ActionSearch

Keyword Search Technology.

Tips on Finding Information With World Wide Web Search Engine Engines

The World Wide Web is estimated to contain over 500 million pages of information! As if the Web's size weren't enough, consider that the Web continues to grow incredibly fast. Also, pages that are up one day can be gone the next.

Add to this the fact that the World Wide web lacks the control standards we take for granted in the print publishing world. There is no equivalent to the Dewey Decimal system or the Library of Congress codes to identify a document. Simple identifying information like author, copyright owner, or even the date written, are often missing.

Imagine you are searching for information in the world's largest library, where the books are all dumped on the floor! There is no guide, but maybe a few card catalogues with each one incomplete. The World Wide Web is like that only worse. Instead of a card catalogue, the Web offers the choice of hundreds of different search engines, each with its own collection commands, search algorithms, and method of displaying results.

Here are a few tips to help you find what you are looking for on the World Wide Web with search engines.

AltaVista

To Find Web Pages Containing	Search Syntax
The word plates or the word cups	plates cups
The word plates and the word cups	+plates +cups
The word plates but not the word cups	+plates -cups
The phrase: cooking utensils	"cooking utensils"

AltaVista Tips
You can enter up to 200 characters (20-30 words) into this search box. To reduce the number of documents retrieved by your search, try combining multiple terms with the search operators. Example: +"comedian teams" +stooges -clowns finds pages containing the phrase comedians and the word stooges, but not the word clowns.

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Excite

To Find Web Pages Containing	Search Syntax
The word plates or the word cups	plates OR cups
The word plates and the word cups	plates AND cups
The word plates but not the word cups	plates AND NOT cups
The phrase: cooking utensils	n/a

Excite Tips
Search operators AND, OR, and AND NOT must be entered as capital letters to be recognized. Use parentheses to group search terms. The search: nut AND (walnut OR pecan) will retrieve documents that contain the word nut and either of the words walnut or pecan.

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HotBot

To Find Web Pages Containing	Search Syntax
The word plates or the word cups	1. plates cups 2. Select ANY
The word plates and the word cups	1. plates cups 2. Select ALL
The word plates but not the word cups	can't do
The phrase: cooking utensils	1. cooking utensils 2. Select PHRASE

HotBot Tips
You can enter up to 100 characters (8 to 10 words) into this search box. While your initial search is constrained to finding pages with either all or any of your terms, the HotBot results page offers a large number of search refinement options that you can use to narrow down your results.

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Infoseek

To Find Web Pages Containing	Search Syntax
The word plates or the word cups	plates cups
The word plates and the word cups	+plates +cups
The word plates but not the word cups	+plates -cups
The phrase: cooking utensils	"cooking utensils"

Infoseek Tips
Infoseek can search for proper names and titles. Two adjacent words, each beginning with a capital letter, (e.g. Three Stooges) will be searched for like a phrase. To search for two or more proper names, separate each with a comma. (e.g. Larry Fine, Shemp Howard) Do not place a space between the + or - operators and the search terms that follow or else they will be ignored.

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WebCrawler

To Find Web Pages Containing	Search Syntax
The word plates or the word cups	plates cups
The word plates and the word cups	plates AND cups
The word plates but not the word cups	plates NOT cups
The phrase: cooking utensils	"cooking utensils"

WebCrawler Tips
Use parentheses to group search terms. The search: (stooges and comedy) not clowns will retrieve documents that contain the word stooges and the word comedy but not the word clowns.

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