A Quick Guide to Searching

Types of Search Engines
Web Directory A subject index is a list of categories into which web pages are separated by humans. YAHOO! This isn't technically a search engine, but can be effective to find groups of web sites about a specific topic. Sites can be found by searching the index or by "Drilling Down" through the categories for the topic your researching.
Examples:	About.com		http://www.about.com
	Excite*		http://www.excite.com
	Go.com*		http://www.go.com
	Looksmart		http://www.looksmart.com/
	Lycos.com*		http://www.lycos.com
	Magellan		http://www.mckinley.com/
	Snap.com		http://www.snap.com
	WWW Virtual Library		http://www.vlib.org/
	Yahoo		http://www.yahoo.com

Activity 1 : Try searching for a topic by using the directory rather than the search box.
Activity 2 : Search for your business, or a business that is in the same industry as your business. Notice the name of the category they are located in.
Activity 3 : Search for a topic of interest, and notice the number of web pages included in your results.

Keyword Search or Keyword Index These search engines scour the Internet looking to discover every page on the Internet. Because there is no human interaction involved, these searches have information about a significantly larger number of pages. This is both their advantage and downfall. While you will be able to search a larger number of pages, you'll also be faced with a larger number of erroneous results.
Example:	AltaVista		http://www.altavista.com
	Excite*		http://www.excite.com
	Go.com*		http://www.go.com
	HotBot		http://www.hotbot.com
	Lycos*		http://www.lycos.com
	Northern Light		http://www.northernlight.com
	Webcrawler		http://www.webcrawler.com
* Some search engines have both a directory and an index

Activity 4 : Search for the same topic of interest you used in activity 3 and compare the number of results. (Is there a significant difference? Why?)
Activity 5 : Search for your business, or a business that is in the same industry as your business. Did the same businesses make the top 10 in both the directory (from activity 2) and index?


So what's the difference? Site Selection Criteria: When we classify Directories and Indexes (or true search engines) the biggest factor to consider is how the database of web sites is built. Directories are assembled by humans, into logical hierarchical categories. No site gets added without the scrutiny of a human, which allows a database to be maintained as accurately as the owner chooses. While this can make locating a site in the directory simple, the task of categorizing every site on the Internet has not been completed. In contrast, indexes are not selective about adding sites to their database. In fact the goal of most indexes is to find every site on the Internet, and let the searcher tackle the task finding the right one. Accessing the information: In general, all searches allow you to type a word or search phrase to find a web site, but this isn't the only way information is accessible in some searches. As we discussed, the sites in a Directory are separated in categories that could be compared to folders in folders in folders, with each folder being a more specific category inside a larger group. This lend itself to browsing sites by selecting a large category, and then more specific categories until you find a category specific enough to contain sites of interest to you. Usage: Again because of differences in design of search tools, each type of tool lends itself to a specific application. Directories are the place that most casual researchers begin a search. It's not until a user fails in a Directory or needs more specific information that an index becomes the tool of choice.
http://www.searchenginewatch.com/facts/assistance.html

Meta Search This type of search, again technically not a search engine, allows you to search a number of web directories and keyword indexes at the same time.
Example:	Ask Jeeves		http://www.ask.com
	Cyber411		http://cyber411.com
	Dogpile		http://www.dogpile.com
	Highway 61		http://www.highway61.com
	Inference Find		http://www.inference.com/infind
	Internet Sleuth		http://www.isleuth.com
	Mamma		http://www.mamma.com
	MetaFind		http://www.metafind.com
	MetaCrawler		http://www.metacrawler.com
	ProFusion		http://www.profusion.com
	SavvySearch		http://www.savvysearch.com

Activity 6 : Use 2 or more meta searches, and compare the way they organize and display results.
Activity 7 : Use Ask Jeeves to search for the answer to a question. How does this search differ from other searches we've used?

Some help with Booleans... Boolean operators, or search operators, are a powerful tool that allows the human on a quest for information and the computer that holds the information to communicate more effectively. Before the discussion of Booleans it's important to note that not all search engines understand these commands, so look for the help or search information on the site your using.
Common Operators:
" "		While quotes are not technically a Boolean or search operator, I mention them here because of their value. By including a phrase in quotes, we can tell the search tool to find the phrase rather than the individual words.
AND		The AND Command tells the search tool that while they don't need to be next to each other, all of the words that are listed must appear in the resulting pages.
NOT		The NOT command tells the search tool that words after the NOT command should not appear on the resulting pages.
OR		The OR command indicates that any of the words included could appear on the resulting pages. By default most search engines assume the word OR between each of the words in your search.
NEAR		The NEAR command tells the search tool to find pages where the words are physically near each other on the page. Some search engines allow you to tell them how many words to look. You should check individual search engines for more specific information.
More Information:
http://www.searchenginewatch.com/facts/math.html
http://www.searchenginewatch.com/facts/ataglance.html
http://www.searchenginewatch.com/facts/boolean.html

Now it's time to test your skills... Activity 8 : Search for the date of the next Cubs game. Find the hours for the ticket office at the Idaho Center Who was the Architect of the Empire State Building?

Not looking for web pages?
There are searches for many type of information on the web. Here are just a few examples:

Find an address / email address:
	Bigfoot	http://www.bigfoot.com
	InfoSpace	http://www.infospace.com
	WhoWhere	http://www.whowhere.com

Find a Business:
	U S WEST DEX		http://www.uswestdex.com
	WorldPages		http://www.worldpages.com

Find a stock symbol:
	MSN		http://moneycentral.msn.com/investor/common/find.asp
	Quote.com		http://www.quote.com/quotecom/misc/symbol_search.asp
	Quicken.com		http://quicken.webcrawler.com/investments/tickersearch/
	YAHOO!		http://finance.yahoo.com/l

Get a stock quote:
	MSN		http://moneycentral.msn.com/investor/home.asp
	Quote.com		http://www.quote.com/quotecom/
	Quicken.com		http://www.quicken.com/
	YAHOO!		http://finance.yahoo.com/?u

Find a map:
	Expedia		http://www.expedia.com
	MapQuest		http://www.mapquest.com

Shopping Bots:
	BidFind		http://www.bidfind.com
	StreetPrices		http://www.streetprices.com
	MySimon		http://www.mysimon.com
	StoreRunner		http://www.storerunner.com
	DealTime		http://www.dealtime.com

Find a Dictionary:
	Dictionary.com		http://www.dictionary.com
	Merriam-Webster Online		http://m-w.com
	What Is.com		http://www.whatis.com

Searching for a specific topic frequently?

If you're searching for a specific topic frequently, you should look to see if the topic is general enough to have it's own search engine.

Search Engines to find search engines:

http://search.cnet.com/Find/0,5,0,0200.html

http://www.isleuth.com

http://www.hamrad.com/search.html

Business specific search engines and tools:

www.dowjones.com The All Business Search Engine

Create a portal

Some research isn't directed searching, it's reading topical periodicals. With a portal, you can create a page by telling the portal the type of information you're interested in. Each time you visit the site, you're given the most recent information.

www.msn.com
http://www.go.com/
www.netscape.com
www.yahoo.com
www.quicken.com
www.crayon.net
www.aol.com
www.bizreference.com
www.smallbizmanager.com
www.smallbizsearch.com

Create a portal using your investment company's home page

www.etrade.com
www.eschwab.com
www.dotplanet.com

Use free and fee commercial and government sources of information:

All government agencies make info available on the Web

Search more than 500,000 U.S. government Web sites in this database www.business.gov/Search_Online.html

Official U.S. Government Agency Websites

US Government information, DOD, Department of Defense, federal government, executive agencies, senate, white house, legislative branch, congress....

State Home Pages: www.state.id.us , www.state.ca.us or www.state.ut.us