Search Engines For the Invisible Web - Topical Databases
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Topical databases are also useful when navigating the Invisible Web. What makes databases different from search engines is that databases actually host the content they link to. This does not mean that they do not have external links to content they do not host, but their own content is abundant. As with topical search engines, there are topical databases for almost every conceivable topic, so if you search, you will find.
Among the visible but still widely unknown resources is http://catalog.google.com. For many people Google is just the number one search engine and nothing more than that. But Google delivers much more. The example with the news search in the previous section and the link to the catalog in this one prove that Google does more than simply index the Web. I paid attention to this URL, because product catalogs are typically inhabitants of the Invisible Web.
Another valuable resource for products, although not exactly the catalog a manufacturer dreams of, can be found at http://www.cpsc.gov/cgi-bin/recalldb/prod.asp. This database allows users to find recalled products by product type, and contains a lot of useful information. It can be very helpful to those who want to get familiar with what goods to avoid due to their defects.
I could list at least a hundred more topical databases, but I do not think that after providing you with ideas about how to find them, you actually need such a list. Go forth and search!
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