Using Web Search Engines
BJS/SEARCH
1997 National Conference: Justice Agencies and the Internet
Anne Bolin
National Criminal Justice Reference Service (NCJRS)
The major search engines are a way
to harness the vast amount of information on the Web. Each engine
covers about 50 million sites in its database. The services use
"relevance ranking" to determine which Web sites best
meet your search query.
Tips on Using Search Engines
1) Try your search on more than one search engine, as you are
bound to find different lists of sites on each. No search engine
is going to give you great results for every search.
2) Type in your most important words first. The order in which
you enter words matters with many search engines.
3) Read the search engine's help text or frequently asked
questions. This can give you important information such as how to
truncate terms, how to type in phrases, etc.
4) Learn to use one or two search engines well and use them most
often. Don't try to learn the nitty gritty of every site.
5) Don't worry when your search retrieves 3 million hits. After
looking at the first 30 or so, if you don't find what you want,
change your search strategy or try another search engine. Don't
waste your time trying to narrow down your search over and over
to retrieve a fewer number of hits, or trying to wade through all
3 million.
6) Start with a specific search, and if that doesn't work use
more general terms.
7) Don't rely on the large search engines for finding very
current news. Sites like newspapers and newswires change their
site contents constantly, and the search engines only visit the
sites periodically to index them -- so you are bound to get many
false returns. For current events, it's best to go directly to
news sites like the New York Times or Reuters. The
best site for locating newspaper Web sites around the country is
the American Journalism Review, http://www.newslink.org.
8) URL's (Web addresses) are often not permanent as information
moves its location online or disappears. If a URL found by a
search engine doesn't work, try deleting the last subheading off
the URL. Or, start with the homepage of the site and then look
for the document you want.
9) Remember that some of the best information online is still
available only in fee-based services such as LEXIS/NEXIS and
DIALOG, which provide newspaper archives and literature
databases. Ask your library to perform a search for you.
More Leads on Finding Information on the Internet
To search newsgroup postings, try http://www.dejanews.com.
For company information, try Infoseek.
To search for articles in journals and magazines, try:
NCJRS Document Data Base at http://www.ncjrs.org/database.htm
UnCover at http://uncweb.carl.org
Northern Light at http://www.northernlight.com
For more than you ever wanted to know about search engines:
http://www.searchenginewatch.com is great for Webmasters
"Choosing a Web Search Service" from Information
Today at http://www.infotoday.com/searcher/may/story3.htm was a source for some of the information
in this handout
About the Major Search Engines
These search engines are listed with roughly the best first. Note
that searching features change often at each of the sites, so
these specifics are in flux.
Infoseek
http://www.infoseek.com
+ must contain this word
- not this word
Search phrases using "quotations" or no quotations.
Search by field such as URL and title.
Search using [brackets] to find terms within 100 words of each
other.
Automatically truncates (i.e. will automatically search for
variations such as plurals in words you have typed).
Allows natural languages queries, for example "what states
have passed Three Strikes laws?"
Excite
http://www.excite.com
Use parentheses for nested boolean searches, e.g. "Florida
and (prisons or jails)"
+ must contain this word
- not this word
Search phrases using "quotations"
Automatically truncates (i.e. will automatically search for
variations such as plurals in words you have typed), and
automatically looks for synonyms.
Offers "more like this" feature which will search for
more sites with similar keywords.
HotBot
http://www.hotbot.com
Use parentheses for nested boolean searches, e.g. "Florida
and (prisons or jails)"
+ must contain this word
- not this word
Search phrases using "quotations"
no wildcard (truncation)
Search by field such as geographic location or date range.
AltaVista
http://www.altavista.digital.com
+ must contain this word
- not this term
* wildcard (truncation)
Search phrases using "quotations"
Use NEAR to search terms within 10 words of each other.
Limit search by date, or by field such as URL, image, or title.
Note that when using the Advanced Search, results are not ranked
according to relevancy.
Open Text
http://index.opentext.net
Use drop down menus to connect words with AND, OR, BUT NOT, NEAR,
or to search phrases.
No wildcard (truncation)
Search by fields such as URL and title.
Use NEAR to search terms near each other.
This is the only major search engine that does not have stop
words, so you can search on very common words such as "to be
or not to be."
Lycos
http://www.lycos.com
- not this term
. after term for exact match
$ wildcard (truncation)
Automatically searches for plurals.
Does not search phrases.