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Search Engines
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 Raise your hand to ask a
question, or send a comment. We will respond within 24 hours.(Really hard questions may take longer) |
| This page offers a little background on search engines, search tips and specifics on simple, but good search engine language for the general searcher. The search engine test was performed in Dec., 1998 and new test results will be published soon. Well, I guess it wasn't soon. |
| Clicking on
links will open a new window on the subject. You can then close the new window by
clicking the X at the right top of the screen, and be back at this page. For designing
pages for search engines, see these pages at NorthernWebs
and Search
Engine Watch. |
Search for news and books! Try these specialty
engines. |
Background - - Can the Engines Keep Up? Are you having trouble finding what you are looking for in your searches? A few things to consider while you search: The Web is currently (February, 1999) thought to have a minimum of 800 million indexable pages, up from 320 million in December, 1997. These figures come from studies by two scientists at the NEC Research Institute, Steve Lawrence and C. Lee Giles. Their report in December, 1997, showed that no single engine indexed more than 1/3 of the Web. Their recent update shows that as the Web grows, the percent covered by any single engine is decreasing and is currently no more than 16%. That leaves a lot of information out there that we are unable to reach, and it might be just what you're looking for. Thorough search engine indexing is becoming impossible simply because the Web is growing faster than the engines (or humans) can keep up. In addition to the vastness of the Web, another problem is that many Web site developers do not understand the elements necessary to include in their sites to make them available to the search engine spiders, and some of the ones who do are cheating - causing unrelated pages to come up in searches. Also, the time delay between when a web developer changes a site, and when a search engine indexes it can be months in some cases. So, although the terms you search for may have been on the site at the time it was indexed, when you retrieve the page, it may have changed. And, vice versa; information you are searching for may be out there, but it has not yet been indexed. Obstacle three is the variety of search engines, directories, and metaengines, and the fact that there are no standards. Many engines use different methods and language, so if you enter your search words without knowing their rules, you limit your results. What can you do? Know which out of the many search engines, are really doing the best jobs - and learn their language! Sometimes Simple is Best |
Read more about the NEC Research Institute search engine study and write to Steve Lawrence and request a free copy of the report in PDF format. (Co-author with C. Lee Giles.) "The publicly indexable web
contains an estimated 800 million pages as of February 1999, encompassing about 15
terabytes of information or about 6 terabytes of text after removing HTML tags, comments,
and extra whitespace."
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Many of the search engines advertise their own variations on Boolean search ability, (AND ADJ NOT NEAR) but many have problems actually carrying it out. And, It is get annoying trying to remember which ones use what. All the engine winners listed below aced the simple qualifiers of +, - , " " and title. These are easier to remember, faster to type, they work excellently on these top rated engines, and generally satisfy the most discriminating searcher. See below for examples and try out some new searches. (There are additional refiners: Always read the help pages on the search engine sites if your search requires more refining. Most engines also have advanced search pages with drop down boxes, and buttons to help you refine your search.) |
You do not need to use your mouse to click on "search" or "go" at most search engines. Simply enter your words and hit ENTER.
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| Web Street Studios Search Suggestions |
| All of the
engines on this page will use + - " " and title:
to help you narrow your search. Use the + and - to indicate you want your results to INCLUDE a word and to NOT INCLUDE a word. There is no space between the + or - and the word you are defining. Entering John Elway +dealerships Also, canes -candy Use " " quotes around a name, phrase, or words you want to FIND TOGETHER IN THAT ORDER. "candy canes" "electric power tools" will do better
than power tools. Looking for an article titled "Searching the World
Wide Web," written by Steve Lawrence, and C. Lee Giles, Use title: to find words that are in the title of a Web page. If your words are in the title, there's a very good chance you'll like the page. Title does not mean Web site titles or domain names, but individual page titles. Try title:aircraft There is a space between canes and - , but not between - and candy. The + or - is always directly in front of the word with no space. And finally, use capital letters for names, company names, cities. If it is a word that is capitalized in literature, capitalize it in your search terms. Do not capitalize your other words. A comment on the hard work of the search engines. |
Congratulations to Web Street Studios' Search Test Winners In the order we like them: And, Our Favorite Metas:
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