Internet - Searching overview _1998_

Search ToolsJames C. SeidlWoodlands Library CooperativeBefore you begin your search•What are you searching for?•What is a search tool?•How do they work?•Type of search tools for Web searching –Keyword or SubjectWeb page•Document type: HTML–Title–Contents–URLs–Images–MultimediaSearch TypesSubjectKeywordMulti-searchYahooAltavistaSavy SearchMELLycosMetacrawlerSubject•When you want general information on a subject or topic•Information is usually in a directory database–www.yahoo.com–mel.lib.mi.usKeyword•When you want specific information •Larger database with key words indexed•Too many hits•Correct term to use–www.altavista.digital.com–www.lycos.comMulti-search•Speeds up the search process by searching several search engines at one time•Often provides fewer references but more precise–http://guaraldi.cs.colostate.edu:2000/form–http://www.webcrawler.comBoolean logic•AND requires that both terms are present•NEAR requires that one term must be found within a specified number of words•OR requires that at least one term is present•NOT excludes a term from a queryPlus/Minus Signs•Employs [+] before a term retrieves only the document containing that term (AND)•Employs [-] before a term to exclude that term from the search (NOT)Quote Marks•“” Indicate that the words within the quote marks are to be treated as an exact phrase–james seidl vs “james seidl”Quote marks search results•james seidl–altavista 110280–hotbot 1,011•“james seidl”–altavista 16–hotbot 6Truncation•The ability of a search to include the stem or the main part of word•Sing*–singer–singing–singalongCase Sensitive•Capital words are treated as a single proper name•Thomas Jefferson•George Washington•AlbionPopular search topics•People•Maps•Stocks•Weather•News•Sport•Travelwww.yahoo.commel.lib.mi.uswww.altavista.digital.comwww.lycos.comguaraldi.cs.colostate.edu:2000/www.metacrawler.com