Selecting & Using Internet Search Tools
Sections of this document include:
- Selecting Search Tools
- How to Search
- Search Syntax
- 10 Tips for Using Internet Search Tools
- Internet Search Tools:URLs
Selecting Internet Search Tools
| If You Are Looking For . . . | Try. . . |
| Top-quality, hand-selected Internet sites on a broad topic | A directory like Yahoo (370,000-page database) |
| A comprehensive searchof the Internet with well-ranked results | Excite, currently sporting a 50-million-page database and a notably effective searching & ranking algorithm |
| A search of the largest database | Lycos, which claims a database of 66 million pages |
| Search by date, media type(Java, Acrobat, VRML, file extension),domain name, or geographic location | HotBot(54 million pages); "no other site offers HotBot's sheer range of powerful options . . . A must for advanced searching" (PC Magazine) |
| Sounds, pictures, multimedia clips | Lycos MultiMedia |
| Online stores(music, books, etc.) | Yahoothrough its directory structure |
| Advanced search precisionon a large database | The advanced search option of Alta Vista(30-million-page database) |
| A way to search several search engine or directory databases simultaneously | Metacrawler(searches 9 databases), "the most accomplished of the metasearch sites we reviewed" (PC Magazine) |
| Government information | GovBot |
| City or other maps | Yahoo, WebCrawler, or Lycos (which also features city guides) |
| News articles | Yahooor Go.com |
| A search ofUseNet newsgroups | Google, (recently acquired Deja News) |
| Personalemail addressesand telephone numbers | Yahoo People Search, |
| University, AOL, and CompuServe email addresses | Internet@ddress.finder |
How To Search
While you can simply enter a string of words into the search box of any of the search tools and you will get a more or less acceptable set of hits, you will normally be doing a fuzzy ORsearch, meaning the search tool will retrieve all sites having any of the words you enter and then rank them by such criteria as the greatest total number of the search words in one site, the greatest combination of your terms, or the popularity of the site (how often it is accessed). It is possible to significantly improve your search results by using the specific syntaxof the search tool you are using. The table below shows how to do this for twelve popular search tools.
Search Syntax (as of March 1997)
| Search tool | Phrase | OR | AND | NOT | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alta Vista search engine | "prairie lake" prairie;lake prairie,lake prairie.lake | pears kiwis pears OR kiwis | +pears +kiwis pears AND kiwis | +pears -kiwis pears AND | Wildcard (anywhere in word): * Use of caps makes search case-sensitive; use ( ) to group terms |
| Excite search engine | "prairie lake" | pears kiwis pears OR kiwis | +pears +kiwis pears AND kiwis | +pears -kiwis pears AND | operators must be in caps; Use ( ) to group terms; weighted search possible |
| HotBot search engine | prairie lake (select PHRASE) | pears kiwis (select ANY) | pears kiwis (select ALL) | Can filter by date or search by media,domain, geog. locale; no wildcards | |
| Lycos search engine | pears kiwis | option to customize search to AND | pears -kiwis | wildcard: ? Automatic wildcard searching; period after term requires exact match | |
| Metacrawler metasearch | "prairie lake" prairie lake | pears kiwis (select ANY) | +pears +kiwis pears kiwis | +pears -kiwis | Calls 9 search engines simultaneously; hits ranked by scores from each search engine |
| Open Text search engine | prairie lake (select PHRASE) | pears kiwis (select OR) | pears kiwis (optional: select AND) | pears kiwis (select BUT NOT) | Default is AND, not OR; not case-sensitive; no wildcards |
| WebCrawlersearch engine | "prairie lake" | pears kiwis pears OR kiwis | pears AND kiwis | pears NOT kiwis | use ( ) to group terms; NEAR & ADJ may be used |
| Yahoo directory | click OPTIONS button | click OPTIONS button | pears kiwis | Default is AND, not OR; automatic wildcard; if no hits, queries Alta Vista |
Sources:Netsearcher's Ultimate Cheat Sheet (PC Magazine,3 Dec. 1996), Findspot, and the help screens of the various search tools.
10 Tips for Using Internet
- Know what Internet applications the search engine covers (WWW, News, mail, etc.).
- Know the percent of Internet coverage and what is covered (sites vs. pages, etc.).
- Read the instructions and learn the search rules.
- Use the advanced search option if it allows more precise searches.
- Use the same 2 or 3 search engines or guides regularly to learn the (evolving) rules.
- Set bookmarks for the search engines you use regularly to speed access.
- Know if you are using a directory, guide, or search engine and what this means in designing the search.
- Search for material that is likely to be on the Internet or you know is there. For example, company information may be easier to find than research articles.
- Do not rely on search engines to identify the best sites at all times.
- Read professional articles online or in print to determine the functionality of various search engines and to improve search strategy (e.g., see Barbara Lazewskiíssuggestions).
Internet Search Tools: URLs
| Search Engines | |
| Alta Vista | www.altavista.com |
| Excite | www.excite.com |
| HotBot | www.hotbot.com |
| Lycos | www.lycos.com |
| Open Text | www.opentext.com/ |
| WebCrawler | www.webcrawler.com |
| Internet Directories | |
| Argus Clearinghouse | www.clearinghouse.net/ |
| BUBL Search (Bath, Eng.) | BUBL.ac.uk/searches |
| Lycos Top 50 most popular user searches | 50.lycos.com/ |
| The Scout Report (UW-Madison InterNIC) | scout.cs.wisc.edu/report/sr/current/index.html |
| Yahoo | www.yahoo.com/ |
| Yanoff's Internet Services List | www.spectracom.com/islist/ |
| Directories of Electronic Periodicals on the Internet | |
| Association of Research Libraries - ejournals, newsletters | arl.cni.org/scomm/edir/ |
| CARL Alliance ejournal access | www.coalliance.org/ejournal/ |
| CIC E-Journal Collection | ejournals.cic.net/ |
| Electronic Newsstand (online magazines) | www.enews.com/ |
| Guide (news, weather, TV, sports) | www.time.com/time/index.html |
| Voice of the Shuttle: humanities research (ejournals & ezines) | vos.ucsb.edu/ |
| Yahoo's Journal List | dir.yahoo.com/News_and_Media/Journals/ |
| HighWire Press (Stanford Univ., Green Library) | highwire.stanford.edu/ |
| Metasearch Engines | |
| IXQuick | ixquick.com/ |
| Dogpile | www.dogpile.com/ |
| MetaCrawler | www.metacrawler.com/ |
| Multi-index Interfaces | |
| Starting Point | www.stpt.com/ |
| Special Indexes | |
| Google (newsgroups) | groups.google.com/googlegroups/deja_announcement.html |
| Yahoo People Search (email, phone nos.) | people.yahoo.com/ |
| GovBot (govt. info) | ciir.cs.umass.edu/ciirdemo/Govbot/ |
| Internet @ddress.finder (email) | www.iaf.net |
| Reference.com (newsgroups) | www.reference.com |
