Google is now an established search engine that seems to be excellent at throwing up good matches near the top of its results list. It also has a big advantage that the pages listed are also archived on the Google site, so that you can still view what Google found even though the original links are broken or the pages have been updated. Google also offers specialist searches for Linux and Apple/Macintosh. Watch the Google logo at holiday seasons!
The Usenet Archive
formerly at Deja.com has now been taken over by Google.
See http://www.google.com/press/pressrel/pressrelease48.html
AltaVista is well known to everybody, but you can speed things up enormously by loading a text based search form