Develop Your Computer Search Abilities
Finding details has never been easier if you have great internet search
technique abilities.
INTRODUCTION
According to the results of a study published by Cyveillance in July 2000,
the World Wide Web is estimated to contain more than two billion pages of
publicly-accessible information.(1) As if
the Web's immense size weren't enough to strike fear in the heart of all but
the most intrepid surfers, consider that the Web continues to grow at an
exponential rate: tripling in size over the past two years, according to one
estimate.(2)
Add to this, the fact that the Web lacks the bibliographic control
standards we take for granted in the print world: There is no equivalent to
the ISBN to uniquely identify a document; no standard system, analogous to
those developed by the Library of Congress, of cataloguing or classification;
no central catalogue including the Web's holdings. In fact, many, if not most,
Web documents lack even the name of the author and the date of publication.
 Imagine
you are searching for information in the world's largest library, where the
books and journals (stripped of their covers and title pages) are shelved in
no particular order, and without reference to a central catalogue. A
researcher's nightmare? Without question. The World Wide Web defined? Not
exactly. Instead of a central catalogue, the Web offers the choice of dozens
of different search tools, each with its own database, command language,
search capabilities, and method of displaying results.
Given the above, the need is clear to familiarize yourself with a variety
of search tools and to develop effective search techniques, if you hope to
take advantage of the resources offered by the Web without spending many
fruitless hours flailing about, and eventually drowning, in a sea of
irrelevant information.
SEARCH ENGINES AND SUBJECT DIRECTORIES
The two basic approaches to searching the Web are search engines
and subject directories.
Search engines allow the user to enter
keywords that are run against a database (most often created automatically, by
"spiders" or "robots"). Based on a combination of criteria
(established by the user and/or the search engine), the search engine
retrieves WWW documents from its database that match the keywords entered by
the searcher. It is important to note that when you are using a search engine
you are not searching the Internet "live", as it exists at this very
moment. Rather, you are searching a fixed database that has been compiled some
time previous to your search.
While all search engines are intended to perform the same task, each goes
about this task in a different way, which leads to sometimes amazingly
different results. Factors that influence results include the size of the
database, the frequency of updating, and the search capabilities. Search
engines also differ in their search speed, the design of the search interface,
the way in which they display results, and the amount of help they offer.
In most cases, search engines are best used to locate a specific piece of
information, such as a known document, an image, or a computer program, rather
than a general subject.
Examples of search engines include:
The growth in the number of search engines has led to the creation of
"meta" search tools, often referred to as multi-threaded search
engines. These search engines allow the user to search multiple databases
simultaneously, via a single interface. While they do not offer the same level
of control over the search interface and search logic as do individual search
engines, most of the multi-threaded engines are very fast. Recently, the
capabilities of meta-tools have been improved to include such useful features
as the ability to sort results by site, by type of resource, or by domain, the
ability to select which search engines to include, and the ability to modify
results. These modifications have greatly increased the effectiveness and
utility of the meta-tools.
Popular multi-threaded search engines
include:
Subject-specific search engines do not attempt to index the entire
Web. Instead, they focus on searching for Web sites or pages within a defined
subject area, geographical area, or type of resource. Because these
specialized search engines aim for depth of coverage within a single area,
rather than breadth of coverage across subjects, they are often able to index
documents that are not included even in the largest search engine databases.
For this reason, they offer a useful starting point for certain searches. The
table below lists some of the subject-specific search engines by category. For
a more comprehensive list of subject-specific search engines, see one of the
following directories of search tools:
Table of selected subject-specific search engines
Regional (Canada)
Regional (Other)
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Geographically specific search engines
(Beaucoup):
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Companies
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People (E-mail addresses)
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People (Postal addresses & telephone numbers)
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Images
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Jobs
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Games
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Software
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Health/Medicine
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Achoo
(http://www.achoo.com/)
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Education/Children's Sites
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Subject directories are hierarchically
organized indexes of subject categories that allow the Web searcher to browse
through lists of Web 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 directory databases tend to be smaller than those of the search
engines, which means that result lists tend to be smaller as well. However,
there are other differences between search engines and subject directories
that can lead to the latter producing more relevant results. For example,
while a search engine typically indexes every page of a given Web site, a
subject directory is more likely to provide a link only to the site's home
page. Furthermore, because their maintenance includes human intervention,
subject directories greatly reduce the probability of retrieving results out
of context.
Because subject directories are arranged by category and because they
usually return links to the top level of a web site rather than to individual
pages, they lend themselves best to searching for information about a general
subject, rather than for a specific piece of information.
Examples of subject directories include:
Specialized subject directories
Due to the Web's immense size and constant transformation, keeping up with
important sites in all subject areas is humanly impossible. Therefore, a guide
compiled by a subject specialist to important resources in his or her area of
expertise is more likely than a general subject directory to produce relevant
information and is usually more comprehensive than a general guide. Such
guides exist for virtually every topic. For example, Voice
of the Shuttle (http://vos.ucsb.edu) provides an excellent starting point
for humanities research. Film buffs should consider starting their search with
the Internet Movie Database (http://us.imdb.com).
Just as multi-threaded search engines attempt to provide simultaneous
access to a number of different search engines, some web sites act as
collections or clearinghouses of specialized subject directories. Many of
these sites offer reviews and annotations of the subject directories included
and most work on the principle of allowing subject experts to maintain the
individual subject directories. Some clearinghouses maintain the specialized
guides on their own web site while others link to guides located at various
remote sites.
Examples of clearinghouses include:
SEARCH STRATEGY
Regardless of the search tool being used, the development of an effective
search strategy is essential if you hope to obtain satisfactory results. A
simplified, generic search strategy might consist of the following steps:
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Formulate the research question and its scope
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Identify the important concepts within the question
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Identify search terms to describe those concepts
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Consider synonyms and variations of those terms
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This strategy should be applied to a search of any electronic information
tool, including library catalogues and CD-ROM databases. However, a
well-planned search strategy is of especially great importance when the
database under consideration is one as large, amorphous and evolving as the
World Wide Web. Along with the characteristics already mentioned in the
Introduction, another factor that underscores the need for effective Web
search strategy is the fact that most search engines index every word of a
document. This method of indexing tends to greatly increase the number of
results retrieved, while decreasing the relevance of those results, because of
the increased likelihood of words being found in an inappropriate context.
When selecting a search engine, one factor to consider is whether it allows
the searcher to specify which part(s) of the document to search (eg. URL,
title, first heading) or whether it simply defaults to search the entire
document.
Search logic refers to the way in which
you, and the search engine you are using, combine your search terms. For
example, the search Okanagan
University College could be interpreted as a search for any
of the three search terms, all of the search terms, or the exact phrase.
Depending on the logic applied, the results of each of the three searches
would differ greatly. All search engines have some default method of combining
terms, but their documentation does not always make it easy to ascertain which
method is in use. Reading online Help and experimenting with different
combinations of words can both help in this regard. Most search engines
also allow the searcher to modify the default search logic, either with the
use of pull-down menus or special operators, such as the + sign to require
that a search term be present and the - sign to exclude a term from a search.
Boolean logic is the term used to describe
certain logical operations that are used to combine search terms in many
databases. The basic Boolean operators are represented by the words AND,
OR and NOT. Variations on these operators, sometimes called proximity
operators, that are supported by some search engines include ADJACENT,
NEAR and FOLLOWED BY. Whether or not a search engine supports
Boolean logic, and the way in which it implements it, is another important
consideration when selecting a search tool. The following diagrams illustrate
the basic Boolean operations.
Boolean operators are most useful for complex searches, while the + and -
operators are often adequate for simple searches.
SEARCH TIPS
In most cases, an effective search strategy, the correct use of Boolean
logic, and familiarity with the features of each of the search engines will
lead to satisfactory results. However, there are additional techniques that
may further improve your results in particular circumstances. The following
search tips apply to one or more of the search engines discussed in this
workshop.
Ctrl-F: After following a link to a
document retrieved with a search engine, it is sometimes not
immediately apparent why the document has been retrieved. This may be
because the words for which you searched appear near the bottom of the
document. A quick method of finding the relevant words is to type Ctrl-F
to search for the text in the current document.
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Bookmark your results: If you are
likely to want to repeat a search at a later date, add a bookmark (or
favorite) to your current search results.
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Right truncation of URLs: Often, a
search will retrieve links to many documents at one site. For example,
searching for "Okanagan University College Library" will
retrieve not only the OUC Library home page (http://www.ouc.bc.ca/libr),
but also any pages that contain the phrase "Okanagan University
College Library", whether or not they are linked to the home page
(eg. this page - http://www.ouc.bc.ca/libr/connect96/search.htm).
Rather than clicking on each URL in succession to find the desired
document, truncate the URL at the point at which it appears most
likely to represent the document you are seeking and type this URL in
the Location box of your web browser.
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Guessing URLs: Basic knowledge of the
way in which URLs are constructed will help you to guess the correct
URL for a given web site. For example, most large American companies
will have registered a domain name in the format www.company_name.com
(eg. Microsoft - www.microsoft.com); American universities are
almost always in the .edu domain (eg. Cornell - www.cornell.edu
or UCLA - www.ucla.edu); and Canadian universities follow the
format www.university_name.ca (eg. Simon Fraser University - www.sfu.ca
or the University of Toronto - www.utoronto.ca).
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Wildcards: Some
search engines allow the use of "wildcard" characters in
search statements. Wildcards are useful for retrieving variant
spellings (eg. color, colour) and words with a common root (eg.
psychology, psychological, psychologist, psychologists, etc.).
Wildcard characters vary from one search engine to another, the most
common ones being *, #, and ?. Some search
engines permit only right truncation (eg. psycholog*), while
others also support middle truncation (eg. colo*r).
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Relevance
ranking: All of the search engines covered in this workshop use an
algorithm to rank retrieved documents in order of decreasing
relevance. (3) Consequently, it
is often not necessary to browse through more than the first few pages
of results, even when the total results number in the thousands.
Furthermore, some search engines (eg. AltaVista) allow the searcher to
determine which terms are the most "important", while others
have a "more like this" feature that permits the searcher to
generate new queries based on relevant documents retrieved by the
initial search. These features are discussed in more detail in the
following section of this document.
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SEARCH ENGINE COMPARISONS
This section compares some of the major Web search engines, based on the
following features:
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Size of the database (4)
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Search interface
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Search features
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Results list display features
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Other features of note
URL: http://www.altavista.com
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Size: 550 million pages
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Interface: AltaVista includes
simple and advanced interfaces. They are less intuitive than most
other search engine interfaces but they are well documented and allow
some of the most powerful searching on the Web if you are willing to
learn how to use them. Both interfaces allow the use of Boolean
logic, though different syntax is used in the two interfaces. The
simple interface includes a single search box and a pull-down menu
that allows you to limit your search to one of 25 languages. The
advanced interface includes a search box, limit by language, and
options to limit a search by date, to rank results according to
keywords of your choice, and to restrict results to one per site.
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Search Features:
Search logic and syntax: AltaVista defaults to Boolean OR,
that is it will retrieve results containing any of the search words;
however, the greater number of search terms a document contains, the
more highly it is ranked. In its simple interface, AltaVista supports
the use of + and - to require and exclude terms. In its advanced
interface, it supports all Boolean operators - AND, OR and AND NOT,
plus the proximity operator NEAR (terms within 10
words of each other). In both interfaces, enclosing search terms in
quotation marks searches for an exact phrase.
Limit options: Searches may be limited by date (Advanced
only) and language (Simple and Advanced). AltaVista also allows you to
restrict a search to certain fields (or sections) within a document,
and by type of document, e.g. Title, URL, Image, Java applets, and
Links to a specified page. For example, the search title:"sink
or swim" will retrieve only those pages that include the
phrase "sink or swim" in their title. The search link:www.ouc.bc.ca/libr
will retrieve all pages in AltaVista's database that include links to
the specified URL.
Truncation: AltaVista uses the *
character to support both right (e.g. psycholog*) and middle
(e.g. colo*r) truncation.
Case sensitivity: If you begin a word with an upper case
letter, AltaVista searches only for that word with an upper case
letter. If you use lower case, AltaVista retrieves upper and lower
case. For example, dodge retrieves dodge and Dodge;
Dodge retrieves Dodge only.
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Results:
What is displayed: The result display includes the document
title, URL, and first two lines of the document text. Each entry is
followed by links to translate the document, find more pages from the
same site, and find related pages.
Order of results: Results are displayed in order of
decreasing relevance. In Advanced Search, you may specify
"ranking keywords" that force documents that contain these
words to appear near the top of the result list. You may also limit
your results to one per site.
Refining results: A "search within these results"
checkbox allows you to narrow a search.
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Other features:
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Browsable subject categories (from LookSmart)
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Specialty searches for images, audio and video
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Translate documents from and into the major European languages
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Family Filter blocks certain Web sites based on their content
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Free Web-based e-mail
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"Customize Settings" to make AltaVista
"remember" your search preferences. This feature uses
cookies so you have to customize settings for each computer from
which you use AltaVista.
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Numerous links to commercial services, e.g. eBay.
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URL: http://www.excite.com/search/
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Size: 250 million pages
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Interface: Excite offers two
interfaces: simple and Advanced Web Search. The simple
interface consists of a single search box with options to limit by
media type or site type, e.g. News, Products, Photos, Audio, Video. Advanced
Web Search presents the searcher with a series of search boxes
that allow you to perform either word or phrase searching and to
instruct Excite which words and/or phrases the document CAN contain,
MUST contain, and MUST NOT contain. It also allows limiting by
language, country, and domain (.com, .edu, .org, etc.).
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Search Features:
Search logic and syntax: Excite defaults to Boolean
OR, that is it will retrieve results containing any of the search
words; however, the greater number of search terms a document
contains, the more highly it is ranked. Excite supports the use of the
Boolean operators AND, OR and NOT (all of which must be in capital
letters), the + and - signs to require and exclude words from your
search, and phrase searching using quotation marks. The "Zoom
In" feature allows you to refine your subject before you search.
To use this feature, enter your search string in the search box, then
click "Zoom In" rather than "Search". Excite
presents you with a list of terms related to your search string
(broader, narrower and related terms) from which you can choose only
one term (it might be more useful if you could choose more than one).
Limit options: Simple Search offers limits by media type.
These limits are not available in Advanced Web Search, which allows
limiting by language, country and domain.
Case sensitivity: None
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Results:
What is displayed: For each document, Excite displays
title, URL, and first two lines of document text. Links at the top of
the result list allow you to "show titles only" or
"view by URL". The latter feature sorts the results by URL
and displays only the document title beneath the Web site to which it
belongs.
Order of results: Results are displayed in order of
decreasing relevance. The "view by URL" link allows you to
sort by Web site.
Refining results: There is no way to refine search results.
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Other features:
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Browsable subject directory
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Online shopping
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Specialty searches for stocks,
companies, people, maps, weather, travel, etc.
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Free Web-based e-mail
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Customizable portal site "My
Excite"
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URL: http://www.alltheweb.com
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Size: 575 million pages
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Interface:
Simple and Advanced interfaces. The simple search provides a single
search box with a pull-down menu to select "All the words",
"Any of the words" or "Exact phrase". The advanced
interface includes all of the features in the simple interface, plus
the ability to limit by language, domain, location of search terms in
the document (text, title, link name, URL and link to the URL), and
"word filters" (must include, should include, or must not
include).
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Search Features:
Search logic and syntax: Select "All of the
words" (default), "Any of the words" or "Exact
phrase", use "Word Filters" (Advanced Search), or + to
include, - to exclude, and double quotes to search for a phrase.
Limit options: Language, domain, location of search terms
in document (Advanced Search only).
Case sensitivity: None
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Results:
What is displayed: Alltheweb displays title, brief summary
and URL for each document found.
Order of results: Results are displayed ten per page,
ranked by relevance.
Refining results: Not available
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Other features:
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MP3 search, FTP search, Multimedia
search, Mobile search (for wireless devices)
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URL: http://www.google.com
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Size: 705 million pages (5)
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Interface:
Simple and Advanced. The simple interface is a single search box with
two search buttons: "Google Search" and "I'm Feeling
Lucky". The latter automatically displays the page deemed most
relevant rather than displaying a list of results. The advanced
interface provides boxes for "all the words", "exact
phrase", "any of the words", and "without the
words", pull-down menus to limit by location on the page
(anywhere, title or URL), language and domain, radio buttons to filter
results using "SafeSearch", and search boxes that allow you
to search for pages that are similar to or link to a given URL.
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Search Features:
Search logic and syntax: Google defaults to Boolean
AND. Enclose phrases in quotation marks. Use + and - to require and
exclude search terms. Google also supports use of the Boolean OR.
Limit options: Limit by language, domain, Web site
(Advanced Search only)
Case sensitivity: None
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Results:
What is displayed: Results include document title, first
few words of text, URL, size (in bytes) and a link to a previously
cached version of the page.
Order of results: Google's PageRank algorithm ranks pages
based on the number of pages that link to a given document. That is,
the more frequently a document is linked to, the "better" it
is. It also analyzes the frequency of search terms and their proximity
to each other in the document, like other search engines. When there
is more than one result from a site, Google groups the results by
site, displaying only the first two results from that site followed by
a link to find more results from that site.
Refining results: Clicking the "Similar Pages"
link retrieves pages that are "related" to the current
result.
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Other features:
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Indexes Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) files
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Google Web Directory
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Google Toolbar (IE 5+ only) and browser
buttons allow access to Google whenever your Web browser is
running.
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URL: http://hotbot.lycos.com
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Size: 500 million pages
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Interface: HotBot offers two
interfaces: a default (not to say simple, as it offers more options
than most search engines' advanced interfaces) and an Advanced
Search. Both interfaces feature pull-down menus for modifying
search criteria (for example, to switch between word and phrase
searching), and for restricting searches by date, geographical
location, language and domain name. These pull-down menus make
available advanced search features to users who otherwise might be
intimidated by the complex Boolean logic needed to perform a similar
search in AltaVista or another search engine. Check boxes are used to
limit searches to particular types of media.
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Search features:
Search logic and syntax: Pull-down
menus in both the default and advanced interfaces allow you to select
between "all of the words", "any of the words",
"exact phrase", "the person" (HotBot
automatically rotates search terms, so a search for "Bill
Gates" will look for "Bill Gates" and "Gates,
Bill"), "links to this URL", and "Boolean
phrase". HotBot supports the Boolean operators AND, OR and NOT,
the + and - signs to require or exclude search terms, and quotation
marks to specify phrase searching.
Limit options: The default search screen allows limiting by
date, language and media type (e.g. Javascript, Image, Video).
Advanced Search provides the same options plus an increased number of
media types, and limiting by Internet domain (e.g. .edu or www.ouc.bc.ca),
geographical region, and page depth. "Word Stemming"
(Advanced Search only) searches for grammatical variations of your
search terms (e.g. searches for "thought" will also find
"think" and "thinking").
Truncation: HotBot offers the most
sophisticated truncation features of any search engine. The *
character may be used to replace any number of characters, while the ?
character replaces a single character. Both of these symbols may be
used at the end, in the middle, or at the beginning of a word.
Case sensitivity: Searches with all lower-case letters are
not case-sensitive. The use of an upper-case letter anywhere in a
search string limits search results to documents that match the exact
search, including the case.
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Results:
What is displayed: HotBot offers three options: full
descriptions, brief descriptions, and URLs only. The full display
includes the document title, the first few lines of text, URL and
date. The brief display includes the title and first few lines of
text.
Order of results: Matching directory categories, if any,
are followed by matching Web pages, in order of decreasing relevance.
By default, HotBot displays only one result per site. Click "See
results from this site only" to see all the results from a given
site.
Refining results: A check box allows you to search within
the results of your current search, using whichever words you specify.
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Other features:
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Browsable subject directory
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Search for companies, people, software,
stocks, maps, etc.
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Free Web-based e-mail
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URL:
http://www.dogpile.com
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Interface:
Single search box, with a very busy interface, and is very
commercial in its orientation.
Allows you to restrict your search to one of the following
categories: The Web, Images, Audio/MP3/ Action/ News, FTP,
Discussion, Small Biz, and Streaming Media.
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Engines
Searched:
Dogpile
searches the following search engines: AltaVista,
Bay9, Direct Hit, Dogpile Web Catalog, FindWhat, Google, GoTo.com,
Kanoodle, LookSmart, Lycos, Open Directory, RealNames, Sprinks by
About and Yahoo, but only will
search 3 at a time.
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Search
Features:
Search logic and syntax:
Dogpile defaults to a Boolean AND search.
Enclose phrases in quotation marks. Use + and - to require and
exclude search terms.
Limit options: Dogpile
allows you the ability to search the following categories as the
only mechanism to limit your search; The
Web, Images, Audio/MP3/ Action/ News, FTP, Discussion, Small Biz,
and Streaming Media.
Dogpile
provides the user with the option to limit which search engines it
uses. You have the ability to select 5 search engines per
column. Selecting column 1 and the 5 (or fewer) search engines
limits your results to those engines alone for that page of results.
This function writes a cookie on your hard drive to maintain the
information for future searches.
Truncation: None
Case sensitivity: None
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Results:
What is displayed:
The search engine that was used and the number of hits
that it returned. Results include document title, first few words of
text, URL.
Order of results: Based
upon the engines searched, and their specifications of ranking.
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Other
features: A
variety of commercial (shopping) services
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URL:
http://www.ixquick.com
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Interface:
Single search box. Ixquick
allows the user the choice to search one of the following catogories:
“Web”, “News”, “MP3”, and “Pictures”.
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Engines
Searched:
Ixquick
searches the following search engines: AOL, AltaVista, Euro Seek,
Excite, Alltheweb, GoTo.com, HotBot, LookSmart, MSN, NBCi,
Webcrawler, Yahoo.
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Search
Features:
Search logic and syntax:
Ixquick is one of the few metasearch engines that allows, natural
language, simple, and Boolean searches.
Ixquick defaults to a Boolean AND search. Enclose phrases in
quotation marks. Use + and - to require and exclude search terms.
Limit options: Allows for
the user to choose whether to search “The
Web”, “MP3”, “News”, and “Pictures”.
The user has the option to select from the following
countries; Deutsch, English, English UK, Español, Français,
Italiano, Nederlands, Português.
On
the results page you have the option to limit or select the search
engines you wish to use, for a subsequent search.
Truncation: Ixquick
has the ability to determine which search engines utilize wildcards,
it has the ability to translate and use the search engines that have
the ability to respond to them.
Case sensitivity: Yes,
Capitalized results will retrieve only the pages where the search
term is also capitalized, however lower case will disregard case
sensitivity and retrieve everything.
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Results:
What is displayed:
Results include document title, first few words of text, URL, which
search engines it used to find the site and the numbers of times
they are hit by each engine. Clicking
on the search engine will take you that search engine's list of
related topic pages. All
search results open in a new page so that your Ixquick search page
is always available.
Order of results: Ixquick
provides one star to a result list item for each search engine that
ranks that site in its top ten results. That is, a five-star result
is ranked in the top ten by five search engines.
Refining results:
Clicking the "More Like This" link retrieves pages that
are "related" to the current result.
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Other
features:
Search
for pages that link to a given page (e.g. link:http://www.ouc.bc.ca)
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URL:
http://www.metacrawler.com
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Interface:
Normal
Search: Single search box.
Metacrawler allows the user the choice to search for Any
word, All words, or Phrase contained within the search box.
The interface is very busy and commercial in orientation.
Power
Search: Within the power search mode Metacrawler offers the
ability to customize how it performs its search. The user is
provided with the option of selecting which search engines to use,
the order of the results displayed, and the domain (whether it be by
country, or institution, government, education, etc.). The
option is also provided to limit the number of results, and results
per page. The layout is very user friendly. Metacrawler uses cookies
to save customizations to your hard drive.
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Engines
Searched: Metacrawler
searches the following search engines: AltaVista, DirectHit, Excite,
FindWhat.com, Google, GoTo.com, Internet Keywords, Kanoodle,
LookSmart, Lycos, MetaCatalog, Sprinks by About, Webcrawler.
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Search
Features:
Search logic and syntax:
Metacrawler defaults to Boolean
AND. Enclose phrases in quotation marks. Use + and - to
require and exclude search terms.
Limit options: Allows for
the user to choose whether to search “The
Web”, “Directory”, “Audio/MP3”, “Image”, “News
Groups”, “Action”, “Streaming Media”.
Power search allows the user the ability to select which
engines they wish to search, the domain (whether it be an
Educational site, Government, or Country of choice). You
may specify the amount of time you wish to wait, as well as the
quantity of results on one result page.
Search by Country allows the user the ability to select a
country of choice to refine one's search.
Metacrawler
also provides the option to customize your search options.
This provides the user with the ability to customize the colour
scheme, as well as the default interface (Normal search, Slide Show,
Power search, Low bandwidth). This feature also provides you
the ability to select which engines are searched, key word defaults,
domains, the time out length, the number of results, and how they
will be viewed, whether the cursor will appear in the search box
each time, and if it should save search parameters
automatically every time you change an option and issue a query.
This is all accomplished by writing a cookie on your hard drive to
retain this information.
Truncation: None
Case sensitivity: None
|
Results:
What is displayed:
Results include document title, first few words of text, URL, which
search engines it used to find the site, and a link to more sites
similar to this title.
Order of results:
Metacrawler’s PageRank algorithm ranks pages based on the
frequency the document is accessed, i.e. a document accessed 100
times will rank higher than a document accessed 50 times.
Refining results:
Clicking the "More Like This" link retrieves pages that
are "related" to the current result.
|
Other
features:
|
View the
most popular searches
|
A variety of
commercial services
|
|
|
URL:
http://www.profusion.com
|
Interface:
Single search box. Provides
search options below the search text box, thus allowing you the
ability to customize your search.
|
Engines
Searched:
Profusion
searches the following search engines; AltaVista, Yahoo!, GO,
LookSmart, Britannica, Lycos, About, Excite, DirectHit.
|
Search
Features:
Search logic and syntax:
ProFusion defaults to a Boolean
AND search, but allows you to choose how you wish to change the
search logic in a pull down menu. Enclose phrases in quotation
marks. Use + and - to require and exclude search terms.
Limit options: Profusion
provides you with the option to limit your search into one of the
following categories: Web Search, Business, Computing, Discussion,
Entertainment, Health, Investment, MP3, Sports, Kids Fun, Genealogy,
People. Allows you the
ability to choose search sources: Best 3, Fastest 3, All, You
Choose. These allow you
to pick yourself or allow ProFusion to choose which search engines
to use. You may predetermine the number of results that will be
presented.
Truncation: None
Case sensitivity: None.
|
Results:
What is displayed:
The search engine that was used and the number of hits
that it returned. Results include document title, first few words of
text, URL, also the search engine that the document was found by is
presented as an active link (but will only take you to the search
page). It provides a "track it" feature that
requires your email address, since Intelliseek's Web Tracker will
email to you when the page changes or is updated.
Order of results: Results
are displayed in order of decreasing relevance.
|
Other
features:
Search
for pages that link to a given page (e.g. link:http://www.ouc.bc.ca)
|
URL:
http://www.surfwax.com
|
Interface:
Single search box. Very
simple layout, with the only option being a choice for the number of
results that you wish to be returned.
|
Engines
Searched:
Surfwax
searches the following search engines: All The Web, AltaVista,
Excite, HotBot, InfoSeek, OpenDirectory, SearchEdu,
Webcrawler, Yahoo, Yahoo News, Ditto.
|
Search
Features:
Search logic and syntax:
SurfWax defaults to a Boolean
AND search. Enclose phrases in quotation marks. Use + and - to
require and exclude search terms.
Limit options: Uses a
series of "dimensions".
The
1st dimension aids the user in focusing their search.
The 2nd dimension allows for what the creators call a SearchBlanket™,
which allows for the user to generate a concise list of results.
The 3rd dimension allows for the user the ability to review a
site with more relevant information pertaining to the search.
The 4th dimension allows for you to personalize SurfWax to
your preferred style of searching.
Truncation: None
Case sensitivity: None.
|
Results:
What is displayed: The
display page is subdivided into two halves.
The right side displays the results of your search.
The left side, initially, makes reference to the various
search engines that were used in generating the list of results.
By clicking on the green arrowhead, in front of the desired
result, a description page is open in the frame on the left side.
This “Snapshot” provides you with the criterion that was
used to find this page, as well as an abstract of the site and some
key points that can be found in the site or page. Also provided is a
series of site focus words that will allow you to further refine
your search if you so desire. When
a link is chosen, that link is opened on a separate page, so you
always have access to the search results page.
Order of results:
Unknown.
Refining results: By
clicking on the focus button allows you the ability to refine your
search. SurfWax then
provides you with a series of terms that are related to the word or
words you are searching for. For
example "Hurricane" brought up the following choices: a severe
tropical cyclone usually with heavy rains and winds moving a [definition
truncated at this point]
Broader << cyclone
tropical
storm marked by extremely low pressure and circular winds [definition
truncated at this point]
Broader<< mile<< statute mile<< stat
mi<< land mile<< mi<< speed<< velocity
Narrower << circular winds<< extremely low
pressure
|
Other
features:
Search
for pages that link to a given page (e.g. link:http://www.ouc.bc.ca)
|
EXERCISES
Exercise 1 - Search Engines: Select one topic from the list below.
Use at least two different search engines to search for
information about your topic. Compare the results you retrieve from each. When
comparing your results, consider the following points, among others:
 |
How easy or difficult was it to figure out how to search?
|
Was there adequate documentation to help you formulate your search?
|
How many results did you retrieve?
|
What proportion of the results were relevant to your perceived
information requirements?
|
How current were the results?
|
Was the amount of detail displayed with the results adequate?
|
Was the order in which the results were displayed evident and/or
logical?
|
What other features contribute to (or detract from) the search
engine's utility?
|
| | | | | | |
Suggested topics:
Internet 2
|
Mad Cow Disease
|
The Beat Generation
|
Tupac Amaru
|
Microbreweries
|
Links to search engines:
Exercise 2 - Multi-threaded search engines: Use a multi-threaded
search engine to search for information about the topic you researched in
Exercise 1. Compare your results with those you retrieved with an individual
search engine. Also consider the same points as you did above.
Links to multi-threaded search engines:
Exercise 3 - Subject directories:
(a) Browse the Yahoo subject categories
(do not use the search function) to find information about the topic you
researched in Exercise 1. Assuming you were able to find some relevant
information (it is possible that you will not), consider the following points:
|
Which of the two methods - search engines or subject directories - do
you consider was more successful or more appropriate? Why?
|
What are the advantages and disadvantages of each method?
|
|
(b) Use Yahoo's search
form to search for information on the same topic as you did in (a).
|
Which method of searching Yahoo was more successful? Why?
|
How does searching Yahoo differ from searching a large search engine
database?
|
|
(c) Browse and/or search a clearinghouse of specialized subject
directories to see if there is a subject directory relevant to your topic. If
so, peruse it to see if it would be useful for finding information on your
topic.
Links to clearinghouses:
Exercise 4 - Test your skills: Choose a topic that interests you,
or one from the list below. Use one or more tools of each type discussed above
to search for information about your topic. Try to incorporate some or all of
the following into your searches:
|
Experiment with both simple and advanced interfaces
|
Read the search tool's documentation for instructions on how to search
|
Use Boolean logic, proximity operators,
wildcard characters and phrase searching
|
Use one or more of the search tips discussed above
|
Where applicable, use a search engine's "more like this"
feature to generate new searches
|
Try different methods of displaying results, including sorting where
applicable
|
| | | | |
Suggested topics:
-
What is the relationship between Mad Cow Disease and Creutzfeldt-Jakob
Syndrome?
-
Is it possible to infect your computer's hard drive with a virus by
running programs over the Internet that use the Java programming language?
-
Is there any information on the Internet on Canadian microbreweries,
brew pubs, or brew on premises shops?
-
I am hoping to see the movie The Sweet Hereafter. I would like
to find reviews of the movie, any information about the novel on which it
was based, and biographical information about the movie's director, Atom
Egoyan.
Links to search tools:
MULTI-THREADED
SEARCH ENGINES
|
|
|
|
|
|
REFERENCES
This list is selective, rather than comprehensive. It contains
references to documents, both online and in print, that were either helpful in
preparing this workshop or that may be useful for those who want to know more
about searching the World Wide Web.
Barlow, Linda. The Spider's Apprentice: A Helpful Guide to Search
Engines. March 2, 2001. http://www.monash.com/spidap.html
Courtois, Martin P. and Michael W. Berry. "Results Ranking in Web
Search Engines." Online 23.3 (May 1999). Also available http://www.onlineinc.com/onlinemag/OL1999/courtois5.html
Hock, Randolph. "Web Search Engines: (More) Features and
Commands." Online 24.3 (May/June 2000): 17-24+.
Notess, Greg R. Search Engine Showdown: The Users' Guide toWeb
Searching. http://www.searchengineshowdown.com
(Many, many pages of information related to search engines)
Sherman, Chris. "The Future Revisited: What's New with Web
Search." Online 24.3 (May/June 2000): 27-28+. Also
available: http://www.onlineinc.com/onlinemag/OL2000/sherman5.html
Snow, Bonnie. "The Internet's Hidden Content and How to Find
It." Online 24.3 (May/June 2000): 61-66.
Sullivan, Danny. Search Engine Watch. http://searchenginewatch.com/
(An entire Web site devoted to Internet search engines; updated constantly.)
FOOTNOTES
1. Internet Exceeds 2 Billion
Pages. July 10, 2000. http://www.cyveillance.com/us/newsroom/pressr/000710.asp
2. OCLC Office of Research, "Web
Statistics." Web Characterization Project. http://wcp.oclc.org/stats.htm
.
3. This algorithm is usually based on one
or more of the following criteria: the number of times the search terms appear
in the document; the location of the search terms in the document (eg. the
appearance of a given word in a document's title produces a higher ranking
than the appearance of the same word in the body of another document); the
proximity of search terms to one another within a document; the number of
times a term appears in the search engine's database.
4. For individual search engines only, as
reported by Danny Sullivan, Search Engine Sizes, http://searchenginewatch.com/reports/sizes.html,
April 6, 2001.
5. As of April 9, 2001, Google reports
its size as 1,346,966,000 pages. According to Sullivan, this
is because Google's linking technology allows it to return pages it has never
indexed.
Copyright © 1996-2001 Ross
Tyner. This document may be downloaded, printed or copied for non-commercial
use without further permission of the author, provided the content is
not modified and this statement appears at the bottom of the page. Any use not
stated above requires the written consent of the author. The distribution of a
copy of this document via the Internet or other electronic medium without the
written permission of the author is expressly prohibited.
Follow the links in this link rack to access aspects of the employment
process:
This search box may help you find details you seek in a hurry. Try Google:
Here are books which may be of interest and use from Amazon.com.
Click on the cover image to go to more detail about each book.
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