Gateways to the WWW

Improving Searching on the World Wide Web

  Imagine you are searching for information in the world's largest library, 
where the books and journals (stripped of their covers and title pages) are 
shelved in no particular order, and without reference to a central catalogue. 
A researcher's nightmare? Without question. The World Wide Web defined? Not 
exactly. Instead of a central catalogue, the Web offers the choice of dozens 
of different search tools, each with its own database, command language, 
search capabilities, and method of displaying results.

Search Engines

 This is an Internet tool which will search for Internet sites containing the 
words that you designate as a search term.  Search engines DO NOT search the 
Internet itself, but search databases of information which the company 
hosting 
the search engine has developed.  One of the largest search engines is Google.
http://www.google.com

SUBJECT DIRECTORIES: organize the Internet sites by subjects.  This lets the 
user choose a subject and then browse a list of resources in that category.  
Subject directories are built by humans (rather than computer programs) and 
they are smaller than search engine databases.  Directories depend on the 
descriptors provided by the company.  If these are not specific enough, your 
search might be unsuccessful.  As a result, directories can be good for 
finding general information, but not too successful in locating 
specifics."YAHOO" is the most common subject directory, others include 
"ABOUT," "INFOMINE," "LOOKSMART," "WEBGEMS," and "WWW VIRTUAL LIBRARY."
http://vlib.org/

META SEARCH ENGINES: are search tools that do not have databases of their 
own, 
but search many other search engines.  "Metacrawler" searchs all the 
following: Lycos, Webcrawler, Excite, AltaVista, and Yahoo.  Using meta 
search 
engines will make your search more comprehensive, but slower to obtain.  Some 
good meta search engines are Dogpile, Ixquick, Metacrawler, Profusion, 
Surfwax.
http://www.metacrawler.com

ART AND IMAGE DIRECTORIES:  Ditto.com is the world's leading visual search 
engine.  It allows people to search the Internet using images, because it is 
easier for people to find what they're looking for when they're looking at it.
http://www.ditto.com

ASK JEEVES: this is a meta search engine that allows you to ask a question 
about what you want to know and Jeeves will list web pages pertaining to your 
question.  Excellent homework and research helper.
http://www.askjeeves.com

Photos on the Web-  Although this site offers photography for sale,Foto 
Search is still a great educational resource, as it allows users to search 
and view photos from more than fifty quality graphics vendors at one site! 
There are over 700,000 images available, including photos, clipart pictures, 
royalty-free illustrations, royalty-free motion stock video clips, royalty 
free vector maps, and background clip art imagery.
http://www.fotosearch.com/

Digital Library
http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/index.cfm

Soople - easy search google and advanced calculator
http://www.soople.com/

Searchmash
http://www.searchmash.com/

What is the most effective search strategy?

Decide whether a search engine or a subject directory is the best vehicle for 
the information you need.  The more specific the information needed, the more 
likely you will want to use a search engine or a meta search engine.  The 
amount of information on the Internet can be overwhelming.  to narrow your 
search results, use a search engine that allows boolean operators (and, not, 
or) and enter as many keywords as possible.

Get used to more than one search engine.  Read the "tips" provided by them 
and 
you will be surprised how easier searching becomes.  For example, AltaVista 
allows using the + sign instead of writing out AND.

HAPPY SEARCHING!!!!

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