath Spa Freefind
http://www.bathspa.ac.uk/search/
Bath ht://Dig
http://www.bath.ac.uk/htsearch/
Belfast, The Queen's University of Ultraseek
http://www.qub.ac.uk:8765/
Birkbeck ht://Dig
http://www.bbk.ac.uk/search.html
Birmingham Inktomi
http://www.search.bham.ac.uk/
Bolton Institute of Higher Education None found See home page
Bournemouth University ht://Dig
http://www.bournemouth.ac.uk/search/
Bradford ht://Dig
http://www.brad.ac.uk/search/
Bretton College None found See home page
Brighton ht://Dig
http://www.bton.ac.uk/
Bristol ht://Dig and Google
http://www.bristol.ac.uk/search/
Brunel ht://Dig
http://www.brunel.ac.uk/search.html
Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College (BCUC) Atomz
http://www.bcuc.ac.uk/page.asp#sos
Cambridge Inktomi
http://www.cam.ac.uk/Searching/
Canterbury Christ Church Microsoft (Index Server)
http://www.cant.ac.uk/misc/search.htm
Cardiff Ultraseek
http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/searching/
Cardiff, University of Wales Institute (UWIC) Microsoft (IIS)
http://www.uwic.ac.uk/search/
Central England, University of (UCE) SWISH
http://www.uce.ac.uk/search/search.htm
Central Lancashire eXcite
http://www.uclan.ac.uk/excite/AT-sitequery.html
Central School of Speech and Drama Atomz
http://www.cssd.ac.uk/search/searchframe9.html
University of Gloucester (was Cheltenham and Gloucester College of HE) None found See home page
Chester College ht://Dig
http://www.chester.ac.uk/htdig/search.php3
Chichester College None found See home page
City ht://Dig
http://www.city.ac.uk/search/
Coventry ht://Dig
http://www.coventry.ac.uk/htdig/search.html
Cranfield ht://Dig
http://www.cranfield.ac.uk/search.htm
Dartington College of Arts None found See home page
De Montfort (DMU) ht://Dig
http://www.dmu.ac.uk/Search/
Derby Google
http://www.derby.ac.uk/fastq.html
Dundee Maestro
http://somis.ais.dundee.ac.uk/search/www-gtw?server=Search+the+University
Durham ht://Dig
http://www.dur.ac.uk/search/input.htm
East Anglia, University of (UEA) Webinator
http://www.uea.ac.uk/cgi-bin/uea/search/texis/webinator/search?db=uea_dbs/uea_public
East London None available See home page
Edge Hill eXcite
http://www.ehche.ac.uk/Architext/index.htm
Edinburgh Ultraseek
http://www.ed.ac.uk/search.html
Essex Microsoft (SiteServer)
http://www2.essex.ac.uk/search/
Exeter ht://Dig
http://www.ex.ac.uk/public_html/search.html
Falmouth Microsoft
http://www.falmouth.ac.uk/
Glamorgan ht://Dig
http://www.glam.ac.uk/
Glasgow Caledonian University Inktomi
http://www.gcal.ac.uk/itsc/search.htm
Glasgow School of Art Google

http://www.gsa.ac.uk/contents.html
Glasgow ht://Dig
http://www.gla.ac.uk/search
Goldsmiths College ht://Dig
http://www.goldsmiths.ac.uk/search/
Greenwich Picosearch
http://www.gre.ac.uk/
Harper Adams None found See home page
Heriot-Watt ht://Dig
http://www.hw.ac.uk/
Hertfordshire None found See home page
Huddersfield None found See home page
Hull wwwwais
http://www.hull.ac.uk/search.html
Imperial ht://Dig
http://webindex.cc.ic.ac.uk/
Institute of Education Homegrown
http://www.ioe.ac.uk/
Keele ht://Dig
http://www.keele.ac.uk/search.htm
Kent ht://Dig
http://www.ukc.ac.uk/search/
Kent Institute of Art and Design None found See home page
King Alfred's College, Winchester Microsoft
http://www.wkac.ac.uk/09search/tbar.htm
King's College London (KCL) ht://Dig
http://www.kcl.ac.uk/htdig/htsearch.html
Kingston ht://Dig
http://www.kingston.ac.uk/htdig/search.html
Lampeter Google
http://www.lamp.ac.uk/search.html
Lancaster Google
http://www.lancs.ac.uk/search.htm
Leeds Google
http://www.leeds.ac.uk/search/
Leeds Metropolitan University (LMU) Ultraseek
http://www.lmu.ac.uk/rightcol/search.htm
Leicester ht://Dig
http://www.le.ac.uk/cwis/searchsite.html
Lincolnshire and Humberside None found See home page
Liverpool Harvest
http://www.liv.ac.uk/Search/
Liverpool John Moore Microsoft
http://cwis.livjm.ac.uk/
Liverpool Hope None found See home page
London Business School Infoseek
http://search.london.edu/
London Guildhall ht://Dig
http://www.lgu.ac.uk/homepage.html
London Institute None found See home page
University of London (Institutes) Atomz
http://www.lon.ac.uk/search.htm
London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) ht://Dig
http://www.lse.ac.uk/search.html
London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine ht://Dig
http://www.lshtm.ac.uk/search/
Loughborough eXcite
http://www.lboro.ac.uk/
Luton ht://Dig
http://www.luton.ac.uk/
Manchester Institute of Science & Technology (UMIST) Microsoft
http://www.umist.ac.uk/
Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) AltaVista
http://wwwsearch.mmu.ac.uk/
Manchester ht://Dig
http://search.mcc.ac.uk/man/
Manchester Business School Google
http://www.mbs.ac.uk/Search/
Medicine, University of Wales College of (UWCM) Microsoft
http://www.uwcm.ac.uk/search.htm
Middlesex Microsoft (Index Server)
http://www.mdx.ac.uk/
Napier Microsoft
http://www.napier.ac.uk/searchcentre/studying.html
Newcastle Webinator
http://search.ncl.ac.uk/search.html
Newman None found See home page
Newport Google
http://www.newport.ac.uk/search/index.htm
North-East Wales Institute of Higher Education (NEWI) Webinator
http://www.newi.ac.uk/search.htm
North London (UNL) Inktomi
http://www.unl.ac.uk/search/
Northampton, University College FreeFind
http://www.nene.ac.uk/websearch/search.html
Northern College of Education eXcite Cannot be used remotely http://www.norcol.ac.uk/search/
Northern School of Contemporary Dance None found See home page
University of Northumbria at Newcastle ht://Dig
http://online.unn.ac.uk/
Norwich School of Art and Design None found See home page
Nottingham Trent (NTU) None   See home page
Nottingham Google
http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/search.html
Open University In-house
http://www.open.ac.uk/search/
Oxford ht://Dig
http://wwwsearch.ox.ac.uk/
Oxford Brookes eXcite
http://www.brookes.ac.uk/search/search.html
Paisley Microsoft
http://www.paisley.ac.uk/search.asp
Plymouth Microsoft
http://www.plymouth.ac.uk/pages/search.asp
Portsmouth ht://Dig
http://web-search.port.ac.uk/search.shtml
Queen Margaret University College No longer available http://www.qmced.ac.uk/search/
Queen Mary and Westfield College ht://Dig
http://www.qmw.ac.uk/search/
Ravensbourne College of Design and Communication None found See home page
Reading ht://Dig and Google
http://www.rdg.ac.uk/search/
Ripon and York St John, College of Unknown
http://www.ucrysj.ac.uk/Search.htm
Robert Gordon University None found (Internal search facility is not available). See home page
Roehampton Microsoft
http://www.roehampton.ac.uk/about/search/
Royal Academy of Music None found See home page
Royal College of Art None found See home page
Royal College of Music None found See home page
Royal Holloway Ultraseek
http://www.rhul.ac.uk/Search/
Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM) Microsoft search engine
http://www.rncm.ac.uk/templates/search.htm
Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama None found See home page
Royal Veterinary College Google
http://www.rvc.ac.uk/Search.htm
St Andrews ht://Dig
http://www.st-and.ac.uk/
St George's Hospital Medical School ht://Dig
http://www.sghms.ac.uk/
St Mark and St John, College of Google
http://www.marjon.ac.uk/search/
St Mary's College FreeFind
http://www.smuc.ac.uk/search/
Salford ht://Dig
http://www.salford.ac.uk/search.html
School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) ColdFusion?
http://www.soas.ac.uk/search/
Scottish Agricultural College Microsoft (FrontPage)
http://www.sac.ac.uk/search.htm
Sheffield Hallam University ht://Dig
http://www.shu.ac.uk/
Sheffield Webinator
http://www.shef.ac.uk/search/
South Bank University SWISH
http://www.sbu.ac.uk/search_site/
Southampton ht://Dig
http://www.search.soton.ac.uk/soton/
Southampton Institute Microsoft (Index Server)
http://www.solent.ac.uk/search/searchsite.asp
Staffordshire AltaVista
http://www.staffs.ac.uk/index/dosearch.html
Stirling ht://Dig
http://www.stir.ac.uk/search.html
Strathclyde ht://Dig
http://www.strath.ac.uk/search/
Sunderland Microsoft (SiteServer)
http://search.sunderland.ac.uk/search.html
Surrey Institute of Art and Design Not available
http://www.surrart.ac.uk/search.html
Surrey Muscat
http://www.surrey.ac.uk/Search/
Sussex Inktomi
http://search.sussex.ac.uk/USIS/
Swansea Institute of Higher Education ht://Dig
http://193.62.88.76/htdig/search.html
Swansea ht://Dig
http://www.swan.ac.uk/uws/search/
Teeside ColdFusion?
http://www.tees.ac.uk/search.cfm
Thames Valley Univesity (TVU) Netscape
http://www.tvu.ac.uk/search
Trinity and All Saints WebFind
http://www.tasc.ac.uk/index2/all.html
Trinity College of Music None found See home page
Trinity College, Carmarthen Not available http://www.trinity-cm.ac.uk/search/index.asp
Ulster Ultraseeek
http://search.ulst.ac.uk/
University College London (UCL) ht://Dig
http://www-search.ucl.ac.uk/htdig/
Warwick ht://Dig and Google

http://www.warwick.ac.uk/search/
Welsh College of Music and Drama Fluid Dynamics Search Engine
http://www.wcmd.ac.uk/search/
West of England, University of (UWE) ht://Dig
http://www.uwe.ac.uk/
Westhill College None found   See home page
Westminster Microsoft (Index Server)
http://www.westminster.ac.uk/advquery.asp
Wolverhampton ht://Dig
http://www.scit.wlv.ac.uk/search.html
Worcester, University College ht://Dig
http://www.worc.ac.uk/search.html
Writtle College None found See home page
Wye College None found See home page
York ht://Dig
http://www.york.ac.uk/cgi-bin/search/

Summary

Summaries are given below.

Name Total Details
ht://dig 49 (includes three duplicate entries) Aberdeen - Aston - Bath - Birkbeck - Bournemouth - Bradford - Brighton - Bristol - Brunel - City - Coventry - Cranfield - Chester - DMU - Durham - Exeter - Glamorgan - Glasgow - Goldsmiths - Heriot-Watt - Imperial - KCL - Keele - Kent - Kingston - Leicester - London Guildhall - London School of Hygiene - LSE - Manchester - UNN - Oxford - Portsmouth - Reading (also uses Google) - Salford - Sheffield Hallam - Southampton - St George's - St Andrews - Stirling - Strathclyde - Swansea - Swansea Institute - UCL - UWE - Warwick (also uses Google) - Wolverhampton - Worcester - York
Microsoft 18 Aberystwyth - Canterbury Christ Church - Essex - Falmouth - King Alfred's - Liverpool John Moore - UMIST - Middlesex - Napier - Paisley - Plymouth - Roehampton - Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM) - Scottish Agricultural College - Southampton Institute - Sunderland - UWIC - Westminster
Inktomi/Ultraseek 12 Cardiff - Edinburgh - LMU - London Business School - Queen's University Belfast - Royal Holloway - Ulster - UNL
Birmingham - Cambridge - Glasgow Caledonian - Sussex
Google 13 (includes three duplicate entries) Bristol - Derby - Glasgow School of Art - Newport - Lampeter - Lancaster - Leeds - Manchester Business School - Nottingham - Reading (also uses ht://Dig) - Royal Veterinary College - St Mark and St John - Warwick (also uses ht://Dig)
eXcite 5 Central Lancashire - Edge Hill - Loughborough - Northern College - Oxford Brookes
Thunderstone's Webinator 5 Anglia - Newcastle - UEA - NEWI - Sheffield
Atomz 3 CSSD - Bucks - University of London
FreeFind (Remote Index) 2 Bath Spa - Northampton
ColdFusion 3 Abertay - SOAS - Teeside
SWISH / SWISH-E 2 South Bank - UCE
Netscape (Compass/Web Publisher) 2 Bangor - Thames Valley
AltaVista (Product) 2 MMU - Staffordshire
wwwwais (formerly available from <http://www.eit.com/>) 1 Hull
Harvest 1 Liverpool
Muscat 1 Surrey
Maestro 1 Dundee
WebStar 1 SOAS
WebFind 1 TASC
Fluid Dynamics Search Engine 1 Welsh Collge of Music and Drama
Picosearch 1 University of Greenwich
Other (Not known, home-grown) 3 Institute of Education - Open University - Ripon
Lycos 0  
Verity 0  
AltaVista (Public Service) 0  
SimpleSearch 0  
None (or not easily found) 28 Bolton - Bretton - Cheltenham - Chichester - Dartington - East London - Harper Adams - Herts - Huddersfield - Kent Institute - Lincolnshire - Liverpool Hope - London Institute - Newman - North Riding - Northern School - Norwich - Ravensbourne - RGU - Royal Academy - Royal College of Art - Royal College of Music - Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama - St Mary's College - Trinity College of Music - Westhill College - Writtle - Wye
Web site no longer available 1 Westminster College (was at <http://www.ox-west.ac.uk/>) - College of Guidance Studies (COGS) (was at <http://www.cogs.ac.uk/>) - North Riding College Higher Education Corporation (was at <http://www.ucscarb.ac.uk/>)
Search engine not available at time of survey 3 Queen Margaret University College - Surrey Institute - Trinity College
Total 156