Internet Searchtools & techniques

www.sbu.ac.uk/~farinhdf/project

Web Search

The Web• 320 Million pages? (April 1998)

• Size doubles every 4 months?

• No indexing control standard

• e.g. ISBN

• 40% (?) is not indexed at all!

• Needle in a hay stack sounds easy now...

Web Search

The Tools• Search Engines

• AltaVista• Excite• HotBot

• Directories• Yahoo• LookSmart• Magellan

• Meta-Search Engines• MetaCrawler• DogPile• Inference Find

• Client-Side Applications• Autonomy’s AgentWare• Blue Squirrel’s WebSeeker• Neuron’s iSeeker :-)

Web Search

Web Search

What People Search For

searchUK: http://www.searchuk.com/spy/MetaCrawler: http://www.metaspy.com/

Search Strategies• Guess the URL

• www.nasa.org• www.cnn.com• www.bbc.co.uk

• Choose the right tool• Broad Topic: Yahoo• Common Search: Ask Jeeves!• Exhaustive Search: MetaCrawler• Local Search: searchUK

• ‘Use’ the right tool• Boolean Logic• Field Searching• Other tool-specific features

• Other Sources• Ask a friend• Pay someone to do it

Web Search

Boolean Logic

Web Search

OR AND NOT

A OR B

A OR B OR C

A AND B

A AND B AND C

A NOT B

Web Search

Field Searching

• Title title:”Joe’s Home Page”

• URL• Domain domain:uk• Host host:microsoft.com• URL url:www.sbu.ac.uk/~farinhdf/

• Anchor anchor:download

• Applet applet:class

• Image image:myphoto

• Link link:www.sbu.ac.uk

Web Search

Expert Tips

• DOs

• Use + and - symbols (boolean)

• Browse directories

• Start specific, not general (choice of tool)

• Use more than one tool

• DON’Ts

• Search too broadly

• ‘Default’ to single tool. Think & choose

Web Search

Dan’s Tips

• Imagine the ‘perfect’ hit

• Try ‘completing the sentence’• e.g. +”Karl Marx was born in”

• Use the ‘magic’ word: links• e.g. +dolphins +links

• Ignore other ‘communities’• e.g. +dolphins +links -miami

• Interpret results and refine your search• use synonyms/related words found in good hits