Since the advent of AlGaAs laser diodes, many Nd-doped materials have been pumped by these sources and demonstrated great promise as efficient, dependable laser systems. Analogously, the recent availability of InGaAs laser diodes has provided a means by which to pump the Yb impurity. Following the suggestion of Krupke and Chase,1 Fan has recently demonstrated that Yb in Y3Al5O12 can be effectively pumped by InGaAs laser diodes.2 In this paper, we report our spectroscopic investigations of numerous Yb-doped crystals, and our assessment of the potential InGaAs-pumped laser performance of these systems.