THE DOLORES PUBLIC LIBRARY PRESENTS
SEARCH TOOLS
SEARCH TOOLS
| BY SUBJECT | ENGINES | META | COLLECTION | SPECIAL | TIPS |
One way to find information on the Internet is to use one of the many free search tools. Here are a few for you to try, along with some tips on searching the Internet.
Yahoo! - The largest and most popular searchable, browsable, subject-based index of the Internet. Good starting point.
Yahooligans!-Yahooligans! is a searchable, browsable index of the Internet designed for Web surfers ages 7 to 12.
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(descriptions taken from Search Engine Showdown by Gus Venditto)
Alta Vista -Alta Vista has earned a reputation for its speed and database size. There is nothing else like it for a thorough search of the Web's farthest corners.
Excite - Excite is more like a complete search service than merely a keyword search engine. When you are interested in a mainstream topic that is widely discussed, Excite is likely to find the right information and fast.
InfoSeek - While the size of its current database prevents it from being a clear winner, when you want to find a specific piece of information and don't want to wade through dozens of citations to find it, InfoSeek should be your first stop.
Lycos - When you're trying to find something quickly, Lycos isn't your best choice But when you need to cast a wide net, it may find something the other engines miss.
Open Text Index open text is a wonderful tool if you're prepared to expend some effort to structure your power search. It's not the best choice if you want the search tool to do all the work.
WebCrawler - WebCrawler is best used when you want to zero in on popular sites, but not for complex searches.
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DogPile -Uses 14 search engines, 6 Usenet sources, and 3 News Wires (Yahoo!, Lycos' A2Z, Excite Guide, World Wide Web Worm, WWW Yellow Pages , PlanetSearch, What U Seek, Magellan, Lycos, WebCrawler, InfoSeek, AltaVista, Excite, and HotBot), 6 Usenet sources (Hotbot News, Reference.com, Dejanews, Altavista and Dejanews' old Database), 3 FTP archives (Filez, FTP Search and Snoopie!) and 3 News Wires (Yahoo News Headlines, Excite News and Infoseek NewsWires) to get results.
Metacrawler - Sends queries to several different search engines, including Lycos, Infoseek, WebCrawler, Excite, Alta Vista, and Yahoo. MetaCrawler queries the other search engines, organizes the results into a uniform format, ranks them by relevance, and returns them to the user.
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All-In-One Search Page - Compilation of various forms-based search tools categorized by subject.
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DejaNews -Use to search Usenet discussion group archives.
Education World - Search topics or keywords on 35,000+ education related sites.
Fantastico - [Spanish search engine] El único buscador en español que le permite buscar en los grupos de noticias, imagenes y webs en otros idiomas!
FTPSearch - Fast searching of FTP sites.
Health A to Z - Internet navigation tool and information resource in health and medicine, exclusively cataloged by medical professionals.
LawCrawler - Searches legal resources on the Web.
Medical World Search - The search engine recognizes medical terms in queries and automatically expands them into synonyms and more specific medical phrases, then seraches for these terms in the contents of medically relevant Web pages.
El Mundo latino - [Spanish search engine] Mundo Latino fue uno de las primeras webs hispanas que se presentaron en Internet hace más de 2 años. Desde entonces pasaron más de un millón personas por nuestras páginas. La web tiene mucha fama y prestigio y hemos ganado varios premios importantes. Cada mes salen artículos sobre nuestra web o nuestras actividades en la prensa.
Yupi - [Spanish search engine] Este canal de navegación fue creado pensando en los millones de personas de habla hispana alrededor del mundo que constantemente navegan por el Information Super Highway con fines personales o comerciales, o en busca de información y entretenimiento.
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SEARCHING TIPS by Judith Murray Griffiths,
Southwest Regional Library Service System, Durango CO
The information on the Internet is not neatly organized like the information in a library. Beginners may find it easier to browse a hierarchical subject index like Yahoo!. While Yahoo does allow you to enter keywords for a search, it is only searching the pages it has categorized in is subject index.
There are hundreds of keyword search engines that are freely accessible on the Web. Seven of the most popular search engines are listed on this page. A good, overall strategy is to learn three search engines well and to use them all each time you search. Each of them works in a slightly different way and your search results will be different in each.
It is also a good idea to learn the advanced search features of the search engines you choose to use. You can find this information in the search engines' online HELP files. For example, you can limit your results significantly on most search engines by enclosing phrases in quotation marks instead of searching phrases as strings of keywords. Using the phrase "civil war" enclosed in quotes yields more precise search results than just using the words, civil war, without quotes.
Metasearch engines can be useful because they perform searches with several or more engines at the same time. The disadvantage is that they do not usually take advantage of the advanced search features of the various engines.
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Last revisedFebruary 1998