Searches for new particles and new physics: results from e/sup +/e/sup -/ colliders

Most of the recent results on searches for new particles and new phenomena in e/sup +/e/sup -/ collisions are provided by the LEP experiments, indirect searches are attentive to traces of new physics produced by virtual effects in Standard Model processes. Direct searches are driven by extensions of the Standard Model, of which Supersymmetry is the most prominent today, however, other models are also investigated, and model independent results are also presented. The status of Higgs boson searches, within and beyond the Standard Model, is reviewed.