Internet Searching Tools Allow You to Search for Specific Topics on the Web

INTERNET SEARCHING

Internet searching tools allow you to search for specific topics on the Web. There is no one perfect search engine - each may retrieve different results. For best results, use more than one search engine.

When available, information about the number of sites, boolean operators, case- sensitivity , and truncation symbols is included below. Scroll down for descriptions. For more information consult the HELP screens of each search engine.

This is not an all inclusive list. Search engines change all the time and you may have your own personal favourite. Some of the ones below may no longer exit.

 Google - www.google.com

My favourite. Click on this link http://www.google.ca/help/basics.html to get a great description on how best to use google. Once in the "Basics of Google Search" page click on the Advanced and Interpret Results links found to the left of the page. One important point is when you are in google's home page, if it is just images you want, click on the Image link and all google will do is search for the image that are associated with your search.

 Alta Vista - http://www.altavista.digital.com

Alta Vista Basic Query Help Alta Vista Advanced Query Help

Searches over 30 million URL's and Usenets Default boolean operator: or Other boolean options: and, not, near "bound phrases" in quotes Truncation symbol: * Case-sensitive

 Excite - http://www.excite.com

Excite Search Tips Excite Advanced Search Tips

A hierarchical web directory arranged by subject Searches over 50 million URL's and Usenets Default boolean operator: and/or combination Other boolean options: AND, AND NOT, OR (must appear in ALL CAPS) Truncation symbol: * Case-sensitive  Infoseek Guide - http://www.infoseek.com

Infoseek Help

A hierarchical web directory arranged by subject Searches over 21 million URL's and Usenets Default boolean operator: and Other boolean options: or, near, not "bound phrases" in quotes Case-sensitive

 Lycos - http://www.lycos.com

Lycos Help

A hierarchical web directory arranged by subject Searces over *** URL's, sounds, pictures, and email addresses Default boolean operator: + (and) Other boolean options: - (or) Not case sensitive

 Magellan - http://www.mckinley.com

Magellan Help

A hierarchical web directory arranged by subject Searches over 1.5 million URL's and Usenets Default boolean operator: or Other boolean options: + (and), - (not) Not case-sensitive

 Open Text - http://www.

Open Text Search Tips

Searches over 10 million URL's Default boolean operator: and Other boolean options: or, but not, near, followed by Not case-sensitive  Yahoo! - http://www.yahoo.com

Yahoo! Help

A hierarchical web directory arranged by subject Searches a number of URL's, Usenets, and email addresses Default boolean operator: and Other boolean options: or Not case-sensitive Truncation symbol: *

There are many other search engines. Some are available through Yahoo!

 Big Yellow - http://www1.bigyellow.com

 Goto.com - http://www.goto.com

 HotBot - http://www.hotbot.com

 InfoSpace - http://www.infospace.com

 WebCrawler - http://www.webcrawler.com

 What U Seek - http://www.whatuseek.com

 WhoWhere? - http://www.whowhere.com

Multiengine Search engines:

 MetaCrawler - http://www.metacrawler.com

 DogPile - http://www.dogpile.com

 Savvy Search - http://guaraldi.cs.colostate.edu:2000

 All-in-One - http://www.albany.net/allinone

 C | Net’s Search.com - http://www.search.com Boolean Operators

Boolean operators allow you to combine terms in different ways (e.g. and, or, not, or near).

AND - retrieves records containing ALL terms in the search:

Apples and Oranges

OR - retrieves records containing ANY term in the search:

Apples or Oranges

NOT - retrieves records EXCLUDING a term from a search:

Apples not Oranges

NEAR - retrieves records containing words in close proximity to each other:

Hillary near Clinton - retrieves "Hillary Clinton" or "Hillary Rodham Clinton"

“ ” Quotes – Any phrases inside the quotes are considered as one phrase.

“Apples and Oranges” it will look for this phrase APPLES OR ORANGES:

ORANGE S

APPLES AND ORANGES:

APPLES NOT ORANGES:

In your searches use key words or concepts to try to fine tune your search . For example if you are doing a project on animals, you may want to use the key words; dogs, livestock, wildlife, farm, farm animals, canines, dogs and training, wildlife and habitat etc. Case-Sensitivity

Some sites are case-sensitive, meaning that when you search for a proper noun (name of a person, place, organization, etc) you should use capital letters. For example, when using Alta Vista, a case-sensitive search engine, turkey will retrieve sites with the words turkey or Turkey in them. But a search for Turkey will retrieve only sites only including the word Turkey. Truncation Symbols

A truncation symbol allows you to search for a substring (or part) of a word. For example, comput* retrieves compute, computing, computers, computations, computerized, etc. What to do when : Your search produces no results  Make sure you read the tool's description, options, rules and restrictions. Not all search tools are created equal.  Make sure your spelling is right. If you're not sure, use substrings (if allowed).  If you use logical operators (Boolean operators), check your syntax.  Try to be less specific in your query. DO not overspecify a search. You might miss relevant documents.  Try synonyms and variations on words.  Try with another search engine. Your search produces too many results  Try to be more specific.  Identify common words that are important to your search.  Try to think of words that uniquely identify what you're looking for. Some words are of little value, because they identify lots of documents. The most distinctive a word, the more useful it will be for sharpening your search.  Try to use as many relevant keywords as possible; it will help to uniquely identify what you're looking for. You're having problems with the Server The server might return an error message (or simply not allow any connection) if it's too busy or temporarily down, or if it might chokes on your query for unknown reasons. No answer, Timed out, Too busy These are the most common type of problems you will get. The server you are trying to access may be too busy or temporarily down. If this happens to you:

 Try again after a couple of minutes.

 Wait until a less busier time of the day. Avoid prime time hours.

 Try on a mirror site (if any). Knowledge of world geography and time zones comes in handy when jumping to other sites elsewhere in the world.

 Check the server's location. If the server is far away from your location, the response time may be slow compare to more "local" servers. Be patient.

 Check the server's time zone. Some servers are not available during certain period of the day. Error 404, Page/File not found There's many reasons for this to happen. It may be that the link no longer exists, the URL has been changed or is simply not valid. Check the following and try again :  Double check your URL, make sure it's entered correctly.

 Check the lower/upper case of each character. URL are partially case- sensitive. The first part (ie. protocol://host.domain ) is NOT case sensitive, but everything that follow IS (ie. /path.../filename ).

 Check for any non-alphanumeric symbols, make sure they are ok.

 If your URL has more than one directory level, try to move up in the tree (ie. remove the last level and try again). Do so until you are at the top level. If you still get no response, there's a good chance the URL is not valid or does not exist anymore. Page has moved Sometimes authors leave a "we have moved" message and indicate a new link location; sometimes they don't. Permission denied It may be that the site is denying public access or is configured so that only restricted access is allowed.

 Try again later. Sometimes the restricted access is only for certain period of the day.

 Try to contact the site authors.

In most cases, there's not much you can do about it.