How to search

1. Start by thinking about what you want to find. What words best describe the information or concept you are looking for.

2. Determine where you should perform you search.

3. Construct your query. If possible try to use Boolean expressions.

4. Click the search button.

5. Evaluate the matches on the search results page. If the initial results are not to your liking, refine your query and search again or switch to a more appropriate search site.

6. Select the matching pages that you wish to view and begin clicking through to view those pages.

7. Save the information what best meets your needs.

 

Common Search Operations and Commnds

searching for Monty Python

 

Non-Boolean Modifiers	Command	Example
Search for part of a word	*	mon* or pyth*
Must include a word	+	monty +python
Must exclude a word	-	monty -python
Search for an exact phrase	" "	"monty python"
Boolean Operators
Include both words	AND	monty AND python
Include at least one word	OR	monty OR python
Exclude pages that contain a word	NOT or AND NOT	monty NOT python or monty AND NOT phthon
Group words or phrases together	( )	(monty python)

Major Search Engine Information

Name	Pros	Cons	Content Size
Alta Vista	Big and fast: powerful search options; multiple language searches and translations	Relevancy of rankings is somethimes poor; the number of matches can be overwhelming; can be difficult to narrow searches	150 Million
Excite	Intelligent Concept Extraction finds related ideas in addition to keywords; very fresh content; good summaries	Limited selection of search commands; power search is hard to find; can be difficult to narrow searches	55 Million
HotBot	Big and fast; wide variey of powerful and esy-to-use search options; very easy to narrow searches	Could be confusing to inexperienced users	110 Million
Lycos	MP3 search for music files: FTP search for shareware and freeware downloads	Very limited search commands in basic search; relatively small size	50 Million
Northern Light	Big and fast: on-the-fly organization of results into Custom Search Folders; proprietary Special Collection provides results when other search engines don't	Fee's charged for searching Special Collection articles; requires registration	125 Million Web pages and 4 Million text articles in Special Collections
Yahoo	Very easy to use; well-organized categories; can either browse or search the directory	Very small size; doesn't use Boolean operators	1 Million

Meta-Search Sites

Name	Search Sites	Search Sites	Results Format
Dogpile	About.com; AltaVista Excite; Infoseek; Lycos; Magellan;	PlanetSearch; Thunderstone; Webcrawler: Yahoo	Sorted by search engine; duplicates not eliminated
Internet Sleuth	AltaVista; Excite; Infoseek	Lycos; WebCrawler; Yahoo	Sorted by search engine; duplicates not eliminated
Mamma	AltaVista; Excite; Infoseek	Webcrawler; Yahoo	Consolidates results into single list; duplicates eliminated
Metacrawler	About.com; AltaVista; Excite; Infoseek; LookSmart	Lycos; Thynderstone; Webcrawler; Yahoo	consolidates results into single list; duplicates eliminated
OneSeek	AltaVista; Excite; GoTo.com; HotBot	Infoseek; LookSmart; Lycos; Yahoo	Displays results one engine at a time or in side-by-side frames; duplicates not eliminated
SavvySearch	About.com;AltaVista; Direct hit; Excite; Galaxy; Google; GoTo.com; Hotbot; Infoseek; LookSmart	Lycos; Megellan; National Directory; PlanetSearch; Snap; thunderstone; User-edited Open Directory; WebCrewler; Yahoo	Consolidates results inot single list; duplicates eliminated
GoGettem	AltaVista; Excite; HotBot; Infoweek; LookSmart; Lycos;	Magellan; Northern Light; Questfinder; Search.com; WebCrawler; Yahoo	Results for each engine are displyed in separate browser windows; duplicates not eliminated
WebTaxi	About.com; AltaVista; AOL NetFind; Elibrary; EuroSeek; Excite; Galaxy; GoTo.com; HotBot; Infoseek Inktomi	Lycos; Lycos Advanced Search; Lycos top 5%; Magellan; OpenText; PlanetSearch; Snap;WebCrawler; whatUseek; Yahoo	Results for each ingine are displayed in separate frames within a single browser window; duplicates not eliminated