WWW Search Strategies

1
WWW Search Strategies

• CECS 4100
• University of North Texas
• Denton, Texas

2
Finding the Needle in the Haystack(searching the
Internet)

• Three types of search tools
• Internet directories
• Search engines
• Meta-search engines

3
Internet directories

• Lists of web sites reviewed by humans
• Often are subject specific some are general
• Links are rarely obsolete
• Results are stable

4
Search Engines

• An index built by a computer program that goes
  out and collects data little quality control
• More inclusive than a directory
• Sometimes many links are obsolete
• Keyword searchable
• Often included to search within sites

5
Meta-search Engines

• Goes out and searches a number of popular search
  engines and brings hits back to you
• Collects the top hits from each of its search
  engines
• Caution - it may skim and not produce enough
  depth but is a good place to start

6
Search Strategies

• Simple search
• Logical expressions using Boolean Operators
• AND, OR, NOT
• Becoming familiar with the type of returns on
  different search engines
• Start broad and narrow search with special
  characters such as and -

7
Some Popular Search Engines

• AltaVista (www.altavista.com)
• Northern Lights (www.northernlight.com)
• Yahoo (www.yahoo.com)
• GoTo (www.goto.com)
• Infoseek is now Go.com (www.go.com)
• Lycos (www.lycos.com)
• Excite (www.excite.com)
• HotBot (www.hotbot.com)

8
Kid Friendly Search Engines

• Yahooligans
• www.yahooligans.com
• Ask Jeeves for Kids
• www.ajkids.com
• AOL NetFind for Kids Only
• www.aol.com/netfind/kids/
• Lycos Kids Guides
• www.lycos.com/kids
• Classroom Connects GRADES database
• www.classroom.net

9
Meta Search Engines

• DogPile
• www.dogpile.com
• Metacrawler
• www.metacrawler.com
• The Big Hub
• www.thebighub.com
• C4
• www.c4.com

10
Update of latest search engines

• Search Engine Watch
• www.searchenginewatch.com
• CINET Search.com
• www.search.com