Web Search Engines

Search engines are computer programs that travel the Web, gather the text of Web pages and make it possible to search for them. Please keep in mind that no search engine covers the entire Web. In fact, experts estimate that the largest search engines cover only 15% of the World Wide Web. No search engine is completely up to date. Search engines are rugged individualists—none of them index the same Web information, and none of them are searched the same way. It is imperative that you take the time to read the help screens before using any search engine.

How Can I Learn to Use Search Engines?
Excellent tutorials can be found at:
1.www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/
2.http://library.albany.edu/internet

Are There Rules of Thumb for Learning to Use Search Engines?
1.Thoroughly learn to use one or two of the simple search engines such as Google.
2.Learn one meta-search engine such as Vivisimo www.vivisimo.com
3.Learn one complex search engine such as All the Web Advanced Search.

What Are Some Good Search Engines?

All the Web
www.alltheweb.com
An excellent simple search engine that is very similar to Google in that it ranks results according to the number of pages linked to them. Its Advanced Search option permits full Boolean searching.

The Rules
1.All the Web reads spaces between words as the Boolean “and”.
2.Put multi-word phrases in quotation marks “united states”.
3.All the Web is case insensitive. “United States” is identical to “united states”.
4.All the Web does not permit wildcards.
5.All the Web simple search allows for Boolean “and” with a + sign, and Boolean not with a –
6.All the Web simple search enables searching for News, Pictures, Video, Audio and FTP files.
7.All the Web permits field limiters. A field limiter requires that a key word or phrase appear in a specific section of a Web page. The title limiter is perhaps the most useful in that if a search is confined to only the title of a Web page, it is likely that the results will be on topic.
url:football
link:www.mongtgomerycollege.edu
title:”Libraries’ Home Page”
seize language:fr (seize means 16 in French)
8.All the Web advanced search permits the use of Boolean operators,”and” “or”. Not is
written “andnot.”
9.All the Web’s advanced search includes several other filters.

Google
www.google.com
One of the largest, fastest and easiest to use simple search engines. Google puts pages that have the most pages linked to them at the top of the search results list. This simple strategy is a surprisingly effective method of finding good sites quickly.

The Rules

1.Google reads spaces between words as the Boolean“and” .
2.Google simple search permits or when input in ALL CAPS (horses OR riding).
3.Be sure to put any multi-word phrase in quotation marks: “united states”.
4.Google is case insensitive: Google reads “United States” and “united states” identically.
5.Use + signs to include stop words in your search +in +the gloaming .
6.Use – signs to exclude words saturn –car -automobile .
7.Google does not permit Wildcards.
8.You may field limit on the Google main search page by typing the kind of limit you wish,a colon, and then the keywords. title:hmo lawsuits . Google allows for field limits similar to those outlined for All the Web, above.
9.Google permits searching for pictures Usenet Newsgroups and an excellent Subject Directory. It does not have an easy method of searching for audio, video or FTP files.
10.Google Advanced Search is excellent and can be reached by clicking on Advanced Search
On the Google Advanced Search :
“with all of the words” is equivalent to the Boolean “AND.”
“with any of the words” is equivalent to the Boolean “OR.”
“without the words” is equivalent to the Boolean “NOT.”
“with the exact phrase” is equivalent to putting a phrase.
You may limit by language, date, format etc.
Use “Occurrences” to limit by field.