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What is a Search Engine?
A search engine is a tool to help you find information on
the World Wide Web. It allows you to search the Web by entering
words and phrases related to your topic of interest.
Search engines build an index of web pages by:-
- periodically scanning the contents of the Web to rebuild
their massive indexes of Web pages, and
- accepting submissions from web page authors who wish their
documents to be listed.
Search engines are located on powerful computers - one search
may require the computer to check millions of records and
many users may be conducting different searches at once.
When you request a search on specific keywords, search engines
scan the index they have built for those words. Your search
is not a "live" search of the web, but a search
of that search engine's index.
Why Can't I Find What I Want?
There are an assortment of reasons why you may not be able
to find what you want.
Searcher Error:
- incorrect spelling (typo) - one of the most common problems
and easy to remedy ( eg. searching for "socks" instead
of "stocks").
- poorly described or conceptualised topic - know what you
are looking for, and if this is not possible, know what you
are NOT looking for (using the elimination technique).
- your query is too general - narrow the focus of your query.
- your query is too specific - try broadening your search
using synonyms or larger categories.
- search syntax is wrong or does not perform the way you expect
with the search tool you are currently using - review the
help pages of the search tool you are using.
Beyond Your Control :
Remember no one web tool catalogues or organises the whole
web. When using a webfinding aid, it is important to remember
that you are searching and viewing data extracted from the
web which has been placed into a database. It is this database
which is actually searched - not the web. This is one of the
reasons why you get different results when you use different
search engines.
What are Simple Ways to Make my Search
More Effective?
A very effective way is increase the relevance or precision
of "hits" is to search as a phrase. In most cases
simply means putting quotation marks around the search terms.
Another way to increase your search effectiveness is to be
as specific as possible, that is including as many terms and
synonyms as you can think of to fully describe your topic.
(note: search utilities may not support the use of parentheses
in basic searches, although many support them in their "advanced
" searches.
Here is a list of various search engines available. Most
people tend to develop their own favourites.
Some of these search engines have instructions on how to use
them, also in how to use their advanced search facilities.
www.google.com
www.yahoo.com
www.excite.com
www.hotbot.com
www.google.com
www.looksmart.com.au
www.goeureka.com.au
www.lycos.com
www.infoseek.com
www.webcrawler.com
www.northernlight.com
What is a Meta-Search Engine?
A meta-search, multi-threaded or multi-search engine searches
other search engine's databases at the same time, and collates
the result. The search engine does not maintain its own database.
Most meta-search engines will search several of the major
search engines at once whilst they may also include some smaller
search engines and or specialised databases.
When Would I Use a Meta-Search Engine?
Use a meta-search engine when:
- when you can't find anything when you have queried one or
two "major" search engines.
- when your topic is "obscure".
- when you want to see the top hits (most relevant sections)
from several databases at once.
- when you want to search a variety of sources on the same
topic simultaneously
- when you want to compare the indexing of several search
engines.
Meta-Search Engines:
www.askjeeves.com
www.dogpile.com
www.metacrawler.com
Remember, experiment with these then find more to try as
this is not a comlete listing, and these examples are for
demonstration purposes only.
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