Posts in Search
Cool Tools Omnilist

I created a searchable archive of every product we've recommended in Recomendo and our other newsletters since 2020. The database includes thousands of items (with photos) that you can filter by category, date, or keyword. Want to see all the knives we've reviewed? Just type "knife" in the search field. This makes it easy to browse our entire review history or find specific recommendations. The site is ready to explore, though I'm open to suggestions for improvements. — MF

Public domain image search tool

I was tired of visiting multiple museum collections one-by-one for usable images, so I built this simple web tool that creates direct search links to 11 major institutional collections on a single page. Enter a search term like "sailing ships" and get one-click access to results from places like the Smithsonian, Met Museum, Library of Congress and more. Free. — MF

Art, SearchClaudia Dawson
Known unknowns

This is super cool: Wikenigma, an encyclopedia of known unknowns. What we know we don't know. A startlingly long list of unanswered questions, uncertainties, and blank areas in our collective knowledge. Frontiers. Good places to work. — KK

SearchClaudia Dawson
Verbatim search results

If you're finding that using quotation marks no longer returns exact phrase matches on Google, here's a workaround: After conducting your search, click on "Tools" under the search bar, then click on “All Results” and choose “Verbatim”. This will display search results that match the exact phrase you entered. — CD

SearchClaudia Dawson
Walkable neighborhoods finder

Close.city is an interactive map designed to help you find neighborhoods in the United States that are within a short walking distance of amenities like supermarkets, public transportation, cafes, co-working spaces, bookstores, and other facilities. It's useful when searching for a hotel, Airbnb, or apartment that's near the kinds of places that are important to you — MF

Search engine for podcasts and videos

Dexa is a new AI-powered search engine that indexes content from prominent podcasts and videos, making it easy to find the information you need. When you search on Dexa, it provides a text summary of the relevant information and allows you to listen to or watch the specific portions of the media containing the information you're looking for, saving you time and effort. – MF

SearchClaudia Dawson
Old Internet Search

Oldavista is a search engine that retrieves results from the “internet of yesterday,” sourcing from archived personal web pages such as GeoCities, AOL Hometown, Angelfire, and others. It’s modeled after the now-defunct AltaVista and scraped from the Internet Archive. I love the nostalgia exploration! — CD

SearchClaudia Dawson
Better Reddit search

Reddit is often a more reliable source of information than Google, especially for product reviews, restaurant recommendations, and how-to instructions. Unfortunately, Reddit’s native search engine is clunky and leaves a lot to be desired. I started using Giga, a site that returns relevant Reddit posts and summarizes them. I used it to find out how to cook chicken breasts so they don’t become tough and dry. — MF

SearchClaudia Dawson
Map of the Best

I didn’t know it, but I guess I did need another search engine for restaurants. Map of the Best filters only “the best” restaurants near you based on stars, awards and reviews. It eliminates a lot of the Yelp noise and is especially helpful for me in San Jose, California where there’s an abundance of Mexican restaurants serving delicious food. — CD 

SearchClaudia Dawson
Smarter googling

Google has taken its first steps toward integrating its generative AI into your search. Google SGE is now available as a default option in your browser. When you google something the AI sorts the answers into a readable summary, which allows you to respond and ask further questions in a conversational mode. It displays at the very top of the search page in a tinted box. I find it very helpful, reliable, and extremely easy to use – it’s just there. To turn it on, you need a Google account, Chrome on desktop or Google app on phone, and to be in the US. — KK

Search, AIClaudia Dawson
Find the most useful comments on Reddit

Reddit's search function is not pleasant to navigate, so whenever I discover a better search engine for it, I always get excited to share it widely. GigaBrain is the newest and best search engine for finding product recommendations and experience-based answers from actual people. Whatever your question is, GigaBrain will extract from billions of Reddit comments and provide you with summarized results. — CD

SearchClaudia Dawson
AI emoji search engine

I felt a sense of glee when I came across Emojiton, because I take every opportunity to use emojis when it's appropriate. I'm a fan mostly because they add a playful emotional context to whatever I'm trying to convey. Emojiton is perfect for finding a string of emojis to translate films or books, or words in other languages. Here's Pinocchio in emojis. — CD

AI, SearchClaudia Dawson
Powerful answer engine

As an alternative to Google I've been asking Perplexity.ai all my questions, because it provides more than just a list of results. It searches a wide range of sources, including academic papers, and writes up a quick summary with cited sources I can click on for further research. It also guesses my follow-up questions. It feels more like a conversation than just search results. — CD

SearchClaudia Dawson
Search everything instantly

Swurl.com is a web search engine that is optimally designed for mobile. It instantly searches Google, LinkedIn, Instagram, Amazon, YouTube, Images, News and Reddit, and all results are viewed by scrolling or swiping — no clicking. Definite timesaver. — CD

SearchClaudia Dawson
Super image search

Google has famously not added anything to its simple and austere search page in 20 years. But recently they added something special: a little camera icon. This is Google Lens. You can drag an image into the Google’s search bar and use AI to do many more things that Google Image does. If it is a common image it can tell you the source of the image. If it is an uncommon image it can show you similar images. If it is a product, it can identify it and suggest sources. If it is a plant or living creature it can identify it. It can translate foreign scripts, including mathematics. If I am searching for something that has an image associated with it, I can often find much better results, faster, searching via the image in Google Lens. — KK

SearchClaudia Dawson
Search research papers for a consensus

Consensus.app is a search engine that extracts, aggregates and distills findings from 200 million peer-reviewed scientific research papers to answer your questions. It’s still in beta, so there is disclaimer that the results are not meant to be taken as final truth, but more of a reflection of relevant research relating to your query. I love using other search engines besides Google whenever I can. Here’s a list of other interesting search engines we’ve recommended in the past. — CD

SearchClaudia Dawson
Search podcast episodes by keyword

A while back I recommended Listen Notes as a podcast search engine, but unfortunately the advance search features are now behind a paywall. Recomendo reader Ken Rogan suggested Podchaser.com as an alternative and I’ve been using it for the past couple months to find episodes on specific subjects or keywords for free and without registering. — CD

SearchClaudia Dawson
Autocomplete data from all over the world

AnswerThePublic takes all the autocomplete data from search engines to report back what questions people are asking all over the world. You can test out the the search engine with 1-2 keywords, which is helpful for anyone doing market research or just nosy like me. You can use it twice a day for free without having to pay a monthly cost. — CD

SearchClaudia Dawson