WEB SEARCHING

One of the best ways to explore the Web is to use a Web search tool. These are software programs that roam the Web creating databases for you to search. Each works differently and you will want to try more than one.

There are three general sorts of search tools you can try. You may elect to try a subject search using one or more of the [] subject guides [] , or you may want to use a [] search engine [] that searches the titles or full texts of WWW documents. The growth in the number of subject guides and search engines has led to the creation of [] "meta" search tools [] which search multiple databases through a single interface, a third option you might want to explore.

 

[]SUBJECT GUIDES are hierarchically organized collections of indexes in subject categories that allow you to browse through lists of WWW sites by subject in search of relevant information. They are compiled and maintained by humans and many include a search engine for searching their own database.

Subject guide databases tend to be smaller but more relevant than those of the search engines. Subject guides are especially useful when you are browsing or you are not really sure what you are looking for.

Some useful indices are:

• Argus Clearinghouse: Internet Research Library -- arranged by academic subject with links to Virtual Libraries, directories, and search tools, at http://www.clearinghouse.net/
• The EINet Galaxy -- exhaustive directory of Internet resources, organized under large, general subject areas, that's searchable, at http://www.einet.net/galaxy.html
• Magellan -- WWW navigational and informational directory, containing listings for approximately 4 million sites, many of which are reviewed and rated, at http://www.mckinley.com
• The WWW Virtual Library -- comprehensive subject catalogue of Web sources put together by the creators of the World Wide Web, at http://www.w3.org/pub/DataSources/bySubject/Overview.html
• Starting Point -- WWW sites organized in the following categories: business, computing, education, entertainment, investing, magazines, news, reference, shopping, sports, travel, and weather, at http://www.stpt.com/
• Yahoo --massive index organized into subject categories, and including a search tool (old and very famous index started at Stanford University -- a very good starting point) at http://www.yahoo.com/

 

[]SEARCH ENGINES allow you to enter keywords that are run against a database (most often created automatically). Based on a combination of criteria, the search engine retrieves WWW documents that match your keywords.

While all search engines perform the same generic task, each goes about it in a different way leading to amazingly different results. They also differ in search speed, interface design, and the amount of help they offer.

Some common search engines you should check out (if you haven't already) are:

• Alta Vista -- Digital's very fast search engine searches the full text of WWW documents, also contains full-text access to over 13,000 news groups, at http://www.altavista.digital.com/ search tips: link related words into phrase by enclosing in quotes, e.g., "higher education"; search in lower-case to match capitalized words as well; search in capital letters to force an exact match; precede required search terms with a +, prohibited ones with a -, e.g., +noir +film -"pinot noir"; use * as a wildcard to catch variety of word endings, e.g., librar* for library, librarian, libraries, etc.; place important subject words first in string when performing simple searches.
• Hotbot -- Wired's search engine searches the full-text of over 50 million documents in its database, finds all documents that fit your criteria, sorts them according to their fit vs. your search terms, and returns documents as a list of abstracts and hyperlinks at http://www.hotbot.com search tips: allows menu driven boolean searches (select "all the words" or "any of the words," etc.); a "modify" panel is also featured to let you restrict your searches by date, location, and media type (documents containing audio files or images, for example). A full-blown advanced search interface is also included, and you can save your modified settings to create a personalized hotbot tool.
• Excite -- a database of over 50,000 web site reviews, providing both keyword and concept searching capabilities and supporting full Boolean operators and syntax, at http://www.excite.com/ search tips: to give extra weight to certain words, repeat them, e.g., "President Clinton's policy on Bosnia Bosnia Bosnia"; if unsure of proper spelling, enter multiple versions, e.g., Khaddafi Quadafy Kaddafi Quadaffi; to fine-tune your searches, use + in front of a search word to require it, e.g., hockey +NHL; use - to exclude words, e.g., Jaguar -car -automobiles.
• InfoSeek -- a powerful search engine that can sweep the entire Web or limit searches to various categories, e.g., Usenet newsgroups, Web FAQx, Select Sites, etc, at http://www2.infoseek.com/ search tips: capitalize proper names, e.g., Babe Ruth; to search for separate names, use commas to separate them, e.g., Babe Ruth, Boston Red Sox; use double quote marks around words that must appear next to each other, e.g., "stupid pet tricks"; use hyphens between words that must appear within one word of each other, e.g., cable-networks; use brackets to find words that appear within 100 words of each other, or that you'd expect to see in the same sentence or paragraph, e.g., {elevator safety}; use + in front of words that must appear in document - in front of words that must not, e.g., city guide +San Francisco; python -monty.
• Lycos -- a fast-action Web spider that offers a new subject directory to help focus your search, at http://www.lycos.com search tips: customize search options and display options to fit your search specifications; change search default option from to accommodate critical word strings, e.g., "peanut butter", rather than "peanut" or "butter". Lycos does not support Boolean searches, numbers at the beginning of words, or use of the + symbol. Lycos does support use of the - to exclude words, use of the . at the end of keywords to exclude various word endings, and use of the $ as a wildcard to catch various word endings.
• Webcrawler -- an easy-to-use search engine that supports both "natural language searching" and Boolean search operators, at http://webcrawler.com search tips: customize display of search results by selecting either title or summary display; go to "Links" to find out who's linking to your home page; go to "WebFacts" for latest statistics on Web use; perform advanced searching with these operators: AND, OR, NOT, NEAR, ADJ, quotations and parentheses.

 

[]"META" SEARCH TOOLS allow you to search search engines and subject guides simultaneously through a single interface. Sometimes also called multi-threaded search engines, two popular examples are:

Metacrawler at http://www.go2net.com/search.html

SavvySearch at http://www.savvysearch.com/

Some other excellent resources are:

The All-in-One search page will link you to 120 or so WWW search tools and directories, plus hundreds of other specialized search tools and search interfaces (people lookups, school and company lookups, publications, etc.) via a common interface. Go to the All-in-One Search Page at http://www.allonesearch.com/

Search.com will link you to over 250 ways to search the Net, and allows you to create a personalized interface to their collection at http://www.search.com

Two other excellent resources are:

The Front Page Collection of Search Engines and Website Links at: http://www.thefrontpage.com/search/

Internet Resources Meta-Index at: http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/SDG/Software/Mosaic/MetaIndex.html (You might want to play with their experimental search engine MetaIndex to see how different search engines react differently to the same input).

Finally, an excellent site for all sorts of online educational materials is the FREE page at: http://www.ed.gov/free/