14 Webpages - Searching Specific Formats part 1 (Information Research)
Description
This article is from the Information Research FAQ, by David Novak david@spireproject.com with numerous contributions by others.
14 Webpages - Searching Specific Formats part 1 (Information Research)
Links and forms at http://spireproject.com/webpage.htm
Webpages are often of unknown age, of only guessed at quality and
potentially the easiest information to retrieve. There are many points
of entry to web resources, but search tools differ. Try to match your
search tool to your question. To start, you will need to learn
something of the different tools - described below - and four basic
search techniques: Boolean, Proximity, Field Searches & Truncation.
Global Search Engines
Altavista (http://altavista.com) includes a very large, fast search
engine. It allows for Basic Boolean AND + NOT - OR | Proximity " " ~
(near - within 10 words of each other.) Several Fields: title:"Spire
Project" domain:gov url:edu link:cn.net.au and Truncation/Wildcard (*)
Of import, Capitals matter with Altavista.
All-the-Web (http://www.alltheweb.com) is important because it is large
- really large - with a flexible search facility. Allows Partial
Boolean + - Simple Proximity " " and Several Fields a title field
search normal.title:spire url field url.all:.au link text and link url
fields normal.atext:spire link.all:cn.net.au All-the-Web is not case
sensitive. The same database supporting All-the-Web supports Lycos.
Inktomi (via http://hotbot.lycos.com) provides its substantial web
directory through other companies, in this case, HotBot. also allows
searches by region, by date, and more.
Debriefing (http://www.debriefing.com) is our meta-search engine of
choice. Use this to find names & named websites. Accepts Partial
Boolean + - Simple Proximity " ". Capitals matter.
Google(http://www.google.com/) is a new style of search engine which
ranks sites with more care and concern. This works well for sites you
know a little about in advance. Unfortunately, has no useful field
searches. Allows Partial Boolean + - Simple Proximity " ".
Unfortunately, No Truncation not even for plurals!
When searching for a topic with precise descriptive terms, use a broad
search engines. Always place the Boolean +symbol before each search
word (like this: +word1 +word2) to insist all words appear in the
results. Quotes keep words together ("word1 word2"). These two simple
steps dramatically improve results. Keep adding words and search limits
until the number of hits is reasonable.
For more global search engines, there are numerous lists to consider
like the W3 Search Engines page at the University of Geneva
(http://cui.unige.ch/meta-index.html#INF) and the Industry Research
Desk (http://www.rbbi.com/links/sengine.htm).
Meta-Search Engines & Google
If you know something of the destination already, like a title or
company name or full name, try using a search tool that excels in
finding named websites. There should be little difficulty in finding
such sites with either Google or a Meta-Search engine, but don't get
excited and use these on other occasions.
Categorized Lists
When searching for information that lends itself to a particular
category or topic, start with resources which group information in
categories. With few exceptions, these resources index websites, not
webpages. Also, keep your search words simple as these are small
databases.
Yahoo (http://yahoo.com) is the largest of this type of directory tree;
the definitive site. Accepts Partial Boolean + - Simple Proximity " "
Truncation * and Several Field t: (for titles) u: (for urls) and a
date field through a form.
The Open Directory Project (http://dmoz.org) is a Netscape effort to,
presumably, mute the strength of Yahoo. It is very good, and very
similar to Yahoo.
Looksmart (http://www.looksmart.com) is another significant directory.
For an alternative, try the World Wide Web Virtual Library: Subject
Catalogue (http://vlib.org/Overview.html), a distributed network of
subject lists, not nearly as dominant as Yahoo, but far more
"scholarly" shall we say. This virtual directory has been around many
years, previously famous from www.w3.org.
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