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Windweaver's updated 1/1/00
Searcher Guide continued
 
 

AltaVista        http://www.altavista.com/
ADVANCED SEARCH (recommended)
http://www.altavista.com/cgi-bin/query?pg=aq&what=web
HELP PAGES:
http://www.altavista.com/av/content/help.htm
http://www.altavista.com/av/content/help_advanced.htm

SIZE of database:   large (90 million)
SEARCHES:  Web, Usenet
SCOPE: searches every word on every page
RELEVANCE: poor to fair organization by relevance
SPECIAL FEATURES: can do very specific searches; retrieves large
      number of results (not always relevant); powerful search engine
WHEN TO USE : when wanting to search the entire Web, when
      wanting a large number of results, when doing a specific search
      for obscure sites, documents or information;
WHAT TO REMEMBER WHEN USING ALTAVISTA:
      use +, -, "" for simple searches on regular search page;
      use  the advanced search page when you wish to use Boolean
      searching options;  AND, OR and ( ) for advanced searches.
      Pay attention to case.

CAPITALIZATION:  AltaVista IS case-sensitive. If you use lowercase
letters, both lowercase words and capitalized words will be searched. If
you use capitals, only capitalized words will be searched.

PUNCTUATION: the semi-colon; is treated as a blank space.
ADDITIONAL FEATURES: can search within particular fields of
a document. Use    text:    image:    url:     title:    link:    host:  etc.
 

ALTAVISTA SIMPLE SEARCH
URL:  http://www.altavista.com
Use + immediately before a word to require that word
Use - immediately before a word to exclude that word
Use double quotes ("word") to search for a phrase.
Use a wild card * (*root) to search for variations of a word root
 

ALTAVISTA ADVANCED SEARCH
URL:  http://www.altavista.com/cgi-bin/query?pg=aq&what=web
Use top field for regular searches, second field for Boolean searches.
For Boolean searches:
Use AND if the following word must be included.
Use OR between words if one of them must be included.
Use NOT to indicate that your chosen word must NOT be included.
Use AND NOT if your following word must NOT be included.
Use NEAR between words which must be within 10 words of each other.
Use parentheses around a phrase or group of words that must NOT
    be found together.
If operators such as and, or etc. are part of your search words, then
    include them in quotation marks.

See also: Windweaver's AltaVista review.
 

InfoSeek       http://www.infoseek.com
Infoseek            (simple searching)
Infoseek Advanced     (easy-to-use search form)
http://www.infoseek.com/find?pg=advanced_www.html&ud9=advanced_www
 

SIZE of database:  moderately large (80 million)
SEARCHES:  Web, Usenet, gopher
SCOPE: searches every word, indexes most meaningful words
RELEVANCE: fair to good organization by relevance
SPECIAL FEATURES: can do very specific searches; retrieves large
      number of fairly relevant results; powerful search engine
WHEN TO USE : when wanting to search the entire Web, including
     usenet and gopher; when wanting a large number of relevant results
WHAT TO REMEMBER WHEN USING INFOSEEK:
      Use +, - and quotes in the regular search. The default is OR; be
      sure to use the + immediately before a word if it MUST appear.
      Use the form if you don't want to use search oeprators.

CAPITALIZATION:  InfoSeek IS case-sensitive. If you use lowercase
letters, both lowercase and capitalized words are searched. If you use
capitals, only capitalized words are searched. Capitalize names!

ADDITIONAL FEATURES: can search within particular fields of
a document or site. Use    title:   url:   etc.

SEARCH OPERATORS:
Type in your search words. You can use standard English or keywords.
Use + IMMEDIATELY before words which must appear.  (+word)
Use - for words which must NOT appear.  (-word)
Use double quotations marks around a phrase or words which must
      appear together.  (+"this is a phrase")
Use |  to search within previous results.

NOTE: On the ADVANCED page, use the drop down list to make
your choices, rather than type in search operators.

See also: Windweaver's Infoseek review.

Webcrawler      http://www.webcrawler.com

SIZE of database:  small
SEARCHES:  Web, Usenet, gopher, ftp
SCOPE: searches only title, keywords, urls
RELEVANCE: fair to good organization by relevance
WHEN TO USE: when searching for gopher as well as the Web:
      when searching for popular sites and documents or information
      likely to appear in title and keywords of a site; when wanting
      a manageable number of relevant results
WHAT TO REMEMBER WHEN USING WEBCRAWLER:
      The default is OR not AND, so use Boolean terminology
      for effective results.

SEARCHING SYNTAX:
Use AND between words which must appear.
Use OR between words when one must appear.
Use NOT before a word you wish to exclude.
Use NEAR for words which must appear next to each other.
Use NEAR/n for words which must appear with a specified number
     of words from each other (substitute a number for n)
Use ADJ for words which must be adjacent to each other, in the order
     you have indicated.
Use " " for a phrase.
Use ( ) when applying an operator to a series of words and operators
    (e.g. oranges AND grapefruits AND NOT (pears AND peaches)
 

HotBot http://www.hotbot.com    updated 1/99
Hotbot Options page    Click on More Options on left.
Hotbot Simple and Advanced Help pages at:
http://www.hotbot.com/help/tips/getting_started.asp
http://www.hotbot.com/help/tips/search_features.asp

SIZE of database:  large, 110 million documents
SEARCHES:  Web, Usenet
SCOPE: searches most words on most pages
RELEVANCE: fair to good organization by relevance
SPECIAL FEATURES: numerous searching options; other
     search area - Usenet, White Pages, Yellow Pages
WHEN TO USE: when wanting to search most of the Web or recent
     Usenet posts, or seeking to do a specific search using Boolean
     operators; when searching more than popular sites (not as
     effective as Infoseek or Alta Vista but less overwhelming);
     when searching for audio or video files

CAPITALIZATION:  HotBot IS case-sensitive is any letters in your
    search words are capitalized.
PLURALS AND SEARCH STRINGS: HotBot does not automatically
    search for plurals or for different variations of a word. Use OR to
    specify singular and plural etc. variations of words.
WHAT TO REMEMBER WITH HOTBOT: Use SEARCH OPTIONS
     to take advantage of Hot Bot's many search options.
 

USING HOT BOT SEARCH
Select all words, any words (same as OR), exact phrase (words
       together), person, links or do boolean search.
For boolean search, use AND between words which must be included,
       and OR if one word must be included.
For boolean search, put words that must appear together in parentheses.
      Use NOT before a word you wish to exclude.
If you choose ALL words, boolean terminology won't work. Use +
      and - before word to refine search further.  (+Amazon  -river)
You may choose to search for specific kinds of files on a web page,
      such as images, audio or video.
 

USING HOT BOT'S MORE OPTIONS
For more choices, click on MORE OPTIONS.
Here you may choose the language of the web page you seek.
Choose whether page MUST contain specific words or MUST NOT
     contain specific words.
Indicate range of dates if you know when page was created.
If you know the domain (beginning of address) and wish to narrow
     search to pages on a particular site, type in domain address
Choose page depth - how deep HotBot will search on site.
Determine word stemming on your search options -- i.e. searching
     for dance* will yield dance, danced, dancing etc.
You may also use metawords to determine links to a particular
     pages, searches within a title etc. See Advanced Help page.
 

Back to beginning of: Search Guide

Preliminary Searching Hints       Choosing Search Terms and Syntax
Which Search Engine or Directory to use?     Yahoo     Magellan
AltaVista   Infoseek Ultraseek     Webcrawler     HotBot
 

See also our SEARCHHELPER page for Net newbies
(which also includes Excite Search Engine).
And visit Windweaver's online Net Search BOOKSTORE - 75+ Net search
resource books and directories. Secure ordering, discounts via Amazon.com!

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copyright 1997 by Tracy Marks    Windweaver    Arlington, Massachusetts  (781) 641-3371
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updated January 1, 2001

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