Here's another useful article from the activist toolkit.
kelly
URL: http://www.onenw.org/toolkit/searchengines.html
Using "Search Engines" to find information
on the World Wide Web
The World Wide Web has been described as "the world's largest
library-without a librarian." Although comparisons between online
resources and traditional media often fall flat, there is no denying
that finding information on the Web can be as difficult as finding the
proverbial needle in the haystack. As of the end of 1998, the Web was
estimated to consist of over 43 million "top level" domain names, and
over 250 million Web pages, containing a total of several billion
words. It's not surprising, then, that some of the most popular sites
on the Web are "search engines," designed to help people find
something useful in the ever-growing volume of available information.
This article tells you more about search engines, and which ones you
should use to find specific types of information.
A search engine is simply a Web site designed to help you find
information on the Internet by searching a database of web pages for
"keywords" that describe what you're looking for. Search engines are
"free" to the web-surfing public, although you will have to endure
some advertising when you use them. On the positive side, because
they are advertising-supported, the companies that create search
engines are keenly interested in providing an exhaustive index of
information on the Internet. The better the search engine, the more
people will use it. The more people use it, the more attractive it is
as an advertising vehicle, and the more money the search engine
company makes (you get the picture). Most search engine companies have
developed sophisticated software technology (often called "robots,"
"spiders," or other interesting names) that do nothing but "travel"
the Web and seek out new things to add to their indices of
information.
There are many search engines available, but all search engines are
not created equal. Each builds a index of Web pages in a different
way, catalogs different pieces of information about each page, and
provides a different user interface to allow you t o search its
database. To maximize your chances of finding the information you need
quickly and efficiently, it's important to pick the right search
engine for the job. Following are the search engines we recommend for
specific kinds of searches conducted routinely by the conservation
community (and web surfers everywhere):
Phrases Representing Something Specific
If you're looking for every Web site that contains a specific phrase
or name such as "National Forest Management Act" or "Bill Clinton,"
then your best bet is to use a search engine that attempts to index
every individual page on the Web. The best search engine of this type
is AltaVista, which indexes every word on every Web page it finds-
over 140 million pages. AltaVista's size is also its biggest
disadvantage; if your search isn't VERY specific, you'll be
overwhelmed with pages matching one or more of your search terms.
However, even if your search comes back with 1,000 hits, you really
need only look at the first 20 or so for truly relevant information.
Hints for using AltaVista:
* To search for a phrase, put it in quotes (like "virtual library").
* To require that a word be in all of the hits, put a <+> before
it. (+umpqua watersheds will find hits with umpqua, some of which
will have watersheds).
* To keep out any pages that contain a word, put a <-> before it.
(Polish -shoe will find pages with the word polish, but not with
the word shoe).
* To look for alternate spellings and endings, use <*> (wom*n will
find woman and women, forest* will find forestry, forests,
forester and forested).
* Don't use capital letters when searching. AltaVista will try to
match caps exactly.
* AltaVista will also conduct "Advanced" searches, which allow you
to rank order your hits by keywords or concepts. Just click on the
"Advanced" button in the AltaVista title bar. If you use more than
one term in an advanced search, you must enter "Boolean" terms
(operators like AND, OR and AND NOT). For example:
hiking AND "crater lake national park"
will return pages that contain both the word "hiking" and the
phrase "crater lake national park."
vegetables AND NOT "brussels sprouts"
will return pages with the word vegetables, but not brussels
sprouts.
* After entering your "selection criteria" in the first window, you
can enter "results ranking criteria" in the box below. For
example, if you entered `hiking AND "crater lake national park"'
as your selection criteria, entering "backcountry" as a ranki ng
criterion will return results with the word "backcountry" first.
For more detailed information about using advanced searches, click
on the "help" button on AltaVista's Web site.
Phrases Representing General Topics
If you're searching for a more general topic, such as "environmental
groups" or "Web design tips," you can choose between two types of
searching tools: a search engine which allows you to type in a request
and delivers all the pages that con tain your specific search terms,
and a searchable directory such as Yahoo, which organizes Web pages
into a predefined hierarchical subject tree and allows you to search
for subject headings. Note: many search engines contain their own
hierarchical subject directory, as well.
Yahoo is not actually a search engine, but a searchable hierarchical
directory of Web sites. It does not index the full text of pages, or
even create an abstract. Instead, the human editors of Yahoo review
sites, create short one-sentence descriptions of each site, and sort
them into hierarchically organized subject categories. You can search
Yahoo's categories through a very simple search engine, but it's
important to understand that this doesn't search the pages themselves,
only Yahoo's categories and summaries. When searching Yahoo, it's
important to keep your search terms simple: two or three words at
most.
The nice thing about Yahoo is that it has hand-selected, pre-collected
references for a variety of topics, so if your search topic matches
one of their categories, you're in luck. However, because Yahoo's
directory is built by humans, not by automated programs, it is not
updated as frequently as search engines, meaning that new entries can
take weeks or months to show up-if they show up at all. Yahoo only
indexes just over a million Web sites (around 2% of the Web), , so
you're not likely to find obscure sites there, either.
Other Search Engines
Some important facts to remember when searching the Web are 1) each
search engine compiles a distinct set of information in its database,
2)every search engine indexes and returns results to your queries in
different ways, and 3) if you don't find what you're looking for in
the first 20 or so hits in one search engine, try the same search in
another. Some excellent search engines, apart from the giant Alta
Vista, are HotBot, Lycos, and Excite. However, they index fewer Web
pages than AltaVista (110 million, 50 million, and 55 million,
respectively). Excite is very good at finding relevant documents, and
it updates its entire database every week. Because it attempts to
index only the most popular pages on the Web, Excite is a good choice
if you're looking for large, popular Web sites, but not so good if you
want to find more obscure sites.
The best way to decide which search engine is right for the
information you're looking for is to try them yourself, and see what
kind of results you get. Our specific recommendations are as follows:
1. Start with Yahoo: Check to see if the general topic you're
interested in is listed there. If it is, this is an excellent,
manageable place to start your research. If not, then go to a
search engine.
2. For search engines, we recommend you start with AltaVista, then
try Hotbot, Lycos or Excite, if AltavVista fails to return
pertinent information. To conduct specific searches, we recommend
you go immediately to their "advanced search" section, if
available.
An interesting (and some would say scary) way to test the power of
search engines and gauge the vastness of the Internet is to try a
search on your own name, or the name of your organization. Chances
are, it's referenced somewhere on the Internet, and your trusty search
engine can find it.
Further Reading
There is an excellent Web site that reviews the best/worst aspects of
each search engine, and how to use them to your advantage. Read it at
Search Engine Watch. Also, if your organization already has a Web site
and you're interested in having it indexed on these search engines,
read our article "Publicizing Your Web Site" on the ONE/Northwest
site.
ONE/Northwest: Online Networking for the Environment
1601 2nd Avenue Suite 605
Seattle, WA 98101
206.448.1008 fax 206.448.7222
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