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  Search Helper
 Windweaver's Easy Search   updated 7/00

Note: This page is being updated in late December 2006,
and Google is being added. Our other search pages
were updated in October 2006. See index at Windweaver.com

 Yahoo Directory             Infoseek                        Hot Bot
  AltaVista Advanced       Webcrawler
 Excite PowerSearch        Metacrawler Multisearch (new!)

  Windweaver:                 Search Links                  Search Pages
  Search Tool Reviews     Web Design Links          Search Guide

 
 NOTE: New search engines will be added here later in 2000 -  Google,
Ask Jeeves, FastSearch.   Meanwhile, for more information about these
these search engines, consult SearchengineWatch.

YAHOO Directory http://www.yahoo.com
For browsing subject categories (unrated sites)
Use + (with no space) before a word which must appear. +cats
Use - (no space) before a word which must NOT appear. -theater
Enclose phrases or words which must appear together in
      double quotation marks. "Siamese cats"

YAHOO  OPTIONS  PAGE:
http://search.yahoo.com/search/options
Choose whether you want to include all search terms (AND),
only one of your search terms (OR) or an exact phrase.

Note that Yahoo has MANY specialized search directoriesl
SEE ALSO Windweaver's Yahoo Search Guide and Yahoo review
 

 

ALTAVISTA ADVANCED SEARCH  updated 1/99
http://www.altavista.com/cgi-bin/query?pg=aq&what=web
help: http://www.altavista.com/av/content/help_advanced.htm
For searching all text on (almost) all Web sites
Best used for hard-to-find obscure topics

For the top searching field:
Use a + immediately before words which must be included. +water
Use a - immediately before words which must be excluded.   -fresh
Place words which must appear together in quotation marks. "Atlantic Ocean"

For boolean searching on advanced search page:
Use AND between words that must be included. Hindu AND indian
Use OR if one of your words must be included. Indian OR indian
Use NOT if your word must NOT be included.  NOT American
Use AND NOT with multiple words if your next word must
     NOT be included.  indian AND NOT American
Use NEAR between words which must be within 10 words of
     each other.   Ganges NEAR river
Use PARENTHESES around a phrase or group of words that
      must occur together. (Ganges river) OR (Ganges River)
AltaVista IS case-sensitive. Use capitals when you want capitals!
See also: Windweaver's AltaVista review and search guide.

 

INFOSEEK  Power Search    updated 1/99
http://www.infoseek.com/Home?pg=ultra_home.html
For searching all text on most Web sites
For finding many relevant sites
Use + (no space) before a word which must appear. +hockey
Use  - (no space) before a word which must NOT appear.   -Bruins
Use double quotations marks around a phrase or words which
      must appear together. "sunset cruise"
InfoSeek IS case-sensitive. Use capitals when you want capitals!

NOTE: New advance Infoseek form which does not require
search operators:
http://www.infoseek.com/find?pg=advanced_www.html&ud9=advanced_www
See also: Windweaver's InfoSeek review  and search guide.

 

WEBCRAWLER Searching
 http://www.webcrawler.com
For finding popular sites or common topics
Use AND between words which must appear.  fish AND boat
Use OR between words when one must appear.  sea OR ocean
Enter OR between singular and plural if you want to search
      for both.        ocean OR oceans
Use NOT before a word you wish to exclude.  NOT Atlantic
Use NEAR/n for words which must be a specified number of
      words from each other (n is your number).  coat NEAR/6 fur
Use ADJ for words which must be adjacent to each other, in
     the order you have indicated. Charlie ADJ Brown
Use " " for a phrase.     "Remember the Alamo"
See also: Windweaver's Webcrawler search guide.
 
 

 

HOTBOThttp://www.hotbot.com updated 1/99
(click on Search Options for more searching options)
Hotbot Help
http://www.hotbot.com/help/tips/getting_started.asp
http://www.hotbot.com/help/tips/search_features.asp

For searching all text on most Web sites.
Use  MORE OPTIONS  for more search features.
HotBot IS case-sensitive if you capitalize any letters.
On the search options page, you can indicate stemming,
       - searching different variations of a word: bake, baking
Select all words, any words (same as OR), exact phrase (words
       together), person, links or do a boolean search.
For boolean search, use AND between words which must be
      included; OR if one word must be included.  email or e-mail
For boolean search, put words that must appear together in
      quotation marks. "Boston Bruins"
Use NOT before a word  you wish to exclude. Woodstock AND
       Vermont NOT "New York"
If you choose ALL words, boolean terminology won't work.
      Use + and - before word to refine search further.  +bears
If you wish, choose to search for images, audio or video files.
On the search options page, you can do searches based on
      location, dates etc. and determine how deeply Hot Bot should
      search into pages on a web site.
You can modify your search results to further refine your search.

 

EXCITE http://www.excite.com
Search Help
http://www.excite.com/Info/searching2.html
http://www.excite.com/Info/searching3.html

For searching all text on 50 million web pages (also
        news, cities, newsgroups, people, businesses, reviewed sites)
You can use words expressing concepts as well as keywords.
Choose MORE LIKE THIS to see other related links.

For regular search:
Use + (without a space) before words that must be included; or use AND
         (in caps)  for multiple words.  +Native  +American   Native AND American
Use OR (in caps) between words if one must included. email OR e-mail
Use -(without a space) before a word or AND NOT you wish to exclude.
       +maple -tree         maple AND NOT tree
Use quotes to enclose a phrase.  "ice skating"

For Boolean search:
You may choose to use Boolean terminology: AND, AND NOT, OR
       rather than + or -, as indicated in above choices.
Use parentheses to group parts of a Boolean expression together.
        Olympics AND skating AND (figure OR ice)
 
 

 

Metacrawler MultiSearch
http://www.metacrawler.com/
OR http://www.go2net.com/search.html
Search tips: http://www.go2net.com/help/faq/query.html
 

FOR SEARCHING MULTIPLE SEARCH ENGINES
SIMULTANEOUSLY: AltaVista, Excite, Infoseek,
InfoSpace’s Ultimate Directory, Lycos, Thunderstone,
WebCrawler, and Yahoo!
Requires no special instructions.
Choose ANY (web page must include one or more of your words)
ALL (includes all of your words) or PHRASE (words must
appear together), and type in your words.
Search the WEB or NEWSGROUPS.

Since different search engines use different search operators,
specific search terminology is not always effective with
Metacrawler. However, since most search engines are now using
+ before a word, - before a word, or quotes around phrases,
you may add use these operators here to perfect your results.

Rated by PC Magazine may 1998 as the Best
Multi-Search Engine. One of our two favorites.

ALSO Recommended: Savvy Search.
See our Multisearch engines listings page.
 
 
 

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Last updated July 1, 2000