A bonus is that results pages load very quickly. At this point, Google is the best. If it is out there, chances are you can use Google to find it. Lycos One of the original search engines, Lycos searches only the web which it indexes quite well. Is affiliated with HotBot, and you can try out the same search on both engines.
Advanced search has good boolean search capabilities.
HotBot Founded by Wired Magazine with consistently good reviews, HotBot is now owned by Lycos. Yahoo started as a subject index but now will can query Internet using Inktomi search technology. Yahoo's Internet Search Page provides links to every search resource imaginable. There is a proliferation of services which could be termed Yahoo clones which provide hierarchical indices of Web sites which can be searched internally or will link to other search engines to search the web more widely. Britannica Online all of the print encyclopedia online, plus lots of other links for general topic research.