Using Search Engines
Web search engines are used when you have a specific topic in mind and want to locate information on that topic only. With so many sites available, it is a little like searching for a needle in a haystack. Search engines allow you to enter a keyword and search for sites referencing that keyword. Many times, even using a specific keyword will result in hundreds of matches. To narrow your searches and find relevant documents more easily, here are a few tips.
There are two basic types of search tools: directories and indexes.
Directories file hundreds of thousands of documents into categories such as entertainment, news, business, or sports. A directory works well for general searches (such as sites referencing baseball).
Indexes analyze the full text of millions of Internet documents and rank them by the number of times a given keyword appears in each. Indexes work better for a very specific inquiry (such as the UNH Women's Basketball Schedule).
There are several directories and indexes on the Internet.
Search.com (
http://www.search.com) is a site that lists dozens of directories and indexes.
Yahoo! (
http://yahoo.com) is one of the most popular directories.
Alta Vista (
http://www.altavista.digital.com) is a well-known index.
To use a search engine, you will need to type a keyword or search phrase. To make your search more precise, use three or four connected keywords rather than a single word. A single word search will probably result in thousands of matches, which will be more than you will want to see. Although individual search engines may have slightly different rules, three general conventions usually apply:
- Put quotation marks around a word or phrase to request an exact match. ("electronic resumes")
- Use a plus sign (+) to include words; or a minus sign (-) to exclude them. (job+listing-government)
- Use an asterisk (*) for a wildcard search. (*bert yields Dilbert and Albert; bert* yields berth and Bertha)
Some search engines use the basic Boolean operators:
AND, OR, NOT, Using
AND is the same as a Plus sign;
NOT is the same as a minus sign. For example, the search phrase "syst AND (analy OR admin)" would match "System Analyst" and "System Administrator." You may also use
NEAR, which makes sure the words are close together (about ten or fewer words away).
Also, most keyword searches match only the beginning of words or phrases, so the keyword "put" would match "putter" but not "computer." If you want to find articles or documents that use your keyword in their titles, precede it with "t:". For finding your keyword in the URL address, use a "u:". For example, t:job+interview will find articles or web pages with "job interview" in the title. Whereas u:job+interview will only find URL addresses with "jobinterview" in it.
Experiment with these different search tools to learn which best meets your needs.
SEARCH ENGINES
Purpose: Makes it easy to find documents, articles, files, websites, etc. on the Net. For a current, comprehensive list of Web Directories and indexes, go to Netscape's Net Search (http://www.netscape.com/escapes/internet_directory.html).
Webcrawlerhttp://webcrawler.comSearch.Comhttp://search.comLycoshttp://lycos.comThe Internet Sleuthhttp://isleuth.comYahoohttp://yahoo.comAsk ERIChttp://ericir.syr.eduAlta Vistahttp://altavista.digital.comAll-in-One Search Pagehttp://www.albany.net/searchInfoseekhttp://infoseek.comHotbothttp://hotbot.comExcitehttp://excite.comInference Findhttp://www.inference.comMetacrawlerhttp://metacrawler.cs.washington.eduA parallel search engine that simultaneously searches all major search engines listed about and organizes data according to user preferences.
Other Search Engines for Finding People and Businesses:
http://switchboard.comhttp://bigfoot.comhttp://www.bigyellow.comhttp://emailbook.comhttp://bigbook.comhttp://infospace.comhttp://www.four11.comhttp://localeyes.comhttp://555-1212.comhttp://www.whowhere.comhttp://www.iaf.nethttp://w3com.com/psearchhttp://citysearch.comhttp://lookupusa.com
