by Billie
Peterson, Baylor University
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by Billie
Peterson, Baylor University
|
Dear Tech Talk--
I use Internet search engines
from time to time, but now I need to provide instruction on the use of
these search engines. I need to catch up quickly with what's
new regarding Internet search engines.
--Seeking Search Engine Self-confidence
Dear SSS--
There are a number of avenues that will help you get up to speed and stay current with Internet search engines.
Get Up to Speed --
If you've been using Internet search engines, then you most likely have some favorite search engines and are familiar with many others: Alta Vista (www.altavista.com); HotBot (www.hotbot.com); Excite (www.excite.com); InfoSeek (www.infoseek.com); Lycos (www.lycos.com); WebCrawler (www.webcrawler.com); and Yahoo (www.yahoo.com). Some newer ones that you should examine are: Google (www.google.com); Northern Light (www.northernlight.com); and Snap (www.snap.com). You should also be aware of the major metasearch engines (those that search multiple search engines simultaneously) such as: All-In-One (www.allonesearch.com); Ask Jeeves (www.askjeeves.com/); Dogpile (www.dogpile.com); Mamma (www.mamma.com); MetaCrawler (www.metacrawler.com); and Savvy Search (www.savvysearch.com).
Instead of spending hours trying to identify specific search features associated with the multitude of search engines, make use of the many search engine comparison charts that have been developed. A brief selection is listed below:
Hock, Randolph, "Web Search Engines: Features and Commands". Online (May/June 1999): 24-28. Chart on pages 26-27.
How to Choose the Search Tools You Need <http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/ToolsTables.html>
InfoPeople: Search Engines Quick Guide <http://www.infopeople.org/src/guide.html>
InfoPeople: Search Tools Chart <http://www.infopeople.org/src/chart.html>
Search Engine Show Down: Comparing Internet Subject Directories <http://www.notess.com/search/dir/>
Search Engine Show Down: Search Engine Features <http://www.notess.com/search/features/>
Search Engine Watch: Search Engine Features for Searchers <http://www.searcheingewatch.com/facts.ataglance.html>
Examine Internet search engine
tutorials such as the one created by the UC Berkeley libraries (www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/
Guides/Internet/FindInfo.html) or those listed at Search Engine Watch
(www.searchenginewatch.com/resources/tutorials.html).
Also examine Internet search strategy sites such as, "Choose the Best Engine
for Your Purpose"
(http://www.nueva.pvt.k12.ca.us/~debbie/library/research/adviceengine.html)
Finally, the May/June 1999
issue of Online magazine focuses solely on Internet search engine
issues.
(www.onlineinc.com/onlinemag/OLtocs/OLtocmay4.html)
Search Engine Tips and Tricks
There are additional tips and tricks that go beyond the search features listed in the search engine comparison charts:
If you suspect that needed information is likely to be found at a particular organization's web site, use that site's search engine.
Some search engines (InfoSeek and Lycos) provide the capability to narrow the search from within the most recent search results.
When you find a broken link within search results, delete parts of the URL that come after the "/". The needed file may have been renamed or moved and this technique sometimes helps to locate the file.
For example, if the URL, "http://home.cnet.com/category/topic/index.htm" resulted in an error message, you could enter the URL "http://home.cnet.com/category/" or "http://home.cnet.com/".
To identify why a particular web page was retrieved in a search, use the browser's "Find" and "Find Again" commands to look for the specific search terms in the displayed page.
If a page is particularly useful, view the source code (the HTML code), and look for the <Meta> tags. If these tags are in the code, see what keywords are used to identify the content of the document in order to generate ideas for additional search terms.
Some experts recommend (see Sullivan) that the best search results are obtained without the use of Boolean operators. They maintain that the natural way the search engine works, combined with relevancy ranking, will display the most useful information at the beginning of the search results and that the use of Boolean operators actually produces less useful results.
Use "Field" searches whenever possible. The charts listed above will identify which search engines have field searching capabilities. Field searches are particularly useful when you want to identify web resources that contain the search terms in the title of the web page, when you want to narrow search results to a particular domain or server, or when you want to find web sites that contain specific images.
Search Engine Caveats
Lawrence and Giles have done research that shows that search engines continue to index less and less of what is actually available on the World Wide Web. Their research indicates that search engines are focusing on the most popular sites and commercial sites. Search engine managers don't dispute this research, arguing that they don't want to expend the resources needed to index everything on the web; they want to focus on those items of higher quality; they want to focus on improving the relevancy ranking algorithms; and they want to focus on those resources that are of the most interest to the most people.
Additionally, there are some web pages that cannot be identified or are difficult to identify by the automated spiders:
Pages using frames -- Alta Vista and Northern Lights spiders can identify these pages.
Pages created dynamically -- More and more web pages are created on the "fly" from information that is stored in databases. A dynamically created web page can be easily identified because of the "?" in the URL, and the spiders ignore those URL's.
Pages created using XML.
Keeping Up
Finally, there are several resources available to help keep up with the changes in Internet search engines:
Notess, Greg. "Internet Search Engine Update" <www.onlineinc.com/onlinemag>-- Published in each issue of Online.
Search Engine Show Down <www.notess.com/search> -- Online columnist, Greg Notess provides detailed information about Internet search engines.
Search Engine Watch <www.searchenginewatch.com> -- The definitive Internet site for search engine information. Search Engine Watch is a free service, but subscribers ($49/year) to the site receive additional subscriber-only information, including the bi-monthly "Search Engine Update Newsletter".
SearchEngineTalk.com <www.searchenginetalk.com> -- One of several discussion forums created for webmasters and web marketers to discuss search engines, Internet directories, technology, secrets, tips, tricks, etc. Discussion forums are available for each of the major search engines.
For more information:
Courtois, Martin P. and Michael W. Perry. "Results Ranking in Search Engines." Online (May/June 1999): 39-46. <http://www.onlineinc.com/onlinemag/OL1999/courtois5.html>
Glossbrenner, Alfred and Emily Glossbrenner. Search Engines for the World Wide Web. 2nd ed. Peachpit Press, 1999.
Hock, Ranolph. "How to Do Field Searching in Web Search Engines: A Field Trip." Online (May/June 1998): 18-22. <http://www.onlineinc.com/onlinemag/OL1998/hock5.html>
Keizer, Gregg. "Search Engine Shootout: CNET Compares the Top 5 Engines." CNET, April 7, 1999. <http://home.cnet.com/category/topic/0,10000,0-3817-7-276910,00.html>
Keizer, Gregg. "Search Engine Shootout: Top Engines Compared." CNET, January 14, 1998. <http://www.cnet.com/Content/Reviews/Compare/Search2/index.html>
Lawrence, Steve and Lee Giles. "Accessibility and Distribution of Information on the Web." Nature (July 8, 1999): 107-109. <http://www.wwwmetrics.com>
Lawrence, Steve and Lee Giles. "Searching the World Wide Web." Science (April 3, 1998): 98-100. <http://www.neci.nec.com/homepages/lawrence/pub-web.html>
Repman, Judi and Randal D. Carlson. "Surviving the Storm: Using Metasearch Engines Effectively." Computers in Libraries (May 1999): 50- . <http://www.infotoday.com/cilmag/may/repman+carlson.htm>
Sherman, Chris. "Search Engine Help: Documentation and Resources on the Web." Online (November/December 1998): 51-56. <http://www.onlineinc.com/onlinemag/OL1998/sherman11.html>
Want, Robert. How
to Search the Web: A Quick Reference Guide to Finding Things on the World
Wide Web. Want Publishing Company, 1998. <http://www.wantpublishing.com>
As always, send questions
and comments to:
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