1. CHOOSE SEARCH TERMS
Make a careful selection of keywords and their synonyms,
phrase-in-quotes,
sets of terms and phrases, or of likely subject descriptions to submit
to the search tools. The following sites provide some background:
Boolean
searching
on the Internet
Subject
vs keyword searching
Creating
Your Search Strategy
2. META-SEARCH
A meta-search will give a quick overview and determine which search
engines are returning the most hits. It may result in locating exactly
what you want, especially if you are searching a unique term or phrase.
A meta-search engine does not own a database of web pages. They
use
the databases and searching programs of the search tools they query.
Ixquick translates your
search
into the appropriate syntax for each of the individual search engines.
It supports all forms of Boolean expressions, phrase searching,
wildcards,
parenthesis and other modifiers such as the proximity operator NEAR. In
addition it allows you to search for specific terms in a URL. Ixquick
awards the site one star for each search engine that placed it in its
top
ten for your search, clearly indicating the quality of the result. It
lists
each of these search engines and the website's place on each engine's
top
ten list.
Dogpile searches web sites, Usenet,
FTP
sites, images, audio/MP3
and streaming
media. Choose from the available 14 search engines and set their
order
so that the more likely engines return first. Boolean searches are
supported
and response time is very good. Dogpile
does limited parsing, e.g. NEAR may become AND, and it supports phrase
searches where the individual engines do so. It does no overall sorting
other than as received from individual engines.
Metacrawler has three optional
interfaces: Regular, Power,
which allows you to access all Metacrawler search preferences from the
one page, or Low
Bandwidth
for those with an old browser or a slow connection. Other options
include:
Setting the default Boolean operators to be used (OR, AND, or as a
phrase);
Parse ALL = AND, ANY = OR; Limit to Internet pages from North America,
Europe, Asia, Australia, South America, Africa, Antarctica; or limit to
U.S. educational, commercial or government sites. The search
channels
listed on the main page utilize engines from smaller, subject-specific
web sites.
Vivisimo takes results from
established search engines and directories such as Alta Vista and Yahoo
and arranges these results in categories. This simplifies the job of
selecting
those hits appropriate to your particular needs.
Meta-search engines do NOT eliminate the need to learn how to search
skillfully using at least a few general web searching tools. The better
you know how each works, the better you can judge the reliability of
search
results.
For further information check the following sites:
What
are meta-search engines? When to use, and not to use them,
Meta
Search Engine Roundup
The Meta Search
Engines: A Web Searcher's Best Friends.
3. REFINE THE SEARCH RESULTS
Choose a particular search engine which has the capability of rating
search sets according to factors such as the frequency of occurrence of
the keywords, recorded traffic at "hit" sites, or the number of links
leading
into those sites.
3.1 General search engines
In ordinary search engines or search tools you submit keywords to a
single database of web pages owned by the search tool, and you get back
a different display of documents from each search engine's unique
database
of web pages. Where a normal search returns too many hits it is
necessary
to choose search tools which allow you to refine your topic in order to
focus in on the aspects you want.
Alta Vista is a popular search
engine which offers the capability for phrase
searching and case
sensitivity as well as truncation.
A particularly useful feature for limiting the number of items found
and
for assuring relevance is the option of limiting a search to document
fields
such as the URL, the title, or the domain name. Use the nearest
Alta
Vista mirror
site for faster searches.
Google is currently acknowledged
as the most reliable search engine and provides the most comprehensive
results. Google ranks found pages in terms of the number and type of
other
sites which link to that page.
Hotbot provides extensive advanced
search options through the use of query operators and forms. It has
more
parsing and filtering options than other search engines. It allows you
to "Revise" your search, select "More Search Options" and filter
previous
results by specifying additional terms. Limiting by date is also an
option
as is the exclusion of specified terms. There is facility to restrict
hits
by date, by continent and according to the inclusion of different file
types such as images and audio.
Ask Jeeves is one of the few
search engines which allows for a natural
language search.
AllTheWeb Advanced Search
allows greater flexibility in searching by date (one month, six months,
nine months, or a year), it can filter searches by IP address, restrict
your results to documents of a certain size (larger or smaller than a
user-specified
number of bytes, kilobytes, or megabytes) and use fuzzier word queries
(words must, must not, or should appear)
Check the following sites for additional information:
How to Choose
a Search Engine or Directory This site charts the search
capabilities
of various search engines.
Search
Engine Features Chart gives a detailed listing of features for the
most popular engines.
Search
Engine Strategies provides a chart to help you utilize the popular
search engines.
Spiders Apprentice
a helpful guide to web search engines.
Windweaver's
Search
Helper provides profiles and reviews of the major search engines as
well as guides to good searching practice
3.2 Specialised search engines &
websites.
In many cases there are more specialised resources which can lead us
to an answer more efficiently and effectively than the general search
engines.Some
examples are:
Amnesi: the Domain
Name Search Engine - useful if you have forgotten part of a URL or
if you are merely making an educated guess at the address of a site you
haven't already visited. It is fuzzy logic enabled to cope with
mis-spellings
and/or best guess.
MediaBuilder image
libraries & online tools - thousands of original web designs,
interfaces
and photoclips free for use on personal web pages and email.
MESA -
Meta-Email-Search-Agent
- searches in parallel (nearly) all available sources of email
addresses
on the Internet.
Northern Light Current
News - updates headlines, weather, and sports continuously;
can
search two weeks archive.
searchUK - only lists UK and
UK-orientated web sites, and provides some powerful features for
structuring
and filtering your search queries. It is useful if you are
searching
for material from British sites difficult to separate from the
preponderance
of U.S. sites indexed by other search engines.
Speech &
Transcript
Center - an extensive set of media transcripts- news and public
affairs,
official and public speeches.
Supersearch for
software
SYMBOLS.com - encyclopedia of
Western signs and ideograms "more than 2,500 Western signs, arranged
into
54 groups according to their graphic characteristics. In 1,600
articles
their histories, uses, and meanings are thoroughly discussed. The signs
range from ideograms carved in mammoth teeth by Cro-Magnon men, to hobo
signs and subway graffiti". Searching is by word or by graphic
charactersitics
such as symmetry/asymmetry, curvature, open or closed structure.
crossing
of lines, etc.
Further information on this approach can be found at sites such as
the
following:
Choose
the best search engine for your information need
Beaucoup! a classified listing
of over 2,500 free search sites.
Langenberg - 300 Search Forms
in 30 Categories
Country search engines
and regional search engines: Links to hundreds of regional and
local
search engines and country specific Web directories located around the
world.
4. CHECK SUBJECT DIRECTORIES
Keyword searching ensures maximum recall
but often finds far too many hits to check easily and some of those
found
have limited relevance.
The Subject Directories on the other hand are usually produced by human
indexer/reviewers and consequently exclude much of the ephemeral, the
unreliable
and the purely commercial sites.
For topics with a lot of web documents out there, you may want to
explore
one or more subject directories and guides. They contain selected
sites,
by subject category and are far from comprehensive but they can help
you
see how your topic is covered in the web.
Yahoo! the most popular
subject
directory has a database of about 500,000 sites and is an excellent
introduction
to topics widely covered on the Internet.
LookSmart contains an excellent
collection of Australian websites separable from its international
listings.
Ozsearch is a directory which
was initially limited exclusively to Australian web sites but now
includes
the options of searching sites from Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia or
Thailand.
PINAKES:
a subject launchpad - impressive array of directories, search
engines,
databases, multi-subject gateways, etc.
WWW Virtual Library The WWW-VL
is the oldest catalogue of the web. It is run by a loose confederation
of volunteers who compile pages of key links for particular areas in
which
they are expert. Widely recognised as being amongst the highest-quality
guides to particular sections of the Internet.
For additional information see:
Overview
of Subject Directories
Internet
Search Engines Database(ISED) directory listing
Subject directories
[compared]
5. SEEK THE ADVICE OF PEOPLE EXPERT IN THE FIELD
Some of the tools which can be used for this purpose are:
Associations on the Net
The IPL's Associations on the Net (AON) is a collection of over 2000
Internet
sites providing information about a wide variety of professional and
trade
associations, cultural and art organizations, political parties and
advocacy
groups, labor unions, academic societies and research institutions.
Abstracts
summarising information about the association and its site are
provided.
Australia's Cultural Network
EmbassyWorld
Directory and search engine of the world's embassies and consulates
NGO global network
Non-government organisations.
Pitsco's ask an expert
United Nations Homepage
Useful Australian
organisations
The World Wide Web Virtual Library:
Museums
6. SHARE YOUR PROBLEM WITH OTHERS
Find a mailing list/discussion list or an Internet newsgroup where
you can discuss your information needs with your fellow enthusiasts,
some
of whom may already have worked through the same problem. Since the
lists
are international, there is often a large pool of participants and
there
are subscribers online, in one country or another, at all times.
Responses
are sometimes received within minutes of entering the message on the
list.
Google Groups is a specialised
database for searching Usenet
newsgroups which tend to be for lay audiences rather than for
academics.However
some academic disciplines prefer them over Listserv
type email groups as a scholarly forum. Other mailing list providers
and
finding aids can be found at the sites such as:
Ozlists: A list of Australian
electronic mailing lists (academicially oriented lists mainly)
Yahoo!Groups
People and chat
on ninemsn: Communities
Suite101: real people helping real
people
msn Communities
Delphi forums
Tile.net - discussion groups
(mailing
lists) using the Listserv software, Listproc or Majordomo software
There are a number of sites designed to assist those who are new to
this resource including:
How
to use mailing lists
How to
use Newsgroups
Listserv
and Newsgroup tutorial
Sources for Information About
Mailing Lists from PAML (Publically Available Mailing Lists)