AltaVista | Excite | FAST | GO (Infoseek) | Google | Hotbot |
Lycos
| Northern Light | Yahoo
Search engines allow you to perform keyword searching of the millions of Web pages indexed by
each search engine. Search engines are useful if you want to find as much as you can on a
subject and work best if you take advantage of their advanced search features. If you can't find
something in one search engine, try your search in another engine or try one of the many Metasearch Engines. If you are getting too many irrelevant results or
know exactly what you want (e.g. The White House homepage) try searching one of the Directories & Guides.
For more detailed information about search engines we recommend Search Engine Watch. An excellent tutorial on
using and searching the Web can be found at the U of California-Berkeley
Teaching Library.
You can conduct a basic search of the Web with any of the search engines listed on this page.
To more fully utilize each engine's capabilities and to perform more refined searches, go directly to an
individual site by clicking it's name.
Important: Web search engines DO NOT replace periodical indexes and
databases. If you are looking for journal articles and other scholarly materials, you are best off
starting your research in the appropriate periodical index of your discipline. For a list of
periodical indexes/databases (by subject) available to Marquette University clientele, click on Research Sources, or call the Information
Desk in Raynor Library (288-7556).
AltaVista
http://www.altavista.com |
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| Tips: When you input more than one
word in the search box, AltaVista returns pages containing any (Boolean OR) of the words
you enter, but will rank those with all the words more highly. Use the wildcard *
(asterisk) at the end of words to find plurals and alternate spellings. Use + (plus) or -
(minus) to force the inclusion (plus) or exclusion (minus) of search words. Use
quotes (") around phrases. Searches are CASE SENSITIVE, so capitalize proper names.
Better search results can be achieved by using the advanced search
option where you can use Boolean operators (AND, OR, AND NOT, NEAR). For more information,
click on AltaVista's help.
AltaVista is a powerful search engine with one of the largest indexes (approximately 350 million
pages) amongst the major search engines. Alta Vista offers an advanced search mode
where you can construct very specific Boolean searches using AND, OR, AND NOT, NEAR.
Also, in advanced mode, you can select a range of dates to limit your search. AltaVista
has finally joined the other major search engines and added a subject directory to its
offerings. The subject directory is the combination of two large subject directories: Looksmart
and Open Directory Project. One of the most unique features of AltaVista is its translation option, enabling you to translate a
Web page into a number of different languages. It's not perfect, but an interesting feature
nonetheless.
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Excite
http://www.excite.com |
|
| Tips: When you input more than one word in
the search box, Excite returns pages containing any (Boolean OR) of the words you enter. You
can use Boolean operators (AND, OR, AND NOT) in your search, however, this turns off the
"Intelligent Concept Extraction" feature (see following paragraph). Use + (plus)
or - (minus) to force the inclusion (plus) or exclusion (minus) of search words. Use quotes
(") around phrases. Searches are case sensitive, so capitalize proper names. search.
For more help, click on Excite's help.
Excite is another hybrid search service, combining an engine that searches a medium sized
index of approximately 250 million Web pages, and a subject directory of sites. Excite has
made an attempt to go beyond simple keyword searching and utilizes "Intelligent Concept
Extraction (ICE)" to find conceptual relationships between words. For example, a search
for aged, might also pull up pages using the terms: elderly, older persons, senior citizens, etc.
The drawback to this feature is that your search can end up being too broad and too many results
will be returned. One way to deal with this is to try to use as many specific words as you can
for your search. Another great feature is the "More like this" link that appears
with each result returned. Click this link to find documents similar to match or matches you
found most relevant. For the last several weeks' worth of news, check out Excite's News Tracker which indexes the "World's Best"
300 magazines & newspapers. |
FAST
http://www.alltheweb.com |
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Tips: Also known as All The Web, this search engine is one of the largest
search engines on the Web. It indexes over 350 million web pages and is known for its ability
to retrieve unique web sites that are not indexed by any others of the major search engines.
Basic search options include searching your keywords either as "all of the words,
""any of the words," and as "exact phrase." FAST also has an
advanced search screen which allows for more complex searching.
FAST HELP.
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GO (Infoseek)
http://www.infoseek.com |
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| Tips: When you input more than one word in
the search box, Infoseek returns pages containing any (Boolean OR) of the words you enter, but will
rank pages with all the words more highly. Use + (plus) before words that must appear in
your search and - (minus) to exclude words. Use quotes (") around phrases.
Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT) are not used. Infoseek help.
Infoseek is a small to medium sized search engine that has an index of approximately 50
million pages. It also has a subject directory of a select group of sites that have been
categorized and annotated. One of the best features of Infoseek is that you have the option
of further refining a search by conducting another search on the results of your original search.
Infoseek also offers access to a number of other databases that can be searched including: news,
maps, people, and reference.
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Google
http://www.google.com |
|
| Tips: When you input more than one
word in the search box, Google returns pages containing all (Boolean AND) of the words you
enter. There is no need to put a "+" in front of words that must appear in your
search, however, if you wish to exclude a term, you can use the minus (-) in front of the
keyword(s.) This will exclude words(Boolean NOT). Use quotes ("") around
phrases.&nbps; "Wildcard" searches are not recognized. For example, searching for
"architect*" will not yield "architects" or "architecture." If
you want sites that include architects or architecture, you will need to enter both forms in separate
searches. Refer to the links About Google and
Search Tips for more information on this search engine.
Google has been given high praise for the accuracy of its searching. Google is known for
its ability to pull highly relevant Web sites to the top of the search results list. Google has also
become one of the largest major search engines -- providing links to more than 1 billion web sites.
Recently, Google added an Advanced
search feature as well as a subject directory (based on
the Open Project Directory.) The simplicity of the Google interface and the amazing accuracy of the
results make Google a favorite among Web searchers.
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Hotbot
http://www.hotbot.com |
|
| Tips: Hotbot has a menu driven search
interface. Use the 'look for' drop down menu to select how Hotbot handles your search
words. Options include: "all the words", "any of the words",
"exact phrase", "the person", and "the Boolean phrase". If
you want to use Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT) you have to select this last option. Go
directly to Hotbot to see the complete search interface.
Select the Advanced
Search button to perform a more complex search. For more information, click on Hotbot help.&nbps; Hotbot is known for its graphical
menus and for its ability to search for specific type of files.
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Lycos
http://www.lycos.com |
|
| Tips: Multi-word searches return pages
containing any (Boolean OR) of the words you enter. You can't use Boolean operators in
Lycos. Use + (plus) or - (minus) to force the inclusion (plus) or exclusion (minus) of
search words. Use quotes (") around phrases. Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT)
can only be used in Lycos Pro,
the advanced search interface. Lycos Pro also uses additional operators: ADJ (adjacent),
FAR, and BEFORE. For complete details on using these operators, see Lycos' Boolean help screen. Lycos help.
Lycos is a small to medium sized index. One of its biggest strengths is finding multimedia items on the Web.
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Northern Light
http://www.nlsearch.com |
|
| Tips: When you input more than one word in the
search box, Northern Light returns pages with all (Boolean AND) of the words you enter. You
can use Boolean OR and NOT in your searches. Use + (plus) before words that must appear in
your search and - (minus) to exclude words. Use quotes (") around phrases. Northern Light help.
A unique feature of Northern Light is Custom Search Folders. After your search, the
results are organized into folders that can be opened and reviewed. This feature offers mixed
results because you are dependent upon the computer being able to determine how the results are
related to each other in order to group them.
Northern Light is one of the largest of the major search engines, indexing over 260,000 million
Web pages. It offers an advanced
search option as well as the ability to search through several weeks of news. In addition to searching the Web,
Northern Light searches through a periodical index referred to as its "Special Collection."
Items from this group provide a reference to a journal or magazine article. A bibliographic
citation with summary is given, however, to access the full article one must provide payment to
Northern Light.
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Yahoo
http://www.yahoo.com |
|
| Tips: When you input more than one word in
the search box, Yahoo returns pages containing all (Boolean AND) of the words you enter.
Use + (plus) before words that must appear in your search and - (minus) to exclude words.
Use quotes (") around phrases. Use the wildcard * (asterisk) at the end of words to find
plurals and alternate spellings. Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT) cannot be used in the
simple search box. To perform a Boolean-like search or to customize a search, select options. Yahoo help.
Although most people think of it as a search engine, Yahoo is actually an index of sites selected
and categorized by human indexers into a browsable and searchable directory. Yahoo's engine
only searches this index of select sites rather than the entire Web. You can browse through
the directory, but it's easier and faster to search the database. If nothing is found, your
search is defaulted to Google, a powerful search engine
that does index and search the Web. Yahoo has many specialized databases that can be
searched including maps, stock quotes, weather, and news. |
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