The sheer size of Google and the number of results obtained in a search may be a turn off for some project work.  Some lesser known search and metasearch engines may be useful to know about for several reasons - efficiency, features, speed, and to ensure there's ample competition and innovation in search engine innovation.

I can see it now - supporters rallying  nationwide championing their favorite alternative search engine ... taking to the streets!  Well, maybe not.

Of course, even some of the smaller search engines may access the Big Four (Google, Yahoo!, Live and Ask) as part of their offering, yet utlize speed and simplicity, saving you time, while delivering high quality results.

One way to obtain focused results is to use a search engine concentrated on resources from a particular country.  South African searches are usually productive with the new TimbukOne (www.timbukone.com).  We've been watching TimbukOne for a while and now it appears ready for prime time.  It has multiple offerings on the site including a nifty News Maps which visually displays news from leading media outlets (Reuters, New York Times, Washington Post).  Asset managers and investors are targeted in this site that requires registration. We particularly like the Scannery Engine feature.

Zuula (www.zuula.com) is a metasearch engine we've used alot for scientific research and retrieval projects, with access to eleven search engines in a tabbed system.  It's clean look and broad search capabilities is a winner.

Mednar (www.mednar.com) is a search engine that specializes in medical information and appears to focus on both quality and flexibility.  Deep Web Technologies is the developer. The sources used at Mednar are almost invariably from American "national centers of excellence" or other well recognized bodies including the Cochrane Library.

Price alert and monitoring tools are useful at any time, especially during a recession. Three to consider: Pricedrop for products from Amazon.com  (www.pricedrop.stuff.org), PriceGrabber does comparison shopping for you; requires registration (www.pricegrabber.com) and Price Pinx lets you drop in a URL to set up a price alert.  The biggest winners go are displayed on the home page (www.pricepinx.com).

Note: If you're new to Research Helpline, you will find previous editions from 2007-2009 archived and available in the News section at http://www.halperninfoservices.com.  Contact richard@halperninfoservices.com for immediate attention for project work or fill out the form on site.