This article
is loaded with lots of good tips and examples on searching better, including
a summary of tips at the end from many major search engines themselves.
Internet
September
2000 Vol.6 Issue 9
Page(s) 36-43
in print issue
Searching
Internet
Scouring Techniques That Go Beyond The Basics
by Ron
Miller
The Web has
been given many nicknames, including the “Wild, Wild Web” and the “World
Wild Web,” and for good reason. It is large, unwieldy, and constantly growing.
Search engines face the challenge of trying to harness this ever-changing
world and provide the best interface for you to find the information you’re
looking for in this colossal mountain of data.
DylanHunter,
product manager of Internet search for Fast Search (http://www.alltheweb.com),
explains that when search engines look for Web pages, they send out tools
called crawlers (also known as spiders, robots, or bots). These crawlers
begin by finding a number of seed pages that include a lot of links. Crawler
follow these links, retrieving the linked pages, then retrieving the pages
that those pages link to, and so forth, until they come back with a raw
index of pages.
Hunter says
that on Fast Search’s most recent crawl, it retrieved 1.1 billion pages.
The crawler also had another 1.3 billion in a queue to retrieve when Fast
Search turned the crawler off. Hunter points out, however, that this is
not an entirely accurate count because as many as two-thirds of the pages
were duplicates. But even without the duplicates, there are still an awful
lot of pages to scour through in order to find the gems you really want.
Besides the
traditional search engine, another type of search tool is called a Web
directory. These sites are created by human editors who define categories,
then assign different Web sites to each category. Yahoo! (http://www.yahoo.com)
is an example of this type of search tool. Instead of using searching techniques
(although you can enter keyword searches), you drill down through a series
of categories to find information about a particular subject.
Although most
of us use search tools to find information on the Web, we still employ
the most primitive search techniques, entering only a few keywords. There
are better, more sophisticated ways to find the information you seek. This
article will present some advanced searching techniques, perhaps ones with
which you were not familiar, and provide expert tips along the
way.
Refine your
search. Danny Sullivan, editor of Search Engine Watch
(http://www.searchenginewatch.com),
a site devoted to search engine research and searching
techniques,
says that perhaps the most effective way to find information is to think
about your query and refine your search as needed.
“Give as many
words as possible. Some people are afraid to be more specific,” Sullivan
says. “The more information you supply, the more likely you are to find
what you are looking for.” For example, if you typed the keyword wine in
the Fast Search search field, you’ll generate approximately 1.8 million
results. If you type white wine, your results drop dramatically to approximately
487,000 results, and if you type French white wine in the field, your results
decrease to 116,666 results. So, with only this simple example, you can
see how refining your search significantly reduces the number of overall
results, making it easier to locate the exact site you need.
Try another
search engine. Greg Notess, reference librarian at Montana State University
and Webmaster at http://www.notess.com, a Web site devoted to search engine
use and statistics, suggests that if you cannot find your results in one
search engine, then try a different one. Notess says that databases are
constantly changing, so you should try different ones to see if you get
dramatically better results by entering the same search in a different
engine.
Sullivan compares
it to wearing a pair of shoes. He says, “You don’t wear all the same shoes
all the time.” There are different shoes for different types of activities,
just as there are different search engines for different types of searches.
He compares wearing hiking boots to searching one of the broad search engines
such as AltaVista (http://www.altavista.com), while a brief index search
such as visiting Yahoo! is more like wearing a pair of running shoes because
you want to conduct a search quickly by using the index entries to guide
you.
With the French
wine example we used earlier, you can go to Yahoo! and rapidly move through
the index to locate information by selecting Countries on the Yahoo! home
page under the Regional category. Next, select France from the list of
Countries, then select Society And Culture from the France subtopic page,
followed by Food And Drink, and finally Wines And Food From France. It
might sound complicated, but as you go through such a process, swiftly
clicking your way through the index, you’ll find a relevant site rather
quickly.
If you want
a larger variety of results, go to AltaVista and type French Wine to receive
2,500 results that include a range of related topics such as French wine
regions, wine seminars, wine tours, and much more. Some users might just
be content to find a couple of results with a Yahoo! type of search, but
if this is not what you are looking for, you might need to cast a wider
net with the AltaVista search.
Look beyond.Notess
suggests looking beyond the initial results. Sometimes the search engine
points you in the right direction to a site related to your search, but
at first glance, it may not seem to be what you are looking for. Notess
says you may need to look a little deeper into a site to find what you
need. To do that, he suggests checking the site map. Maybe you can find
your answer in another part of the site.
Or, check the
navigation bar or menus. You can often find material related to your search
by looking at the subjects in a site’s navigation bar or drop-down menus.
Or, better yet, try using the site’s own internal search engine. Many sites
have such a search function. Enter your keywords to see if what you want
is elsewhere on the site.
For example,
let’s assume that you want to find a wine dealer. You went to your favorite
search engine, typed French Wine, and found a page titled: Find Your Favorite
French Wine. You click the link to display Wine Searcher.com (http://www.winevin.com/french.html)
on-screen. This page allows you to search for different wines, but you
want to see a list of wine dealers. At first glance, you might discard
this page thinking it is not what you are looking for, but after looking
at the navigation bar at the top of the page, you decide to click Our Merchants.
As a result, you find the list of wine dealers you were looking for. You
can often find more specific information in this manner.
Use search
engine math.When most people think of Boolean logic, their eyes glaze over.
Many search engines have tried to compensate for this by simplifying the
act of using the Boolean search words (AND, NOT, OR) in combinations with
a group of keywords to find what you are looking for.
Sullivan has
come up with a concept to simplify the process of using and thinking about
Boolean logic. He calls it “search engine math.” You can learn about it
in detail at his Web site (http://www.searchenginewatch.com/facts/math.html),
but it basically involves building equations using the plus (+) or minus
(-) signs to clarify your query. The sign you use can have a dramatic effect
on your results.
“When you say
Boolean, most people get scared,” Sullivan says, “but [everyone] knows
how to add and subtract using a plus or minus sign.”
For example,
if you wanted to find information on Microsoft and you went to Northern
Light, typing Microsoft into its search field would generate more than
5.5 million results. But suppose you wanted specific information about
the Microsoft lawsuit. Try typing Microsoft + Lawsuit. That brings you
down to 74,924 results. Next, let’s assume that you wanted to see documents
that contained references to Judge Jackson, the presiding judge in the
Microsoft antitrust lawsuit. Type Microsoft + Lawsuit + Jackson in the
search field, and this modified query displays only 24,888 matches.
Conversely,
you can exclude items using the minus sign. For example, you could type
Microsoft - antitrust in the AltaVista search field to limit your choices
to items that include Microsoft but have no reference to antitrust. Sullivan’s
search engine math provides a very easy, yet powerful way, to build complex
queries that help you target your search.
Put it in quotes.Another
way to find exactly what you want is to put your search query inside quotes.
According to Sullivan in his article “Power Searching For Anyone” (http://www.searchenginewatch.com/facts
/powersearch.html), when you put a phrase in quotes, it tells the search
engine that you want to find this exact phrase on any Web page in the exact
order you specified. This provides a good method for finding pages mentioning
a brand name, specific title, or a person.
If you type
Boston Red Sox in the search field, you probably want to find information
about the baseball team, but you could end up with matches that include
the words Boston, Red, or Sox, many of which have nothing to do with the
baseball team. However, by placing the phrase in quotes, the query tells
the search engine that these three words must appear in succession on Web
pages to be valid results. And by specifying this, you won’t receive bogus
results for pages featuring the Boston Massacre, the Boston Tea Party,
Boston tourism information, the Red Tide, Red Lobster, etc.
We should also
point out that many search engines are getting better at understanding
this type of query without quotes.
Learn about
advanced techniques. Richard Seltzer (http://www.samizdat.com), a consultant
and co-author (with Eric J. Ray and Deborah S. Ray) of “The AltaVista Search
Revolution” recommends looking for an advanced search page or trying out
the advanced searching functions of any search engine’s site. Seltzer wrote
a tutorial on how to search effectively using AltaVista’s advanced search
page, which you can find at the AltaVista Web site (http://www.altavista.com;
click Advanced Search tab, then click Advanced Search Tutorial link on
the right side of the page).
Seltzer says
research shows that only 10% of the people who visit the AltaVista search
engine actually try the advanced search functions. The only ones taking
advantage of this advanced functionality seem to be professional researchers,
but if the pros are using it, all of us should be, too.
Seltzer says,
“Very often, any complex piece of software does more than anyone knows.”
The same is true for search engines. Seltzer also says, “Search engines
are powerful and complex, yet people assume you type a few words. If you
know what you’re doing, you can get at much more information.”
Sullivan agrees
and encouragespeople to learn about the different commands. He also recommends
that people check out the menus and options, as well as read related help
documents and FAQs (frequently asked questions). He says that by taking
the time to read about the searching information, you’ll learn how that
specific search engine works. Although all search engines work similarly,
they each have different ways of presenting search options. Reading about
a search site can go a long way toward helping you be a more effective
searcher.
Know when to
use truncation.Librarian and researcher Notess recommends using truncation
as a way to broaden your results. Truncation allows you to find alternate
spellings or forms of words using an asterisk to represent the truncated
characters. Not all sites accept this format, but for those that do (such
as AltaVista and Northern Light), truncation can be an effective way to
conduct a search.
Notess says
you can use truncation when you want to broaden your search. For example,
if you were doing a search that included the word color, you could type
colo*r in the search field to find both the British and American English
spellings. This is most effective, Notess says, when used in combination
with a phrase search.
Keep in mind
that this technique does not work in directories such as Yahoo!, although
Yahoo! performs automatic truncation. For example, if you type Straw into
a Yahoo! search field, you’ll see results that include Straw, Strawn (a
town in Texas), The Strawbs (a band), and Strawberry (the fruit, along
with the baseball player Darryl Strawberry). If you want to limit this
to just straw, you could negate the truncation by including quotes around
your entry (and typing “straw”), thus restricting results to include only
the actual word straw.
Try using a
nested Boolean query. As you grow more comfortable and familiar with advanced
searching techniques such as Boolean logic, you can begin to use these
techniques in very powerful ways to find the information you want with
pinpoint precision. Nested queries use a combination of words, joined together
using AND, NOT, or OR, along with a parenthetic expression.
Notess suggests
that a recipe may be the simplest way to illustrate this. So, for this
example, let’s assume that you look around your kitchen and find the following
ingredients: chicken, rice, basil, oregano, and thyme. You want to find
a recipe that will use rice and chicken in combination with one of the
herbs you have available. To do this, you open a search engine site in
your browser window, and using a nesting Boolean query, you try to find
only recipes that match this search criteria.
To achieve
this, however, you would need to type the query as follows: Rice AND chicken
AND (Basil OR Oregano OR Thyme). The search engine would locate any Web
pages containing the words rice and chicken, then any that also contain
one of three herbs: basil, oregano, or thyme.
Limit the search
to just titles or URLs. While you are conducting a search, you might be
overwhelmed by the number of results. And even if you manage to reduce
this overall number, you might still find that you’re hitting every common
occurrence of your word or phrase on every Web page in the search engine’s
database of Web pages. One good way to narrow this search, Notess says,
is to limit the search to only titles by typing the title: command followed
by your entry.
As with the
truncation or other advanced techniques, this method works best in search
engines (rather than Web directories). It will have no effect in a directory
such as Yahoo! where you’ll generate the same results, regardless of whether
you put title in front of your phrase or not.
You usethe
title: command in the search fields of most search engines. Many other
search sites, however, already have the capability to limit searches to
a title built into their advanced search forms. If you are looking for
information on Bill Clinton, for example, you can focus your search by
including only documents that contain the words Bill Clinton in the title
by typing title: Bill Clinton in the search field. You can use this same
technique with URLs (universal resource locators, Web addresses). Simply
type url: Bill Clinton instead so that each of the search results finds
Bill Clinton in the URL.
Use real names.Sullivan
suggests perhaps the most simple of all “advanced” techniques by recommending
that you use real names. Many searchers have been frustrated in the past
when looking for the Web site of a company with a well-known brand name.
You type United Airlines into a search engine field expecting to find the
airline’s main Web site, but instead you find hundreds of pages devoted
to the subject of United Airlines, with only a few intermixed pages that
take you to a page at the airline’s site.
With the advent
of RealNames (http://www.realnames.com), this has all changed You can now
type a real name such as United Airlines and go directly to the home page
of the United Airlines Web site (http://www.ual.com), or at the very least,
generate a list of results with the airline’s home page listed at the top
as a keyword link.
Withthis technique,
you do not even have to open a search engine site, you can type the real
name directly into the address field in Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator.
For example, if you type United Airlines directly into the Internet Explorer
address field, the MSN (The Microsoft Network) search results window opens
with the United Airlines “keyword” at the top of the page by default. As
the link text indicates, this keyword link leads directly to the airline’s
Web site. Since most people do not know instinctively that United Airlines
uses UAL in its URL, this method provides users with an easy way to find
its Web site quickly. This same technique works for other company “real
names,” and in many other search engines, too (including Google and AltaVista).
Use phrase
searches in a directory. Most of the tips up to this point work best in
search engines, rather than Web directories. So, as may have noticed, if
you go to a directory such as Yahoo!, many of these tips will not work
(or at least not as well). Notess suggests that you fashion your query
in a special way when searching in a directory by using a phrase search.
For example,
if you wanted to find information about a physician in Massachusetts, you
could type health care providers in Massachusetts in the search field.
Yahoo! would then check its Massachusetts directory for health care providers.
This type of search gives you a broad view of health care providers in
a particular place. This is a more effective method for directories than
trying one of the other search techniques discussed previously.
View your results
in a new window. This is not a search technique as much as a way to better
manage your results. Once you generate a list of results, you generally
review the list, then click one to see if it includes information on the
subject of your search. When you do this, the search results window is
replaced by the selected result. So, if you start clicking around the first
site chosen from the list of results, you might end up moving to several
different sites, and before you know it, that original results list is
buried pretty far back in the browser’s pages.
Some sites
compound this problem by refreshing each time you click the Back button,
rather than letting you go back to the previous screen of results. You
can try to find your original list of search results by clicking the Back
button’s drop-down list, but if you have conducted more than one search
or have viewed more than one page of results, it can be confusing to find
the exact page where you began.
A good way
toavoid this, Notess says, is to take advantage of some little-known functionality
in your browser that allows you to view sites from the results in a separate
browser window. Instead of clicking a particular result, right-click it
and select Open In New Window from the shortcut menu. The result site then
opens in a separate window, allowing you to browse it while keeping your
original results list window open, as well. This will help prevent you
from getting lost and having trouble returning to the results page where
you started. This technique works in both Internet Explorer and Netscape
Navigator.
Save the best
results with MSN. This tip is specific to the MSN search engine (http://www.msn.com).
Oftentimes, when you conduct a search, you might find a particular site
that suits your needs, but you want to continue to look at other results.
It would be useful in this situation to save the results you like, while
continuing to review other results in the results list, but most search
engines will not let you do this. MSN, however, allows you to do just that
by providing a Save function next to each result. Sullivan says that you
can use this feature as long as you are using MSN in conjunction with the
Internet Explorer 5.0 browser. (This function is not available with any
other browser.)
After you conduct
your search, each search result has a small diskette icon next to it. Click
the diskette to save the result. To view your saved results, simply click
the Saved Results selection in the MSN navigation bar, and a window opens
with your saved results. If you have saved more than one set of results,
you also can view each set from this screen.
To delete an
individual result, click the Delete checkbox next to each item you want
to delete and then click the Delete button. If you want to delete an entire
set of results, click the Delete checkbox next to the search name.
Follow the
links. As mentionedin a previous tip, sometimes it pays to look around
a site to find information. Along the same lines, it also pays to follow
related links. Frequently you might find that the page in the results list
does not have the information you need, but if you look around the site,
you might find a page of related links that lead to the information you’re
seeking. Web designers often include links to related sites that visitors
might find useful.
For example,
let’s assume you are searching in Google for information about online investing.
You type Online Investing Sites and peruse the results. You find the match
CyberInvest.com (http://www.cyberinvest.com) and click it. When the page
appears on-screen, look at the list of topics in the navigation bar at
the top of the page. If you click the LINKSOUP option, you’ll see that
it leads to a page that’s chock full of Web sites devoted to online investing,
covering every subject you can imagine. Using this technique, you can find
your way to other pages of links and discover numerous other related sites.
Use a search
agent. Search agent software is a meta search tool using a variety of engines
and directories. It checks the search engines for answers to your queries,
rather than maintaining its own directory or database of pages. Mata Hari
(http://www.thewebtools.com, soon to be known as Lexibot) is one such search
tool. Jerry Tardiff, founder of VisualMetrics (http://www.visualmetrics.com),
the company that produces Mata Hari/Lexibot, says the program searches
each of the search engines you select with your query. With the new Lexibot
product, you can customize the list to include databases you subscribe
to such as LEXIS-NEXIS (http://www.lexis-nexis.com/lncc).
Lexibot allows
you to fashion your query any way you like and includes a Boolean “checker”
to make sure you have entered your Boolean query correctly. It then downloads
every page of text that matches your search criteria, leaving out any graphics
or files, which Tardiff says amounts to 20KB (kilobytes) to 40KB of data
per page. Once you have the results, you can use the powerful sorting tools
in Lexibot to pinpoint the exact information you want. Plus, to speed up
your research time, you can filter out any search engines that are not
likely to include the types of information you frequently search for.
These tools,
search agent software, take time to conduct searches, but they do provide
you with powerful tools and techniques that are not available with most
online search engines, so you can organize your results more efficiently.
VisualMetrics
is also workingon a new tool called CompletePlanet. Tardiff says it will
allow users to find—what his company calls—the “deep Web” sites that are
created dynamically based on visitor input and retrieved from information
stored in back-end databases. This new tool will allow users to access
these hidden database pages, providing far wider access than is available
from current Web searching tools.
With these
tips, and the ones you see in the accompanying sidebars, you’ll be able
to increase your searching efficiency and better manage your results. By
taking the time to familiarize yourself with these advanced techniques
and understanding how your favorite search engines and Web directories
work, you can generate better results and use your Internet research time
more resourcefully than ever before.
by Ron Miller
Expert Tips
From . . . Craig Silverstein, Google
Founded in
1998, Google (http://www.google.com) is a fairly new player to the search
engine market, but they have made an impact with their uncanny ability
to find the sites you need within the first page or two of the results.
With a simple, uncluttered interface, Google does not make use of Boolean
strings or several other traditional advanced searching techniques, but
it does accept the plus (+) and minus (-) signs. Google primarily relies
on its proprietary "page rank" technology to judge how important a page
is based on the number of pages that point to the result page.
Google also
uses the Open Directory Project (http://www.dmoz.org) for users who prefer
to use a directory-style search. Craig Silverstein, director of technology
at Google, offers the following tips.
Use synonyms
to help focus your search. You can string together synonyms separated by
spaces (in place of the Boolean operator AND), and Google will conduct
a search based on each of the synonyms in your list. For example, if you
wanted to do a search on a subject having to do with politics, you could
type politics government policy political beliefs in the search field.
By using synonyms, you’re more likely to find the information you want.
You don’t have
to find the right page; just get near it. You don’t always have to find
information on the exact subject as long as you come close. Silverstein
offers an example using the topic of Greek gods. If you were looking for
a particular Greek god, you could have trouble finding it, but if you conducted
a search by typing Greek gods in the search field, you are more likely
to find a page with a list that includes the one you want.
Watch out for
typos. This is common sense, of course, but many users still need to be
reminded that if they misspell a word or company name, they will end up
with bad results. Make sure you spell all the words in your search correctly
to achieve the results you are looking for.
Expert Tips
From . . . Jason Test & Jonathan Silverman, Ask Jeeves
Ask Jeeves,
also knownas Ask.com (http://www.ask.com), is unique among search tools
because it encourages the exclusive use of a natural language query. Plus,
instead of displaying a directory or list with hundreds or thousands of
results, Ask provides you with a focused list of results. This site also
includes a search engine that’s especially designed for children: Ask Jeeves
for Kids (http://www.ajkids.com). You can also perform more traditional
queries, using the site’s newest acquisition, Direct Hit (http://www.directhit.com),
which is accessible from the Ask results page.
Jason Test,
director of product management for Web Properties Group, and Jonathan Silverman,
product manager for Ask.com, offer these tips to refine your query skills.
Phrase questions
casually. The beauty of Ask Jeeves is that you do not need to think about
search engine language at all. You don’t have to be a professional researcher
or understand Boolean operators. Just type in your question. Don’t be vague.
Try to ask focused questions. The fuller the sentence, they say, the more
accurate the results.
Check the peek
box. If you’re struggling to formulate your query, check the peek box below
the Ask field where you type your question. It provides a good perspective
on the types of questions you can ask Jeeves from what others have asked
before you.
Always check
on top. Ask Jeeves presents a very focused list of results. Begin by checking
the top part of the results page for an exact answer. If you can’t find
it there, do a quick scan of the other results on the page. In the center
of the page, you’ll find Direct Hit results while the bottom of the page
has a metasearch-style set of results from some other search engines.
Expert Tips
From . . . Abbot Chambers, Excite
Excite (http://www.excite.com)
just completed a relaunch of its core search product, which resulted in
major changes to the way its site works. This includes a cleaner interface,
improved relevance ranking for more accurate results, and a reformatted
results page. Abbot Chambers, senior director of search and directory products,
has these tips for Excite users.
Run a specialty
search.After you conduct a search, you can run the results against one
of the specialty searches listed at the top of the results page to filter
the results for the given selection. For example, if you click Photo Search,
you’ll access a page of photos that match your search criteria. This provides
a handy way to check out specific information on your search criteria.
Don’t go beyond
the first page of results. If you cannot find the site you want among the
first page of results, Chambers recommends checking your search criteria
and refining your query. He says that one of the mistakes people make is
to enter a query and then continue to click for the next group of results.
Chances are if you can’t find what you’re looking for in the first group
of results, you probably won’t find it in any of the results, so you should
recheck your query. Check the home page for search tips. From the Results
page, click Search Home (located next to the Search field) to access the
Search Hub. Here, you’ll find a Did You Know area where Excite offers daily
tips on how to conduct better searches. Check this regularly to find tips
to help you become a more efficient Excite user.
Quick Results
bonuses. After you generate your results, take a peek at the Quick Results
section on the left side of the page. This is part of the newly revised
results page interface. If applicable, you’ll find news headlines and related
links. This provides an easy way to find more information relevant to what
you’re looking for. For example, if you want the latest score from your
favorite baseball team, enter the team name for your search criteria. In
the Quick Results, you will find the latest score, along with links to
statistics, televised game schedules, and more.
Expert Tips
From . . . Lincoln Jackson, Lycos
Lycos (http://www.lycos.com)
has teamed with HotBot (http://www.hotbot.com) to provide a comprehensive
searching package for users. Lycos provides simple and advanced searching,
along with a directory structure. If you cannot find what you are looking
for in Lycos, you can get a second opinion from the HotBot search engine
by clicking the “Second Opinion In HotBot” link at the bottom of the Lycos
results page. (A similar link appears if you begin your search in HotBot.)
Lincoln Jackson, group product manager, has the following tips to pass
on to users.
Narrow your
search with one of the content categories. On the Advanced Search page,
you can restrict your search to a certain document type such as just MP3s
by clicking one of the Content categories. You can also go directly to
a special search page devoted to the document type by clicking a linked
item
in the Content
Categories list.
Use advanced
features to restrict the results. On the Advanced Search page, click Link
Referrals where you can narrow your search to exclude items from a particular
site by selecting Exclude This Host or confine it to a particular site
or sites by making an entry in the Search Only This Host field. Jackson
points out that this is a powerful feature that is underused by visitors.
Let Lycos help
yourBoolean search. On the Advanced Search page, just below the Search
field, is a Boolean operator drop-down list. You can choose All Word (AND
match), Any Words (OR match), or Exact Phrase (quoted query).
Take advantage
of the results format. The results are divided into four categories, including
popular sites, Web pages, and where relevant, news story and shopping links.
Use HotBot’s
advanced search functions built into the home page. Many advanced search
functions, including a Boolean drop-down list and date restriction drop-down
list, are included right on the home page of HotBot. These functions let
you refine your search without going to an advanced search page.
Expert Tips
From . . . Dylan Hunter, Fast Search
Although Fast
Search (http://www.alltheweb.com) has only been in operation since 1997,
it claims it has grown to be one of the largest Internet indexes in the
business. Greg Notess’ site has Fast Search ranked first as of his last
review on February 21, 2000 (http://searchengineshowdown.com/stats/size.shtml
has details on the analysis). With this large database and good advanced
search techniques, you should be able to find what you are looking for
here. Dylan Hunter, product manager of Internet search, offers these tips
to assist you.
Limit it to
a single language. You can limit the results to a language by making a
selection from the Language drop-down list on the Advanced Search page.
Hunter uses this example: Let’s assume you want to find a recipe for paella,
but you only speak English. In this case, you probably don’t want to see
recipes in Spanish, so by choosing English from the Language drop-down
list, you limit the results to only those you can understand.
Look for a
link to a logical site. If you are looking for a particularly broad subject,
you can narrow the scope of your search by limiting the results to a logical
link target. For example, if you want to find information on the Linux
tool known as SAMBA, you can eliminate any results that relate to the dance
of the same name by using the Word Filters section on the Advanced Search
page. Select Must Include from the drop-down list, enter Linux.org in the
center field, and select In the Link Name from the drop-down list on the
right. This limits the results to sites with Linux.org in their link name.
You can assume that sites that have a link to Linux.org would only involve
the Linux subject, thus pointing you to relevant results.
Use pluses
and minuses. In theWord Filters section on the Advanced Search page, you
can build advanced searches by clicking the plus (+) button and adding
a new line. Or, if you don’t like the results, you can delete the last
line by clicking the minus (-) button.
Save complex
queries as bookmarks. If you go to the trouble of saving a complex query
made up of many different lines, be sure to save it as a bookmark in your
browser so you don’t have to rebuild it again in the future.
Expert Tips
From . . . Joyce Ward, Northern Light
Joyce Ward,
vice president of editorial services at Northern Light (http://www.northernlight.com),
says that Northern Light tries to be a very focused, and at the same time,
comprehensive search tool. It achieves these seemingly contradictory goals
by providing a number of specialized services, including a proprietary
database of periodical information it calls Special Editions. This collection
includes in-depth coverage of major news stories and specialized search
forms for subjects such as news, investment information, and more. Northern
Light also claims that it has one of the largest databases of indexed Web
pages.
Regarding advanced
searching techniques, Ward offers these tips.
Use more power.
Bookmark the Power Search feature (http://www.northernlight.com/power.html)
so that you open its page every time you use Northern Light. If you do
this, you’ll slowly train yourself to use the additional controls and take
advantage of the advanced search functions designed to make some of the
techniques discussed in this article easier to use.
Natural language
queries. You can easily enter a natural language query at Northern Light.
Although Northern Light accepts Boolean operators, you don’t have to only
use them to find information. For example, you can type Who said it’s the
economy stupid in the search field to generate a list of 28,895 results,
all of which are related in some way to this statement.
Check the custom
search folders. When you generate results at Northern Light, you get a
list that includes all matching results, in addition to the fact that Northern
Light also breaks down these results into what it calls custom search folders
(which are essentially different categories into which it sorts the results).
This is a handy way to find more specific information without cycling through
28,000 results.
Save and update
searches. If you create a search that you want Northern Light to update
each time new material appears in the database, click the Save This Search
As Alert link (just below the Custom Search folders on the left side of
the search results window). You can fill out a form indicating the type
of information you want to see, how often you want to see it, and which
sources you want to use. You will then receive e-mails with updates on
your search.
Check out query
strategies. Special Editions are topical research collections created by
Northern Light editors. Click any Special Edition category and then click
a particular link to see the query the expert editors used. This provides
a good way to learn the strategies that Northern Light’s professional librarians
employ to find information.
© Copyright
by Sandhills Publishing Company 2000.
