Search and SEO
Search and SEO
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PostHog
A developer-focused analytics suite combining event tracking, session replay, and A/B testing
Startpage
More of an old-school search experience. Download an app to search with more privacy. Also has a browser plug-in to make it your browser start page.
OneLook
Search engine for words. Get its history, where it has been used and several dictionary definitions.
Bing Chat
AI-powered search. Create images in chat, with the new Bing’s Image Creator. Search, chat and create, all in one place.
Kagi
Customizable search experience. Good option to Google.
Nieman Lab: Testing Kagi, a Premium Search Engine in a Broken Internet
Brave Browser
Block ads. Save data. And get way faster webpages. Just by switching your browser. Private search, VPN and built-in AI.
Duck.ai
From the folks at DuckDuckGo. Free and private, anonymized chats. You can choose the model, including Claude and GPT.
Comet
Perplexity’s AI-first browser
Brave Leo AI
A smart AI assistant built into the browser. Ask questions, summarize pages, create new content, and more. Strong privacy.
Arc Search
Direct-answer search tool.
So You Still Think You Can Google?
Henk van Ess on Google shift to search agents in spring 2026.
Query Forge
Helps you build better Google search queries.
VidIQ
Boost YouTube views. Freemium account with monthly plans starting at $5.
Ahrefs
A comprehensive Search Engine Optimization (SEO) platform that offers tools for keyword research, traffic analysis and other insights to help websites improve search engine visibility.
Site Explorer
Ahrefs tool used to collect top-searched keywords of sites’ rank in Google’s search results.
Keywords Explorer
Ahrefs tool used to analyze the AI Overview feature keywords.
Connexun
Known as the “The Ultimate AI News Engine,” the site uses artificial intelligence to turn unstructured news content into actionable data. Source real-time multilingual headlines, articles, and dynamic summaries from thousands of open web sources. Leverage intelligent algorithms and news-centric features such as news topic ranking, extraction-based summarization, and more to filter news for different types of users. Track news in real time across 20,000 highly trusted sources across the globe and pick the most important stories first. Access automatically aggregated news from news API. Access extractive short summaries of news in various languages.Monthly plans start at $10 with a free trial.
Perplexity.ai
GPT-like search queries off prompts. Lists citations at the top that you can use to fact-check. Paid version includes the ability to generate images within your searches, which you save in individual libraries.
Globe Explorer
Context-aware search engine
URLScan
Analyze web addresses
Albis
A global news-intelligence feed that helps readers spot stories, gaps, and framing differences their usual feed may miss. It is useful for journalists, educators, and globally curious readers who want to notice what their normal news flow is not surfacing. Early users can try the feed for free and use the media literacy exercise at Albis Media Literacy.
AI Search Whisperer
Built by search expert Henk Van Ess, this tool offers feedback and suggestions to make your Google searches more effective.
Research Compass AI
This tool from NotedSource uses AI to search 220 million peer-reviewed publications, helping journalists and researchers quickly find credible scientific evidence and connect directly with leading academic experts. Cut research time by 80% while accessing the most authoritative sources and subject matter experts for interviews and collaborations.
AI Research Pilot
This tool is designed specifically for investigators, reporters and other researchers. It works with AI platforms that cite their sources and formats queries for other chatbots in ways that encourage them to back up their claims with references. Research Pilot isn’t about letting AI do the research for you – it’s about making AI help you find where to start your actual investigation.
The New Search Landscape: Discovery in Times of AI
Short slideshow from Wayfinder’s Ezra Eeman on GenAI search. It’s excellent.
Are You In the Weights?
Find out if your name or website appears in Large Language Models like ChatGPT, Claude, etc.
YtZolo
An AI-powered YouTube growth and content optimization platform designed to help creators make data-driven decisions. It provides insights for video ideas, title generation, SEO optimization, competitor analysis, and content performance tracking to improve discoverability and audience engagement. The platform helps creators save time, streamline their workflow, and grow their channels more effectively.
Parallel Search Turbo
Low-latency search API for voice and chat agents
Poynter MediaWise: Finding Facts With GenAI Search
Set of introductory videos from high school students.
CleeAI
AI-driven search
Exa
AI-driven search tool
LLMnesia
Searches AI chat history across tools from one interface.
BrandBeacon
Tracks brand visibility and mentions across AI search engines.
Archivarix Echo
A search engine that pulls results from more than 200 online archives, including the Wayback Machine, national archives, academic research databases and more. Paste anything, a URL, DOI, ISBN, social handle, file hash, or just a title. We detect what it is and route to the right archives.
Achivarix Tube Search
“Find deleted YouTube videos and recover their metadata, thumbnails, and subtitles from archive data.”
OneLook
Search engine for words. Get its history, where it has been used and several dictionary definitions.
PostHog
A developer-focused analytics suite combining event tracking, session replay, and A/B testing
Parallel Search
Web search tool built for AI agents
FilePhish
The original query builder for fast and easy document discovery
DeDigger
Searches for public documents on Google Drives
Grayhat Warfare
Paid search engine for publicly accessible buckets. It indexes open buckets, and lets users search for files to identify exposed or misconfigured cloud storage
Poly
A universal file browser that searches docs, images, videos and audio by understanding their actual content
HitWit
Gather and analyze ideas from high-quality sources
Indicator Guide: The State of Online Search: How to Find What You’re Looking for in the Age of AI
VisualPing Button
A free tool and easy code install that allows readers to “track” your page and get email alerts when you update that specific page.
Reddit Answers
This AI-powered search tool that lets you find human perspectives, recommendations, and info powered by Reddit communities. Be careful and fact-check the material you find.
Truthout: Google’s New AI-Fueled Search Bar Threatens to Further Upend Journalism Industry
Independent journalism needs a lifeline to survive as Google urges readers toward AI summaries instead of article links.
Search by Image
Reverse image search browser extension
Search Whisperer
This tool from Henk van Ess works similar to Google search operators
AP: Go beyond Google. How to Use New Generative AI Search Sites
DigiDay: One Year in: SEO Lessons from Publishers After Google’s AI Overviews
Digital Digging: The State of Online Search
Research GPT
Custom-built GPT that helps with complex research issues by providing experts to speak to and articles to read.
Editor and Publisher: The Emerging World of AI-Powered Search
Scrunch
See how AI interprets your site, run a free audit, and unlock the new way to reach your audience.
BeVisible
Grow your organic traffic on autopilot for Google and AI search
DorkGPT
A custom GPT from PredictaLab similar to Search Whisperer
Indexly
All-in-one Technical SEO platform designed to automate, analyze, and accelerate your website’s visibility across search and AI engines.
SEObot
AI-driven SEO tool that revolutionizes SEO tasks
OSINT Intelligence Terminal
A name/people search tool.
The Indicator Guide to Building Your Own Reverse Image Search Engine
Reversely.ai
Reverse image search tool that claims it can unlock “hidden connections.”
Bellingcat Filename Finder
Shows the filenames for images uploaded to Google Maps by users. Good for research, filenames can often provide further clues.
Consensus
AI search engine for research, with a focus on science
What Happens if Google Search Just Disappears
Artificial Ignorance: How to Build an AI Search Engine
GummySearch
Find, organize, and search various Reddit communities
Hubspot AI Search Grader
Analyze your site’s visibility on AI search engines. Free tool.
Impersonal.me
Create Google searches as if you were searching from different countries and in different languages
Filmot
Search within YouTube subtitles, captions and transcripts.
Semantra
An open-source tool for searching documents by meaning, not keywords.
Semantic Scholar
Research search tool for scientific literature
GenAI in the Newsroom: Agentic Search for Investigative Journalism
Definitive Guide to Using Perplexity
Startpage
More of an old-school search experience. Download an app to search with more privacy. Also has a browser plug-in to make it your browser start page.
Albis
Scans domestic news from more than 10 regions in nine languages, three times daily, and generates a Perception Gap Index scoring how differently each story is framed across regions. Example: When the Iran crisis scores a PGI of 9, reporters can instantly see that Tehran, London and Beijing are covering three different wars.
Felo Search
Multilingual AI search tool
Reddit Archive
Search Reddit posts
Refinder AI
AI-powered universal search and assistant for work
Rolli
Quickly discover and book leading experts for your news stories with this AI-powered newsgathering platform built by journalists, for journalists. Find experts, scan the news cycle 10X faster, access a preloaded news planning calendar, even get social engagement scores for your published content.
*-Journalisttoolbox.ai readers get special free access to Rolli’s suite of tools for journalists, with invitation code: JOURNOAI redeemable at Rolli.ai
Search Tool Comparison
Basic chart outlining tasks for tools like Perplexity, SciSummary and SciSpace for finding scholarly and scientific research papers, as well as summarizing them.
Bellingcat OpenStreetMap Search
Features simple sliders to define distances between a preset list of features that you can search through.
Overpass Turbo
Do rapid geolocation is possible via a remarkable web-based data mining tool for OpenStreetMaps.
Neon
Opera’s new agentic web browser
Lessie AI
A People Search AI Agent for finding influencers, leads, experts, partners, investors, and more. It automates sourcing, profile review, and outreach — saving hours of manual work and helping you grow faster.
Perlego Research Assistant
Get referenced overviews backed by more than a million books.
Needle
Enable AI search across data
Sonar
Perplexity’s API for using real-time search to third-party applications
Undermind
Search for incredibly complex topics and get research papers
devv
An AI-powered search engine for developers
CoStorm
A prototype from Stanford University that will search several websites based on a prompt, pull links and research into a summary for you. It also can write a story or paper, but use the summary feature instead. It’s a good research/summary tool, just don’t have it write for you.
Does It Exist
This search engine helps you generate ideas and find if a tool or app already exists.
AI-powered search engine that is good for finding medical and other research papers
Dexa
Offers direct answers to your search query, not just links
BigBang
A free tool from Majd Khalifeh, a journalist with Belgian public broadcaster VRT, that helps gather social media posts about an event or breaking news story. Enter search terms, a location, and date and the tool auto populates GPS coordinates and opens your search in new tabs for Google, Facebook, X and Instagram. Enable browser pop-ups to use it.
GoSearch
AI-driven enterprise search. Search across work apps with multimodal-AI enterprise search. GoSearch takes team knowledge management to a new level of efficiency with AI generated answers and information discovery.
Contact Out
Find anyone’s email or phone number.
ResearchGPT
Research more than 200 million papers with this GPT
Usersearch.ai
Paid people search tool.
Gensmo
Next-gen AI search
Skip Tracer
Collect and search YouTube transcripts for multiple videos from a channel.
Reddit Archive
Search interface gives you several settings for searching Reddit.
Epios
Search for emails and phone numbers
OSINT Industries
Gives free credits for journalists. Use the tool to investigate phone numbers and email addresses.
OSINT Rocks
Look up and check emails, phone numbers, etc.
OSINT Tracker
Track and map connections between people, companies, websites, etc.
Together.ai: How to Build an AI Search Engine
XXAI
Premier AI Copilot for GPT-4o and Claude 3.5 Get summaries, answers, polished writing, translations, drafts, and AI search wherever you work. Seamlessly switch between GPT-4o and Claude 3.5 for professional content, saving you hours daily.
NorthData
Search engines for Europe and others. Journalists can get free accounts to all the tools.
Truthfinder
Background checks
TruePeopleFinder
Fast People Search
SkopeNow
Paid people search database
Intelius
Background checks
E&P: Concerned About Your News Organizations Plummeting Search Traffic?
GIJN: Using ChatGPT as a Quick Search Tool in Investigations
Twitter List Search
A tool by Henk Van Ess to search for Twitter lists using keyword(s).
Lenso AI
AI reverse image search tool
Ayraa
AI-powered workplace search assistant
WriteText.ai for Magento
AI-powered keyword research, automated checks of product-page keyword rankings, insights into competitors’ keywords, and data on keyword search intent.
SPOT
Geospatial search tool for OpenStreetMap. It helps you to submit a natural language prompt for a specific location type.
Instant Username
Username search tool
Recruitryte
Generates keywords and boolean strings to help you search for relevant profiles across LinkedIn, GitHub and elsewhere. Free tool
Gemini Personalization
Responses built by chats, search history
Henk Van Ess: How AI Bots Quietly Dismantle Paywalls
Hika
AI-powered knowledge search tool
Search Alkemy
Gives you keyword research in minutes
Get Website Report
AI agent that audits webpages for SEO and conversion
100 Search Engines.com
Osum
Deep search tool
Google Text-Based Links Search Filter
Darkus
Dark web meta-search engine.
CompanyGPT 2.0
Use this search engine to find companies and people
Hunter.io
Type in a web address and get a list of email addresses of people within that domain.
Undermind
Deep scientific search for complex problems
ContentPie
An AI-powered content creation tool designed to help users grow organic traffic by generating SEO-optimized articles effortlessly.
Nota
Nota offers a suite of assistive AI tools that can reformat human-created content into multiple different text, audio and video formats. You can use tools individually or plug them into your CMS for seamless integration. It creates SEO headlines, social posts, short videos, image generation and generates newsletters from stories. Paid tool.
Spokeo
This is a pay-for-use and subscription people-finder tool. Your school or library may have access. Search by name, phone, address, or email to confidentially lookup information about people. Contact information, personal details, location history, family and associates, social media accounts.
FamilyTreeNow
Search by name to find addresses, phones (including cell phones), businesses, and relatives.
Wonders
AI search engine across more than 5 million research papers
Nuwber
Search by name, phone, address. Then check the box and click on “I agree,” and then click on the person who matches by address and age.
That’sThem.com
People search engine, find addresses, phones, emails
Who Am I?
Chrome extension that lets you search a name across multiple social and other platforms.
Minduck Discovery
AI search platform with interactive mind maps
Outrank
An AI-powered SEO content generator
Whoxy
Free domain search by company, name, etc.
Wayback Keyword Search
Python tool that downloads each page from the Wayback Machine for a specific domain and enables further keyword search on each saved page.
SEO AI Agent
Automate your entire SEO workflow with AI
Rootabout
Does reverse image searches in the Internet Archive and Open Library. It’s built by the people who created FotoForensics.
WhatsApp Mobile Checker
See if a phone number is connected to a WhatsApp account.
Search Whisperer
Search expert Henk Van Ess built this tool that uses Chat GPT 4.0 to tool forecasts patterns in texts and integrates Google Dorks into its functionality and explains why it did it. It is not build in the normal ChatGPT.
Unriddle
Helps you find research info fast, simplifies topics, and keeps everything organized
Lolarchiver
This tool helps find usernames and bio history of Twitter users active between 2011 and 2023.
Database Search Engine
Perform domain, name and keyword searches across more than 1,300 databases.
OSINT Cheat Sheet for Search Engines
Great guide from Alex Lozano
Chat LLM
Search for free for a month, then $10 monthly after that.
Elicit
Analyze, search, and extract research papers
Analystresearchtools.com
A simple interface that lets you search phone numbers, emails, license plates and other information.
ThinkAny
AI search engine
AI Researcher
Perlego’s AI Researcher enables users to enter any search query and in response it suggests relevant excerpts from an extensive library of over a million textbooks that best answer that query.
Consensus
Can search across 200 million academic papers to “get science-based answers, and draft content with accurate citations.”
GIJN: Top 10 Investigative Tools of 2023
Excellent list of research tools
LinkedIn Advanced Search
Find profiles of people with various expertise|
RocketReach
You get five free lookups a month. Sign up with gmail, then add the Chrome extension. Search directly or use with LinkedIn.
Smart Tools AI
Smart Tools AI is a hub for best AI tools that help streamline the work of the users. It offers different tools in multiple categories such as keyword analysis, unit conversion, online calculation, website development, website management, domain analysis, password management, image conversion, text analysis, website tracking, online PDF and binary
Genspark
AI search engine
Arc Search
An app that reads multiple web pages and creates a custom web page for you. Also available as a popular desktop search browser.
Content & SEO GPT
Custom GPT that assesses website usefulness, relevance, and quality
Calltrack
A tool for call tracking and analytics
Dorik
Instantly generate SEO-optimized websites for businesses and creators
Hunter.io
Free plan allows for 25 website searches per month. Good for email searches.
FinalScout
Use it to locate email addresses
Lexica
This Stable Diffusion search engine uses that uses text as prompts
SciSpace
Pare down your reading time with data extraction, AI Copilot and paraphraser in one tool
Perplexity
AI search tool to advance the way people discover and share information. Available as a phone app, too
Research Rabbit Discovery App
Unlocks a completely novel way to search for papers and authors, monitor new literature, visualize research landscapes, and collaborate with colleagues.
SciSpace Copilot
Chrome plugin that helps you understand scientific literature.
Wofram Alpha
Search facts on many topics. Also solve math problems.
VisualPing.io
Uses AI to track updates to web pages you want monitored.
Wachete
Monitor web pages for changes. Lots of pro features. Daily/weekly summary email. Monitor pages which require clicks or submission of values. Monitor specific parts of a page. Download data. Free plan monitors up to five pages.. $5 a month after that.
DeepDiveDuck
Keep track of key changes to your competitors’ websites. Get alerts on key changes, including staff changes, pricing tweaks, new products, address changes, and more. Free trial, then paid
Compint Competitor Website Monitoring
Track competitors website changes on a daily basis while controlling frequency and sensitivity. Free tool.
GPTGo
Free ChatGPT and search engine
KeywordSearch
Find YouTube audiences faster with AI keyword research
Hebbia
Paid AI search tool. You can request a free demo.
IntelTechniques Search Tool
Resources for backgrounding people, all housed in one place.
SurferSEO.com
The tool promises to “will give you a SEO workflow to boost your organic traffic, increase your visibility, and improve your rank. Seven-day trial with paid accounts starting at $69 a month.
Lexica
Search for AI images
YourSearch.ai
Use the search engine as a WebApp or via Messenger and get your perfect answer without any advertising.
Passionfroot
Helps you discover and book top creators
Arc
An AI-powered browser that keeps you organized.
Online Research Guide
Internet search expert Henk van Ess offers tips to investigate people and subjects on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, Telegram, and more.
Elicit
AI research assistant
Dashthis
Analytics dashboard
Browse AI
Train a robot in two minutes to extract and monitor data from any website
FlowGPT
Searchable database: How to find and use the best prompts
CopyMonkey
AI-powered optimization tool
RivalFlow AI
Improve your existing content’s SEO using cutting-edge AI technology
GIJN: Five Search Tools to Make Journalists’ Lives Easier
CUNY: Tools for Finding/Tracking People
Supertools (therundown.ai)
A database full of useful AI tools
Semantic Scholar
Semantic Scholar is an AI-based search and discovery tool for research resources. It contains more than 200 million scholarly articles that come from partnerships with publishers, data providers and web crawls.
AP Newsroom
Has an AI option for photo and video search
FutureTools
A treasure chest of AI tools
GPTGO.ai
AI search engines.
Content Suite by Senuto
Generate web traffic with just a few clicks
SEO TOOLS | AI IMPACT ON SEARCH
Google SEO Starter Guide
The basics from Google Search Central includes pages of documentation, including AI’s impact on search
“Pink Slime” News Outlets Outpacing Local Newspapers
Forbes: How AI Will Revolutionize the Future of SEO
Search Engine Journal: Researchers Discover How To SEO For AI Search
AI Contently: Impact of AI on Search and Content SEO
It’s helping to better understand the intent behind the content.
Search Engine Land: Has AI Changed SEO for Better or Worse
Conversion
Custom SEO tool
SEOdity
SEO tools and analysis.
YeSEO
Goal of this app is to help newsrooms with SEO best practices.
AISEO
SEO/writing tool for marketers with many SEO features. Monthly plans start at $39.
YeSEO
Goal of this app is to help newsrooms with SEO best practices.
Surfer SEO
SEO enhancement toolhttps://www.podmind.ai/
LocalFalcon
Offers a wide view/approach to SEO through AI
Frase
Writing and SEO research tool
RankWizard
SEO expertise for writing articles, blog posts and newsletters
One-Click SEO Links
A Chrome extension for SEO professionals. It offers Manual and AI modes to quickly fill forms on navigation sites, streamlining backlink submission.
AI Writer
I wouldn’t use this as a writing tool but it’s good at suggesting SEO headlines, etc.
Zentask.ai
Create articles, images and manage SEO in this all-in-one tool.
Koala
Write long-form, SEO-friendly blog articles in a single click
PepperType
Retails for around $400 a month. Marketing content platform with strong SEO tools, the latter of which could be helpful to journalists.
MarkCopy
Tool for writing branded SEO content. Free trail with monthly plans starting around $50.
Copy Smith
Mostly for marketing copy but has some good SEO features. Plans start at $228 per year.
Ellie Email Assistant
A simple email writing assistant starting at $16.
SearchEngineLand: What is SEO?
Video explains what search engine optimization is and how it works.
ChatGPT SEO Plugin
Send a URL and keyword and get an SEO analysis in a few seconds
Bramework Plugin
Find keywords and do SEO analysis
SEO CORE AI
Use AI to analyze and improve the SEO
Website Performance
Measure key metrics about your website, performance, accessibility, best practices
SEO Assistant
Create a list of keywords to make it easy for Google to rank your content.
OTHER SEARCH RESOURCES
GIJN: Five Online Search Tools to Make Journalists’ Lives Easier
GIJN Toolbox: Searching Social Media
Daniel Russell’s Google Search Site
Sarah Marshall: Google Search Tips for Journalists
GroundSignal.com
Location-based search.
WhoPostedWhat.com
A non-public Facebook keyword search
Photo Find App
Navigate to the exact place a photo was taken.
Building Biases into Google Searches
An excellent summary of Henk Van Ess’s July 2022 Google search training. Many great tips for narrowing searches.
Expertise Finder: Google Search Tips for Journalists
Google Labs
Check out Google technologies in development.
Library of Congress: Newspaper Navigator: Photos
Search 1.56 million historic newspaper photos
Google Hot Trends
Track what people are searching for on the web.
Who Posted What
Non-public Facebook keyword search.
Copyscape
Track who has lifted content off your website. Just type in the URL of your site.
Usersearch.org
Look up people by username, etc.
AnyClip.com
Find movie clips
ChatGPT for Google
Browser extension that allows ChatGPT to work alongside Google.
Google Scholar
Search academic journals, articles, case law, etc
isleuth.com
More than 2,000 searchable databases.
Infoplease.com Almanac Search Page
FindArticles.com
A free online article search.
NewsNow
A British site with many U.S. resources. Updates every five minutes.
Search Moreover.com News Feeds
Searches many news feeds.
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