Survey Of UK HE Institutional Search Engines

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

WebWatch: UK University Search Engines