The Pandia Search Central, a site dedicated to search engines and productive Internet searching.

On September the 1st 1998 Internet surfers could for the first time visit the Pandia Search Central, a site dedicated to fast and efficient Internet searching.

The needle in the haystack

The number of webpages in the world have probalbu passed the 30 billion mark (noone knows for sure). The good news is that users have access to more information than ever before. However, it has become increasingly difficult to get to the real gems: the information the user really needs, right now.

Fortunately there are several advanced search services on the World Wide Web. Search engines like Fast and Google provide databases with information gathered by robots scurrying the Net. Directories like Yahoo and the Open Directory give the public access to smaller catalogues of sites assessed and sorted by human beings.

The Pandia Search Central is established to help people use all these services more effectively; to help them find the right tools for the right job and teach them how to ask the right questions.

Many users enter just one or two words in the search form of their favorite search engine, and are rewarded with thousands of irrelevant hits. By learning the basics of advanced searching, they will get fewer and more relevant results.

Tutorial and list of resources for Internet searching

Pandia includes a short and easy Internet search tutorial called the Pandia Goalgetter, as well as a page with links to -- and search forms for -- important search engines and directories (Pandia Powersearch).

In July 2000 Pandia also added a separate gateway for people search engines and e-mail address finders called Pandia People Search, and in April 2001 Pandia established a portal for search engine optimization tools and resources called Pandia SEO.

Search engine news

Pandia Search Engine News brings you original articles on search engine development. There is also a breaking news newsfeed giving you daily updates from the world of Internet searching.

Search for news and books

Then there is a section dedicated to searching for news. The core of the Pandia Newsfinder is of a metasearch engine that queries news sites like CNN, BBC, MSNBC, The Washington Post and more.

The Pandia Search World offer the latest news from the world of Internet searching, covering search engines, search directories and portals.

There is also a special resource section, which covers other search-oriented sites and tutorials.

The Pandia Bookstore is an on-line bookstore for books on Internet searching. The store is administered in co-operation with the largest book retailer on the net: Amazon.com.

Q-cards that remember the search syntax for you

Pandia has created so-called "Q-cards" for some of the major search services. These list the features and the search syntax of the various engines or directories, and include examples on how to formulate queries. A click of the mouse opens the relevant search engine's search form in a separate window or frame.

The Q-cards are extremely useful for people who have learned the basics of advanced Internet searching.

Metasearch Engine

Pandia offers a separate Metasearch engine, covering Yahoo!, Live and other resources. One search will bring you a mix of results from some of the best search engines and directories.

Radio and TV Directory

The TVRadio Network powers the Pandia Radio Search engine, giving visitors direct access to radio stations from all over the world. Browse by category or country/state or search using the search form.

You can gather your favourite stations in a folder called "my stations", making it easy to find your favourite news, music and other programs.

Pandia Plus: the Internet Directory

Finally there is the Pandia Plus Directory, which is powered by the Open Directory Project. This directory includes some 3.5 million handpicked by thousands of enthusiasts and experts from all over the world.

Shopping Search

We have also a dedicated search tool collection for shopping search.

This page also includes links to comparison shopping search engines, online malls and selected webstores.

Search Engine Optimization Gateway

An important part of a Webmaster's life is making his Web pages visible in the search engine. A top ranking in one of the major search engines may bring in a lot of visitors and customers.

The Pandia site brings useful information on how to design search engine friendly sites, and how to optimize pages to achieve top search engine rankings.

Go to our Search Engine Optimization Gateway to gain access to all the best search engine promotion and ranking resources and tools on the Net.

For a beginners' guide to search engine optimization and positioning, see our Search Engine Marketing 101 tutorial.

A non-profit adventure

It has been the goal of Pandia to develop an informative and useful site that looks good and is easy to navigate. In spite of the "com," Pandia.com is not a "dot com"-company as such. It is owned, designed, written and edited by a couple from Norway: Per and Susanne Koch. This only proves that "ordinary citizens" can develop professional sites that benefit the whole Net community.