Search Engines, Subject Directories, and Meta-Search Engines
by Kimberly McCoy
re you like millions of folks who are tion that spiders or robots return is used to connected to the Internet but have no match web pages to keywords and phrases re- idea how to locate valuable resources quested by users and provide more compre- on-line? Hopefully, after reading this article you hensive results of available sites on the Web. will be able to locate everything on-line your Search engines also index words or terms in heart desires. web documents. Search engines provide a large number of possibilities. Many search n- What are Search Engines, Subject gines also allow you to retrieve data by brows- Directories, and Meta-Search Engines ing by topic and using the keyword search ca- pabilities. Examples of search engines include • Think of search engines, subject directories, Lycos www.lycos.co and meta-search engines as a method of storing • Excite Search www.excite.co various web sites in various databases. These • Infoseek www.infoseek.co tools search the web and store the information. • HotBot www.hotbot.com Many people assume that all of these search • Go to www.goto.co tools work the same, but this is not the case. • AltaVista www.altavista.co Search engines, subject directories, and • Webcrawler www.webcrawler.com meta-search engines are set up and work differ- • Education World www.educatio -world.com/ ently. The difficult part about using Internet search tools is learning and understanding how Subject Directories each one of them works and which one will Subject directories usually have smaller data- work best for your particular needs. Listed are bases than search engines. Directories classify some general characteristics of each search tool web documents or sites into a subject classifi-
cation scheme; they are usually compiled by Search Engines hand or in some type of logical order. Subject Search engines are programs that run on a par- directories also begin with general topics an ticular web site. They create their listings y- allow the user to narrow to a specific category. namically and search large portions of the Inter- They usually provide limited search results o net based on information that their “spiders” or available pages on th Web. The information “robots” retrieve. Users who want their sites in- collected from a subject directory will generally cluded in the search database also submit in- contain more related information dealing with formation. (Spiders or robots are automate a particular subject matter. Information e- search programs that go through the Web and trieved from subject directories will not be as search web pages for keywords). The informa- (continued on Page 2)
comprehensive as the information located from For example: a search engine. Many of these directories include "autom*"results: automatize, automobile, auto- browsing and searching capabilities. Examples o matic or automotive subject directories are "educat*"results: educator, educators, education • Yahoo www.yahoo.co or educationa • Nerd World Subject Index www.nerdworld.co "profes*"results: profess, professor, profession, • The Mining Company Subject Site Guides www professional or professionalism miningco.com/ • Starting Point www.stpt.com/ • Plus and Minus Signs • Looksmart www.looksmart.com/ The plus sign used before a keyword or • Magellan magellan.excite.com phrase should retrieve results that include that specific keyword or phrase. The minus Meta-Search Engines sign used before a keyword or phrase should retrieve results that exclude that specific key- Meta-search engines don't create their own data- word or phrase. Examples of each are listed base of information. They search the databases of below other search engines. The major advantage of us- For Example: (+ Technology + lesson plans) ing a meta-search engine is that it allows the user Results: documents in the databases that have to search several search engines simultaneously. both of these words. Examples of meta-search engines include For Example: (+ Technology - Computers) • Metacrawler www.metacrawler.com/ • Results: a list of links that has the word Inference www.infind.com "technology" in the document but will not include • Savvysearch www.savvysearch.com any document that has the word "computers." • Mamma www.mamma.com For Example: (+ Technology + Computers - Inter- • Dogpile www.dogpile.com/ net) • Search www.search.com/ Results: sites that have "technology "and • C4 www.c4.com/ "computers" but not "Internet" • Profusion www.profusion.com/ ***Make sure you read the tips for each Searching Techniques & Strategies search tool. Not all search engines support Now that you have a better understanding of the all symbols. AltaVista, Infoseek, and Excite similarities and differences of search engines use no spaces between the keywords nd the subject directories, and meta-search engines, it’s plus and minus signs. HotBot, Lycos, Goto, time to learn some searching techniques an and Webcrawler don't specify one way or the strategies. Several searching techniques an other. strategies are essential for narrowing search re- sults and will assist you with locating valuable re- • Quotation Marks and Brackets sources via the Internet. These techniques an Quotation marks and brackets assist with strategies include wildcard, plus and minus narrowing the search results from the search signs, quotation marks and brackets, pipe symbol, tools. When quotation marks or brackets are Boolean operators, and nesting. used, the search engine will only retrieve documents that have those key terms appear- • Wildcard ing together. A wildcard is a special character that can be For Example: "Technology and lesson plans" o added to a phrase whil searching and the [Technology and lessons plans] search engine or subject directory looks for all Results: words will be treated as an exact possible endings. The results will provide all phrase. possible documents in their database that have those letters
• Pipe Symbol (|) For Example: Technology NEAR/10 lesson plans The pipe (|) symbol, located on most keyboards Results: documents that have the words technol- on the right-hand side between the delete an ogy and lesson plans within 10 words of each return key will assist with narrowing down e- other sults within a broad category. For Example: Technology|Computers ***Currently AOL Search, AltaVista, Lycos Results: retrieve all documents in the broad cate- and Webcrawler support this feature. Read gory of "technology" dealing with "computers" the specific search tool tips for more detailed information. • Boolean Operators Boolean operators are used the same way the • Nesting plus and minus signs are used. The AND Boo- Nesting allows the user to perform multiple lean operator, is similar to the plus sign and tasks and build a complex search. The paren- the NOT Boolean operator is similar to the mi- theses are used to group the key words and nus sign. The OR Boolean operator tells the Boolean operators together. This is an excel- search engine to retrieve one term or the other. lent technique for complex searching. For Example: Technology AND lesson plans For Example: Technology AND (Internet OR World Results: documents in the databases that have Wide Web) both of these words Results: locate all documents that have the word (similar to using the + symbol) "Technology" and "Internet" or "Technology" and "World Wide Web." For Example: Technology NOT Computers Results: a list of links that have the word More Tips on Searching "technology" in the document but will not include The OLRC Technology team also recommends: any document that has the word "computers" • Reading the tips provided by each search n- (similar to using th - symbol) gine, subject directory, or meta-search engine. • Using synonyms if you are having trouble with For Example: Technology OR Computers a particular keyword or phrase. Results: a list of links that have the phrase • Deciding which search tools (engine, directory, "technology" or "computers" in the document or meta-search engine) would work best for you and your needs. For Example: Technology AND NOT Computer • Using more than one search engine or subject Results: information with the key word directory; this will expand the results of your "technology" and not "computers" search. • Making sure the spelling of the keyword or For Example: Technology AND Computers NOT phrase is correct. Internet • Being aware that some search tools (engine, Results: the sites that have "technology" an directory, or meta-search engine) have a per- "computers" but not "Internet" cent symbol located on the side of the annota- (similar to using the + and - symbol) tion. This indicates the amount of information
that is relevant to the key words or phrases. • Near The higher the percentage, the closer the re- The NEAR phrase indicates to the search tools sult is to the search criteria. that those terms must be located within a c r- • Remembering to bookmark your findings. tain number of words. The results may vary
depending on the search tool. To illustrate,
some search tools may try to locate the terms (see “Additional Information on Searching within 2, 10 or 25 words of each other. The on page 4) command to use is NEAR/#
The One- Stop Cross Curriculum Additional Information on Searching System
• Learning More about Search Engines and Subject On-line Directories FAQs www.cln.org/searching_faqs.html Still trying to lo- A complete and detailed set of frequently asked questions cate reliable, use- on using search engines and subject directories. ful and worthy lesson plans for your ABLE, • The Amazing Internet Guide ESOL, Family Literacy, or GED students? www.sunstorm.com/amazing/ If so, look no further. This new resource A wonderful site that contains information on over 20 will allow you to search our database fo search tools and provides subscription and key tech- lesson plans on specific topics, see related niques needed for each tool. topics, and find recommended trade books • The Search is Over for those topics. The best part is you can www1.zdnet.com/pccomp/features/fea1096/sub2.html send in your own lesson plans to be added Excellent web site that provides detailed instructions on into our database to be used by other edu- all the major search directories, indexes, and meta-search cators. For more information about engines. This site contains the pros and cons of each as Eureka go to