Many databases licensed by the libraries are not in xSearch. Topic Guides which contain print and digital resources may also exist for your research area. For reference help, please contact a Subject Librarian.

Provided by Deep Web Technologies and the Stanford University Libraries, xSearch searches multiple resources in parallel at the same time. There are several advantages to using xSearch. 

• Searches are done in real-time vs. Google Scholar which searches "snapshots." 
• Many resources licensed by the library are behind "firewalls" so are not searched by popular browsers.
• The collection of resources available in xSearch were selected by subject specialists in the Stanford Libraries.
• You can search an individual subject area or multiple ones for multidisciplinary/interdisciplinary research areas.  
• Full-text searching of ebook chapters, journal articles, and patent documents, can help you find more, highly relevant information on your topic.  
• If you have favorite resources you like to use, you can jump to those first in the search results. 
• It is easy to export search results to a reference manager and to set up alerts so that you are notified automatically about newly published items.
• While comprehensive research usually requires an indepth search in specialized databases, xSearch helps you accelerate your research by discovering information effectively and efficiently. 

Please see this Database Comparison Chart for more information.  

Questions, comments, suggestions?  Please send email to federated-search-feedback AT lists.stanford.edu

In Spring 2015, 20 more resources were added to xSearch.

In Fall 2014, this "comparion site" that contains information about resources and a search tutorial was migrated and revised. 

In December 2013, a new and improved version was launched that includes:

More content:

• 250+ resources
• Resources in more subject areas
• More types of resources

Searching:

• Two-tier subject categories
• Document types

Displaying Results:

• Tabs for each document type in search results
• Visual display of results