Searching the Web for Virtually Anything

Chapter 16

Searching the Web for Virtually Anything

You now know enough to realize that you cannot possibly locate everything you want and need by simply surfing the Web. You need some sophisticated tools to help you sift through the billions of Web pages and other available resources.

Fortunately, many of these tools are available for free, and they're right at your fingertips. In this lesson, I show you how to search for virtually anything using the best tools available.

When you're done with this lesson, you'll know the answers to these questions:

• What are the basic search concepts I need to know?
• How do I conduct searches using Yahoo! and Excite?
• What are other search engines I can use?
• What do I use if I want to search newsgroups?

No matter what browser you're using, all these sites are available to you.

Searching Basics

When you're using a search engine on the Web, several concepts and techniques are almost universal and don't vary a great deal from site to site. Before you look at some specific sites to search, perhaps you might find it helpful to know some of these basic elements.

Searching Options

No matter what search engine you use, you always follow the same basic steps: point your browser to the search site, find the field to enter your search term, and then click the search button. You may find some variation, of course, but you usually follow the same basic pattern. Figure 16.1 shows what a typical search site looks like.

Figure 16.1.

The Infoseek search site offers a typical search interface.

Most search engines now offer you a number of choices on how to conduct your search. The most common, as you can see in Figure 16.1, is a choice of where to search. Using Infoseek, located at http://www.infoseek.com, you can search the World Wide Web, Usenet newsgroups, FAQs, e-mail addresses, and more.

Most search engines now give you a choice of many different sources to search. In this lesson, I focus mainly on searching the Web, but feel free to try out some of the other options as well. Keep in mind that this type of search is best when you're looking for a specific word, phrase, or other element.

The other option usually available to you is the choice of browsing through a directory by category. At Infoseek, you can browse directories on topics such as Art, Business, Sports, and Travel. Browsing categories can be effective when you're just looking for general information in a specific area but aren't looking for a specific result.

Framing Your Search

The search terms you use really determine your success. The words and operators you use to help you in your search can greatly improve or reduce the effectiveness of your searches.

New Term: Operators: Operators are usually anything that modifies a term or equation. In the equation 2 + 2 = 4, the plus sign is an operator. When searching on the Web, you can often use special symbols or words to build a search "equation" that is often more effective than searching for a single word or phrase.

As with other elements within search engines, a fair amount of variability exists from one search site to another. Most search engines can make use of Boolean operators, which are designed to put conditions on a search. These operators, as well as a few other common operators and techniques, are listed here:

• AND or +: This Boolean operator requires that both terms be present to produce a hit. A search on cars AND mustangs (or cars +mustangs), for example, would likely rule out all hits on Mustang horses and produce only those results on Ford Mustang cars.
• OR: This Boolean operator accepts hits from either term. A search on mustangs OR cars, for example, would produce hits in which either term is present.
• AND NOT or -: This Boolean operator enables you to exclude a term specifically. As an example, mustangs AND NOT cars (or mustangs -cars) would require that only documents containing the word mustangs and not accompanied by cars would be produced as hits. In a sense, the AND NOT operator is the opposite of the AND operator.

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Just A Minute: Most search engines require that all Boolean operators be in all capital letters so that they can be distinguished from the search terms themselves.

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• Case: Many search engines are also case sensitive. Here's some advice: If you're searching for a proper name, such as Queen Victoria, go ahead and capitalize the proper names; doing so may make for a better search.
• Real Language: Many search engines now can interpret real language searches. Searching for learning how to speak Spanish, for example, can often produce good results. The Excite search engine, which I talk about later in this lesson, allows such searches.

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Time Saver: Almost every search site has a Help or Search Tips link on its search page. In addition to general search advice, links take you to a page that outlines some specific techniques that work particularly well for the site. I highly recommend that you take the time to look at these links when going to a search site for the first time.

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You also can define many other settings such as your real name and other personal information and how many articles to download at a time. As a rule, sticking with the settings that come preconfigured with your client is fairly safe.

Displaying Search Results

The last (and easiest) part of any search is displaying the results. In general, most search engines display the results similarly. The search results, also called hits, are generally displayed as a URL or Web page title followed by a description of the page or a snippet of actual text from the page.

Many search engines also put a percentage or other number next to each hit to indicate how strongly it matches your search term. At these search sites, the results are usually listed in order from strongest to weakest hits. In addition, most search engines display only between 10 and 25 hits per page but give you the option of viewing more pages of hits if you want. Figure 16.2 shows a typical search results page with all these elements.

Figure 16.2.

This page of search results is representative of what you will find throughout the Web.

Using Yahoo! to Find Information

Yahoo!, the original Web search engine, is still going strong today. Started by David Filo and Jerry Yang when they were graduate students at Stanford University, Yahoo! contains hundreds of thousands of pages in its database. Like many other sites, it enables you to both search by term and browse by category. Yahoo! offers many unique options to people searching for information on the Web.

Searching for a Term

Although many people use Yahoo! to browse by category, it is an effective search engine by itself. Try a search now.

To Do: Searching for Terms

Figure 16.3.

You can search for Star Trek information using Yahoo!.

At the time this guide was written, Yahoo! found 88 matches for Star Trek sites added in the last month. That's quite a few. Just for fun, you might repeat the search and ask that Yahoo! return all sites entered in the last three years just to see how much more information is available.

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Time Saver: Yahoo! offers one very nice feature you should know about. If you scroll down to the bottom of a Yahoo! search results page, you see an Other Search Engines option, followed by links to several other search engines. If you click one of these links, Yahoo! automatically submits your latest term to the search site you clicked. Using this feature is an excellent way to search several sites at once.

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Searching by Category

Yahoo! is probably even better known for its browsable categories than its capability to search by terms. Yahoo! is divided into 14 categories, which are then divided into subcategories. Obviously, if you're going to perform a search by category, you need to know which category your search belongs to. To compare a standard search with a category search, look for Star Trek again.

To Do: Searching by Category

Figure 16.4.

The Yahoo! Star Trek category has lots of links.

You may think that a category search may be more time-consuming to get somewhere than a standard search would be, but it really isn't. After you find Star Trek, you have a listing of only the pages you want to see. Remember that with a standard search, you have to view hits a few at a time and wade through dozens of sites before possibly finding the one you want.

Another major advantage in using Yahoo!'s category search database is that while you're searching for your subject, you can surf at the same time. While looking for Star Trek, for example, you might notice that you can view some Dr. Who Web pages.

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Time Saver: When you're searching for a complicated category, such as computer training manuals, which category would you start with? Generally, try using the biggest category first. In this instance, you can probably find more information on computers than on training (Education) or manuals (Reference). So, try searching under the Computer category first.

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Getting Excited

One of the best search sites available is Excite. Most of Excite's usefulness comes from its size and accuracy. Excite uses Intelligent Concept Extraction (ICE) to search over 50 million fully indexed Web pages. The ICE method allows for highly accurate searches based on real language searches, as well as more standard search types.

Excite claims to be the fastest, largest, most feature-rich, and accurate search engine on the Internet. My experience has been that this claim could very well be true. Excite searches are typically fast and almost always bring up hits that I can use.

One of Excite's best characteristics is its ease of use. Simply enter your search phrase, click Search, and you're off. If you point your browser to Excite at http://www.excite.com, for example, and conduct a standard search for Star AND Trek, Excite offers over 92,000 pages from which you can choose, as you can see in Figure 16.5.

In addition to the standard search, Excite also enables you to search for information by city through its City.Net service (http://city.net/), browse by category browsing through its ExciteSeeing Tours (http://tours.excite.com), and perform reference searches for maps, shareware, dictionaries, and more. It is truly a must-see search site.

Figure 16.5.

Excite produces several hits quickly from its large, searchable database.

Examining the Best of the Rest

Dozens of search engines are available for you to choose from. Several of them offer unique advantages. DejaNews, a search engine for Usenet, is covered briefly here. Some other search engines, such as the Four11 directory of e-mail addresses, are covered in other lessons.

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Time Saver: Even though all search engines try to be comprehensive, you can almost always find sites with one index that you wouldn't find with another. So if you search one index and don't find quite what you're looking for, try another and then another.
Though some people view the multiple "competing" indexes of the Internet as a waste of resources, experienced searchers are grateful for the multiple coverage. As the Web continues to grow exponentially, it seems ever more unlikely that any one procedure or program would ever be able to index it all successfully. But by the time you search three or four indexes on the same topic--and follow a few links to related sites--you'll have a very thorough picture of what's available.

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DejaNews

DejaNews is the "official" Usenet search site. In my opinion, using DejaNews is without a doubt the best way to find information on Usenet. DejaNews offers a Quick Search when you're looking for articles on a particular topic. You can also conduct a Power Search, which helps you further refine your search to make it more effective. With DejaNews, you can even enter a topic you're interested in, and it provides you with a list of related newsgroups you might want to go to.

Continuing with the Star Trek theme, do a search for Spock on DejaNews.

To Do: Searching on DejaNews

Figure 16.6.

That pointy-eared Vulcan is still alive and well on Usenet.

Inktomi's HotBot

Another search site that bears looking at is Inktomi's HotBot site (http://www.hotbot.com). Like Excite, HotBot has a very impressive index to search.

HotBot also has a unique search interface. A click to their Expert search page reveals a truly powerful and flexible search engine, as you can see in Figure 16.7. With Hot Bot, you can restrict your search by time, location, and domain. You can even search for a particular type of media.

Figure 16.7.

HotBot gives you many options to search.

Search Site Grab Bag

Covering all the search engines available on the Internet would be impossible. As of this writing, over 250 search sites are already available. Table 16.1 lists some of the better search engines not covered in this lesson.

Table 16.1. Other search sites.

Also take a look at Table 16.2 for a listing of some other unique search sites.

Table 16.2. Unique search sites.

Summary

In this lesson, you learned a great deal about how to search on the Web. In addition to seeing examples of excellent search sites such as Yahoo!, Excite, DejaNews, and HotBot, you also learned how to search.

You learned how to use Boolean and other operators to help you in your search. You also discovered how to interpret search results, how to conduct a standard search, and how to browse a category directory. If you want to learn how to search even more resources, take a look at Lesson 20, "Finding People, Places and Things on the Net."

Workshop

The following workshop helps solidify the skills that you learned in this lesson.

Q&A

Q I am always being told that thousands of documents match my search query. How many of them do I really have to look at to find what I want?

A Certainly not thousands. If you have defined your search effectively, you can usually find what you're looking for in the first 20 to 30 hits. Rarely does a useful hit show up after the 50th hit or so.

Q You're right, a lot of search sites are available. Can you recommend two or three that I should stick with?

A This question is one that will get 10 different answers from 10 different people. I can tell you that I use Excite and Infoseek most. I usually can find what I'm looking for with Excite. It is fast, I don't have to wait a long time for results, and the hits are relevant. My advice to you is to try one of four or five different sites for a few days and then pick one or two that you're most comfortable with. Keep them all in mind, though, for those times when you might have to really dig deep to find what you're looking for.

Quiz

Take the following quiz to see how much you've learned.

Questions

Answers

Activity

Because you will probably want to find the best search site you can, here's a way to do it. Pick something you want to look for. For best results, don't pick a one-word category like cars, but choose something more specific such as surfboard sales. From all the search sites in this lesson, choose five and conduct an identical search on each one. Make note of how many hits each site produces, how relevant these hits are, and how comfortable you are using each site.