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Web Search Tips

There are a wide variety of options to research topics on the Internet. To help you search efficiently, we provide some helpful tips and talk about the different search services available, such as directories and search engines.

General Web Search Strategies

  • Follow the individual search provider's instructions. Check for specific search tips and how to interpret your results in the provider's detailed description. If you aren't happy with your search results for a specific topic, it might be possible to fine tune your search through particular search methods suggested by providers. For example, find Google's user tips at http://www.google.com/help/index.html.
  • Use Boolean operators. Find out about some universal search rules that will help you find what you are searching for. Check out Purdue's website for the general search tips at http://owl.english.purdue.edu/internet/search/general.htm.
  • Be as specific with your keywords as possible. In general, it's true for all search providers that you get the best results if you type in words or phrases that are very specific for what you are hoping to find.
  • Try different search engines, directories, and meta search engines. If you aren't happy with the results of one specific provider, then launch a search with another provider. In general, it might also be helpful to try different search providers to see which one fulfills your search needs best.
  • Evaluate Web resources carefully. Visit evaluating Web resources to find out how to determine what websites are reliable for your purposes.
  • Use directories. If you know what category your search term falls in, visit directories to get reliable resources. Directories usually have smaller databases than search engines, but are typically very good resources because people file Web pages in categories and also deny listings if it doesn't fulfill certain criteria. To get a list of directories, click here .
  • Find resources with search engines. If you aren't sure what category your search term falls into, use search engines to find what you are looking for. Click here to learn more about search engines.
  • Take advantage of meta search engines. If you want to search more than one search engine with one keyword search at once, try one of the meta search engines. Click here to get more information on meta search engines.

In general, visit http://www.com.edu/library/internet/search.htm to learn more about directories, search engines, and meta search engines.

Search Engines

The amount of information available on the World Wide Web can be overwhelming. But have no fear! There are several good search engines out there designed to make your searching as effective as possible. Here are some top choices for search engines:

Google (http://www.google.com)

We highly recommend Google as a first step in your hunt for whatever you are looking for. Google is known for the wide range of features it offers, such as cached links that let you "resurrect" dead pages or see older versions of recently changed ones. It offers excellent spell checking, easy access to dictionary definitions, integration of stock quotes, street maps, telephone numbers and more. See Google's help page for an entire rundown on some of these features.

Google provides the option to find more than Web pages. Using "tabs" above the google search box, you can easily seek out images from across the Web, read discussions from Usenet newsgroups, scan through human-compiled information provided from the Open Directory (see below), or locate news information.

Yahoo (http://www.yahoo.com)

Launched in 1994, Yahoo is the Web's oldest "directory," a place where human editors organize websites into categories. However, in October 2002, Yahoo made a giant shift to using Google's crawler-based listings for its main results.

If Yahoo is now powered by Google, then why bother using it? For one thing, you might find that the way Yahoo "enhances" Google's listings with information from its own directory may make search results more readable. In addition, Yahoo's search results pages still show Categories links. When offered, these will take you to a list of websites that have been reviewed and approved by a human editor.

It's also possible to do a pure search of just the human-compiled Yahoo Directory, which is how the old or "classic" Yahoo used to work. To do this, search from the Yahoo Directory home page, as opposed to the regular Yahoo.com home page. Then you'll get both directory category links (Related Directory Categories) and Directory Results, which are the top website matches drawn from all categories of the Yahoo Directory.

Consider Yahoo any time you think you might be well-served by having a list of human-reviewed websites. It's also a good choice for popular queries, since the category listings it provides may help you narrow and refine your query. Doing a pure Yahoo Directory search also provides a unique human view of the Web.

AllTheWeb.com (http://www.alltheWeb.com)

All The Web provides both comprehensive coverage of the Web and outstanding relevancy. If you tried Google and didn't find it, All The Web should probably be next on your list. In addition to Web page results, AllTheWeb.com provides the ability to search for news stories, pictures, video clips, and MP3s.

AOL Search

http://aolsearch.aol.com (internal) http://search.aol.com/ (external)

AOL Search provides users with editorial listings similar to Google's crawler-based index. Indeed, the same search on Google and AOL Search will come up with very similar matches. So, why would you use AOL Search? Primarily if you are an AOL user. The "internal" version of AOL Search provides links to content only available within the AOL online service. In this way, you can search AOL and the entire Web at the same time. The "external" version lacks these links. Why wouldn't you use AOL Search? If you like Google, many of Google's features such as "cached" pages are not offered by AOL Search.

Still looking for more search engines?

Consider these options:

To learn more about search engines and how to best take advantage of them, visit http://owl.english.purdue.edu/internet/search/general.htm, and
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/internet/search/se.htm .

Meta Search Engines

Meta Search Engines are another option for finding what you want on the Internet.

These allow for a more broad-reaching search because the user enters keyword(s) or phrases, then executes the search in more than one search engine's database at one time. For example, MetaCrawler currently searches 13 search engine databases at once, including: AltaVista, DirectHit, Excite, FindWhat, Google, GoTo.com, Internet Keywords, Kanoodle, LookSmart, Lycos, MetaCatalog, Sprinks and WebCrawler.

Some of the most popular meta search engines are:

To learn more about meta search engines, visit http://owl.english.purdue.edu/internet/search/metase.htm.

Directories

Directories are administrated by humans, in comparison to search engines that manage their database by computer programs. The consequence is that the search results are usually more organized and reliable. At the same time, the list of Web pages is typically smaller in number.

Some of the most popular directories are: