Yahoo and Beyond
Most beginners use Netscape's Internet search button and Yahoo for all their searching. These are good places to
start your search, but
sometimes
there are easier ways to find what you are looking for. As you
use
the Web more you will find your own favorite places to start your
search.
In the meantime, here is some information to help you get
started.
Starting points
Search engines
Search engines can be used to search web sites, databases,
reviews,
usenet groups and anything else on a public Internet site.
Alta Vista,
InfoSeek,
Excite,
Lycos are among
our favorites now...
(Ok, we still use Yahoo all
the time.)
Some search engines are actually collections of other search
engines:
Downloading times for some
search screens will vary
drastically depending on the connection you are using. Check
download times on your
computer set-up -- before you're on deadline. Also, save
bookmarks for the pages
where you can actually enter a search instead of the search
engine's
home page.
Some search engines are generated automatically by computer
programs
that roam the Web in search of new pages. These search engines
are
quite powerful for full text or key word searching, but they
usually don't
offer much assistance with concept searches.
- Alta Vista
is one of
the most powerful examples of this genre
Some search engines are produced by humans. These search engines
tend
to index fewer web sites than the automtically generated search
engines.
However, these sites often provide better concept searches as
other
aides.
-
The
WWW Virtual Library - a distributed subject catalog, each
subject
section is maintained by a volunteer "librarian"
- Yahoo - one of the
largest
collection of links maintained by humans
Some search engines specialize in particualr aspects of the
Internet:
Effective Searching
Most search engines offer simple ways to conduct a search:
- type in one or more key words without conjunctions
- narrow results by adding key words
- use conjunctions like AND OR
... but some also allow much more sophisticated searches
- date ranges
- words that must appear or cannot appear
- words in proximity
- case-sensitive
Each search engine may have idiosyncracies but many share common
search
procedures.
Check each search engine's help
area or
tips area for its rules. (For example, see Alta Vista's
Help for Simple
Query page.)
Fuzzy searching
Fuzzy search engines search for pages containing any combination
of the
specified words but
give more weight to pages with all specified words. For instance,
'rocket scientist' is searched as
rocket AND OR scientist, with a higher weight on pages with both
terms. Usually, the results are listed in order with the highest
weight first.
Boolean searching
- Allows much more precise searching
- Not all Boolean search languages are the same
- conjunctions used in typical Boolean searches: AND, OR, NEAR,
NOT, ADJ
- symbols also can be used to narrow or expand searches:
- * is a typical wildcard symbol that comes in handy when you
don't
know the complete name of a subject or when you want to
find all variations of a word. (comput* or *.exe)
- # forces an exact match
Digging for treasure
For the best -- and fastest --
results many searches should be very specific, but sometimes you
will
want to
explore the possibilities in a certain category. Hierarchical
catalogs
allow you to search by subject, almost like going to the library
and
browsing through all of the low-fat cookbooks instead of
searching for
just one title. This may not be the best way to look for
information
on deadline but it can be fruitful -- and the results
will come in handy on deadline.
Hierarchical catalogs are
especially good
to examine if you are trying to build bookmark lists
in the areas you cover most often. But don't rely on just one
catalog.
Some hierarchical catalogs:
Last update 10 May 1996
http://www.ccrc.wustl.edu/spj/surf/beyond.html
Prepared by Lorrie Faith Cranor (lorracks@cs.wustl.edu) and
Staci D. Kramer (sdk@cris.com)