Web
Searching
Looking
for information on the Web? The sites listed below are some of the general
Internet search engines and catalogs. None of them are comprehensive, so
it's important to use a variety of tools.
If
you're a new searcher, you could try
Yahoo!, Ask Jeeves, Google, Northern Light.
If you're an experienced searcher, you could try Google,
Altavista, Hotbot, Ixquick.
If you prefer quality over quantity, you could try Google,
Selective web guides.
If you're looking for specific and arcane
information, you could try Northern
Light, Ixquick, Google Groups.
The
University at Albany Libraries'
Boolean Logic Primer shows you how to use AND, OR, NEAR, and NOT in
your search strategies.
To locate additional search engines, see SearchEngineWatch's
Search Engines Worldwide page, Yahoo's
Searching the Web, and the University at Albany Libraries'
How to Choose a Search Engine.
Search Engine Watch has search engine news,
tips for searching, and
comparisons of search engines' capabilities.
Once you've got your search results, how do you know if they're any good?
American Library Association shows parents and kids
How to Tell if You're Looking at a Great Website. College and Research
Libraries News also gives criteria for
web evaluation: accuracy, authority, objectivity, currency, and coverage.
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AltaVista
http://www.altavista.com/
AltaVista has some powerful search options for experienced
users: it lets you search for exact phrases, require or prohibit words,
search within the title of an HTML document, search for documents that contain
a link to a particular URL, use wildcards, and employ case sensitivity.
The
advanced search allows for the use of Boolean operators (AND, OR, AND
NOT, NEAR).
Tip: Use NEAR instead of AND in the advanced search. Results
will tend to be more relevant.
Example:
If your question is: Which Dr. Seuss book used a vocabulary of just
fifty words?
then try typing this in
Advanced Search: +seuss NEAR ("fifty words" OR "50
words")
Pros: Extensive database supports complex Boolean searches.
Can search in many languages. The optional Family Filter can screen out
some objectionable content.
Cons: Too many hits may overwhelm novice searchers.
Help and/or FAQ Page:
Help,
FAQ
Ask Jeeves
http://www.aj.com/
Ask Jeeves lets you search the web by typing a simple question
in plain English. Ask Jeeves contains links to more than 7 million answers
to the most frequently-asked questions on the web. Also check out
Ask Jeeves for Kids.
Tip: Phrase your question as simply as possible.
Example:
If your question is: How many countries are in the world?
then try typing: How many countries are in the world?
Pros: Simple and intuitive.
Cons: Uncommon or long questions often return irrelevant
results.
Help and/or FAQ Page:
Help,
About AJ
Google
http://www.google.com/
Google tends
to give you the most relevant and high-quality websites near the top of
your results list. A site's importance is measured in part by how many other
sites link to it -- the more important the site, the higher it ranks in
Google's search results.
Example:
If your question is: What was the financial cost of the Vietnam War?
then try typing: "vietnam war" cost billion
Tip: If a web page you want is temporarily down, you can
still see a copy stored on Google's server. Click the "cached"
link in the search results.
Pros: Fast, relevant, and high-quality search results.
Simple and elegant design.
Cons: Ignores many common words and characters, although
you can use a "+" sign to force Google to include them (which
will significantly slow your search, as well.)
Help and/or FAQ Page:
Help,
FAQ
Google Groups
http://groups.google.com/
Google Groups
lets you search Usenet newsgroups and is a great way to find esoteric information
too arcane even for the World Wide Web. Users can search the Usenet as far
back as March, 1995 with a simple interface. An
Advanced Search page offers more search options. In addition to search
capabilities, Google Groups also allows users to browse current messages
and post to newsgroups via the web.
Example:
If your question is: How can I learn to juggle five balls?
then try typing: juggle "five balls"
Pros: Powerful, customizable and fast.
Cons: Claims made on newsgroups might not be reliable.
Help and/or FAQ Page:
Help,
Posting FAQ.
HotBot
http://www.hotbot.com/
HotBot supports searches using Boolean operators with nesting,
and searches limited by date, location, domain names, media (image, text,
sound, &etc.), or page type. For searches on broad topics (about half
of Hotbot searches), the top ten results come from Direct Hit, which ranks
sites based on what other users with similar searches have done. The more
previous searchers have clicked on a site, and the longer they've stayed
there, the higher the site ranks. For more specific topics, Hotbot ranks
results based on the frequency and location of your search terms.
Tip: Type the most important search terms first.
Example:
If your question is: What are all the Pokemon names?
then try typing: +pokemon +names
Pros:
Supports complex Boolean searching and other powerful search techniques.
Cons: The lime green color can be considered garish. Search
results often include irrelevant sites and tend to have many dead links.
Help and/or FAQ Page:
Help
Ixquick Metasearch
http://www.ixquick.com/
Ixquick
searches 14 search engines at the same time. Ixquick translates your search
request so that each search engine will understand it, and doesn't forward
your request to engines that can't understand it. Ixquick's results rankings
are based on other search engines' rankings: If a site shows up in the top
ten results of many different search engines, it will rank very high in
Ixquick's search results. Ixquick also weeds duplicates from the results
list. You might also check out Search Engine Watch's list of
other meta-search engines.
Example:
If your question is: What is the Bayeux Tapestry?
then try typing: "Bayeux
Tapestry"
Pros: Fairly comprehensive,
and results tend to be relevant.
Cons: Search can
be slow. A faster meta-search engine is
Metacrawler
Help and/or FAQ:
Help,
FAQ
Northern Light
http://www.northernlight.com/
Northern
Light automatically organizes your search results into folders of similar
documents. Northern Light also has a "special collection" of more
than 14 million documents from over 6,000 journals, books, magazines, and
investment analyst reports not available on any other search engine. You
can buy most of these documents for $1 to $4 (but some reports cost several
hundred dollars). In a July 1999
article in Nature, Northern Light was found to be the most
comprehensive search engine, covering about 16% of the web. Northern Light
is especially good when looking for scholarly and arcane information.
Example:
If your question is: What does Jim Carrey's driveway look like?
then try typing: +"jim carrey" +driveway
Tip: The
Power Search lets you limit your search by subject and by publication
type.
Pros: Very extensive database; automated subject-group
"folders"; "special collection" of articles not available
elsewhere on the web.
Cons: Displays only 10 hits at a time.
Help and/or FAQ Page:
Search Help,
FAQ
Yahoo
http://www.yahoo.com/
Yahoo is,
perhaps deservedly, the most widely-used Internet catalog. In contrast to
the search engines listed above, which use computer programs to scour the
Internet for Web pages, Yahoo catalogs sites manually, depending largely
on user submissions. The front page is an alphabetical list of broad subject
areas which are then subdivided into smaller categories. Users can browse
the hierarchical structure, use a
search engine that searches the URLs, titles and comments within Yahoo,
or use both features in tandem. Current
news,
stock quotes,
sport scores,
yellow pages and
city maps are available as well as regional Yahoos and an excellent
search site for kids,
Yahooligans.
Tip: Use a plus sign to indicate words that must appear
in search results.
Example:
If your question is: Where is the website of the Harry S. Truman Presidental
Library?
then try typing: harry +truman presidential +library
Pros: Easiest search page for new users. Well-organized.
Cons: Can be hard to differentiate between categories and
sites. Site listings are not very up-to-date (i.e. new sites take a long
time to get listed.)
Help and/or FAQ:
Help,
FAQ
Selective web guides:
Britannica
http://www.britannica.com
From the editors of the Encyclopedia Britannica. Includes
encyclopedia articles, selected news and magazine articles, and over 125,000
selected websites on all topics.
Scout Report Archives
http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/archives/
From the editors of the Scout Report at the University of
Wisconsin-Madison. Librarians and educators have selected more than 10,000
websites for their value to the education community.
About.com
http://www.about.com/
Over 700
specific topic areas contain original articles, selected websites, and community
features like chat rooms. Each area is overseen by an "expert guide"
trained by About.com.
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