By combining the principles of known factoring algorithms we obtain some improved algorithms which by heuristic arguments all have a time bound O(exp √c ln n ln ln n) for various constants c≥3. In particular, Miller's method of solving index equations and Shanks's method of computing ambiguous quadratic forms with determinant −n can be modified in this way. We show how to speed up the factorization of n by using preprocessed lists of those numbers in [−u,u] and [n−u,n+u],O<<u<<n which only have small prime factors. These lists can be uniformly used for the factorization of all numbers in [n−u,n+u]. Given these lists, factorization takes O(exp[2 (ln n)1/3 (ln ln n)2/3]) steps. We slightly improve Dixon's rigorous analysis of his Monte Carlo factoring algorithm. We prove that this algorithm with probability 1/2 detects a proper factor of every composite n within o(exp √6ln n ln ln n) steps.