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Search Guide
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 (125 million documents)
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 (BOOLEAN) 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 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.
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)
NEXT Search syntax for
HotBot
BACK to beginning of Search Guide
BASIC SEARCH INFORMATION
Preliminary Searching Hints
Choosing Search Terms and Syntax
Which Search Engine or Directory to use?
HOW TO USE....
Yahoo
AltaVista (Simple and Advanced
Search)
Webcrawler
HotBot
(See also our SEARCHHELPER page for Net
newbies, and visit
Windweaver's online Search Resources Bookstore
- 70+ books,
discounted, secure ordering from Amazon.com!)
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