Sink or Swim Internet Search Tools & Techniques

Sink or Swim: Internet Search Tools & Techniques (Version 5.0 - Spring 2001) [Revision information] By Ross Tyner, Okanagan University College Library [Copyright statement] Revised by Ross Tyner & Walter Slany, University of Calgary U.K Site WORKSHOP OUTLINE Introduction Search Engines & Subject Directories o Search Engines  Multi-Threaded Search Engines  Subject-specific Search Engines o Subject Directories  Specialized Subject Directories Search Strategy o Search Logic  Boolean Logic o Search Tips Search Engine Comparisons o Individual search engines:  AltaVista  Excite  alltheweb  Google  HotBot o Multi-threaded (meta) search engines:  Dogpile  Ixquick  Metacrawler  ProFusion  SurfWax Exercises References INTRODUCTION According to the results of a study published by Cyveillance in July 2000, the World Wide Web is estimated to contain more than two billion pages of publicly-accessible information.(1) As if the Web's immense size weren't enough to strike fear in the heart of all but the most intrepid surfers, consider that the Web continues to grow at an exponential rate: tripling in size over the past two years, according to one estimate.(2) Add to this, the fact that the Web lacks the bibliographic control standards we take for granted in the print world: There is no equivalent to the ISBN to uniquely identify a document; no standard system, analogous to those developed by the Library of Congress, of cataloguing or classification; no central catalogue including the Web's holdings In fact, many, if not most, Web documents lack even the name of the author and the date of publication Imagine you are searching for information in the world's largest library, where the books and journals (stripped of their covers and title pages) are shelved in no particular order, and without reference to a central catalogue A researcher's nightmare? Without question The World Wide Web defined? Not exactly Instead of a central catalogue, the Web offers the choice of dozens of different search tools, each with its own database, command language, search capabilities, and method of displaying results Given the above, the need is clear to familiarize yourself with a variety of search tools and to develop effective search techniques, if you hope to take advantage of the resources offered by the Web without spending many fruitless hours flailing about, and eventually drowning, in a sea of irrelevant information SEARCH ENGINES AND SUBJECT DIRECTORIES The two basic approaches to searching the Web are search engines and subject directories Search engines allow the user to enter keywords that are run against a database (most often created automatically, by "spiders" or "robots") Based on a combination of criteria (established by the user and/or the search engine), the search engine retrieves WWW documents from its database that match the keywords entered by the searcher It is important to note that when you are using a search engine you are not searching the Internet "live", as it exists at this very moment Rather, you are searching a fixed database that has been compiled some time previous to your search While all search engines are intended to perform the same task, each goes about this task in a different way, which leads to sometimes amazingly different results Factors that influence results include the size of the database, the frequency of updating, and the search capabilities Search engines also differ in their search speed, the design of the search interface, the way in which they display results, and the amount of help they offer In most cases, search engines are best used to locate a specific piece of information, such as a known document, an image, or a computer program, rather than a general subject Examples of search engines include: • • • • • AltaVista (http://www.altavista.com) Excite (http://www.excite.com/search) alltheweb (http://www.alltheweb.com) Google (http://www.google.com) HotBot (http://hotbot.lycos.com) The growth in the number of search engines has led to the creation of "meta" search tools, often referred to as multi-threaded search engines These search engines allow the user to search multiple databases simultaneously, via a single interface While they not offer the same level of control over the search interface and search logic as individual search engines, most of the multi-threaded engines are very fast Recently, the capabilities of meta-tools have been improved to include such useful features as the ability to sort results by site, by type of resource, or by domain, the ability to select which search engines to include, and the ability to modify results These modifications have greatly increased the effectiveness and utility of the meta-tools Popular multi-threaded search engines include: • • • • • Metacrawler (http://www.metacrawler.com) Ixquick (http://www.ixquick.com) SurfWax (http://www.surfwax.com Dogpile (http://www.dogpile.com) ProFusion (http://www.profusion.com) Subject-specific search engines not attempt to index the entire Web Instead, they focus on searching for Web sites or pages within a defined subject area, geographical area, or type of resource Because these specialized search engines aim for depth of coverage within a single area, rather than breadth of coverage across subjects, they are often able to index documents that are not included even in the largest search engine databases For this reason, they offer a useful starting point for certain searches The table below lists some of the subject-specific search engines by category For a more comprehensive list of subject-specific search engines, see one of the following directories of search tools: • • • Beaucoup! (http://www.beaucoup.com) Search Engine Colossus (http://www.searchenginecolossus.com) Searchengines.com (http://www.searchengines.com/) Table of selected subject-specific search engines Regional (Canada) • • • AltaVista Canada (http://www.altavistacanada.com) Excite Canada (http://www.excite.ca/) Yahoo! Canada (http://ca.yahoo.com/) Regional (Other) • Geographically specific search engines (Beaucoup): o Americas o Asia/Australia/Middle East/Africa o • • Bigfoot (http://bigfoot.com/) InfoSpace Canada Email Search (http://www.infospace.com/canada/email1.htm) WhoWhere? (http://www.whowhere.lycos.com) Yahoo! People Search (http://people.yahoo.com/) Images • • • • • • Advice for investors (http://www.adviceforinvestors.com) Hoover's Online (http://www.hoovers.com/) InfoSpace Canada (http://www.infospace.com/canada/index_ylw_ca.htm) Wall Street Research Net (http://www.wsrn.com/) • WorldPages (http://www.worldpages.com/) • • Europe People (E-mail addresses) • • Companies The Amazing Picture Machine (http://www.ncrtec.org/picture.htm) Lycos Multimedia (http://multimedia.lycos.com/) WebSEEk (http://www.ctr.columbia.edu/webseek/) People (Postal addresses & telephone numbers) • • • Bigfoot (http://bigfoot.com/) Canada 411 (http://canada411.sympatico.ca) InfoSpace Canada People Finder (http://www.infospace.com/canada/index_ppl_ca.htm) • Switchboard.Com (http://www.switchboard.com) Jobs • • • • +Jobs Canada Monster.ca (http://www.monster.ca/) Monster.com (http://www.monster.com/) Canada Job Bank (http://www.jobbank.gc.ca/) • The Riley Guide (http://www.dbm.com/jobguide/) Yahoo! Picture Gallery (http://gallery.yahoo.com/) Games Software • Games Domain (http://www.gamesdomain.com/) • • Jumbo (http://www.jumbo.com) Shareware.com (http://shareware.cnet.com/) • GameSpot (http://gamespot.com/gamespot/) • ZDNet Downloads (http://www.zdnet.com/downloads/) Health/Medicine • • • • • Achoo (http://www.achoo.com/) BioMedNet (http://www.bmn.com/) Combined Health Information Database (http://chid.nih.gov/) MayoClinic.com (http://www.mayohealth.org/) MEDLINEplus (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/) Education/Children's Sites • • • • AOL NetFind Kids Only (http://www.aol.com/netfind/kids/) Blue Web'n (http://www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/bluewebn/) Education World (http://www.education-world.com/) Kids Domain (http://www.kidsdomain.com) KidsClick! (http://www.kidsclick.org/) • Yahooligans! (http://www.yahooligans.com) • Subject directories are hierarchically organized indexes of subject categories that allow the Web searcher to browse through lists of Web sites by subject in search of relevant information They are compiled and maintained by humans and many include a search engine for searching their own database Subject directory databases tend to be smaller than those of the search engines, which means that result lists tend to be smaller as well However, there are other differences between search engines and subject directories that can lead to the latter producing more relevant results For example, while a search engine typically indexes every page of a given Web site, a subject directory is more likely to provide a link only to the site's home page Furthermore, because their maintenance includes human intervention, subject directories greatly reduce the probability of retrieving results out of context Because subject directories are arranged by category and because they usually return links to the top level of a web site rather than to individual pages, they lend themselves best to searching for information about a general subject, rather than for a specific piece of information Examples of subject directories include: • • • LookSmart (http://www.looksmart.com) Open Directory (http://dmoz.org) Yahoo (http://www.yahoo.com) Specialized subject directories Due to the Web's immense size and constant transformation, keeping up with important sites in all subject areas is humanly impossible Therefore, a guide compiled by a subject specialist to important resources in his or her area of expertise is more likely than a general subject directory to produce relevant information and is usually more comprehensive than a general guide Such guides exist for virtually every topic For example, Voice of the Shuttle (http://vos.ucsb.edu) provides an excellent starting point for humanities research Film buffs should consider starting their search with the Internet Movie Database (http://us.imdb.com) Just as multi-threaded search engines attempt to provide simultaneous access to a number of different search engines, some web sites act as collections or clearinghouses of specialized subject directories Many of these sites offer reviews and annotations of the subject directories included and most work on the principle of allowing subject experts to maintain the individual subject directories Some clearinghouses maintain the specialized guides on their own web site while others link to guides located at various remote sites Examples of clearinghouses include: • Argus Clearinghouse (http://www.clearinghouse.net) • • About.com (http://about.com) WWW Virtual Library (http://www.vlib.org) SEARCH STRATEGY Regardless of the search tool being used, the development of an effective search strategy is essential if you hope to obtain satisfactory results A simplified, generic search strategy might consist of the following steps: Formulate the research question and its scope Identify the important concepts within the question Identify search terms to describe those concepts Consider synonyms and variations of those terms Prepare your search logic This strategy should be applied to a search of any electronic information tool, including library catalogues and CD-ROM databases However, a well-planned search strategy is of especially great importance when the database under consideration is one as large, amorphous and evolving as the World Wide Web Along with the characteristics already mentioned in the Introduction, another factor that underscores the need for effective Web search strategy is the fact that most search engines index every word of a document This method of indexing tends to greatly increase the number of results retrieved, while decreasing the relevance of those results, because of the increased likelihood of words being found in an inappropriate context When selecting a search engine, one factor to consider is whether it allows the searcher to specify which part(s) of the document to search (eg URL, title, first heading) or whether it simply defaults to search the entire document Search logic refers to the way in which you, and the search engine you are using, combine your search terms For example, the search Okanagan University College could be interpreted as a search for any of the three search terms, all of the search terms, or the exact phrase Depending on the logic applied, the results of each of the three searches would differ greatly All search engines have some default method of combining terms, but their documentation does not always make it easy to ascertain which method is in use Reading online Help and experimenting with different combinations of words can both help in this regard Most search engines also allow the searcher to modify the default search logic, either with the use of pull-down menus or special operators, such as the + sign to require that a search term be present and the - sign to exclude a term from a search Boolean logic is the term used to describe certain logical operations that are used to combine search terms in many databases The basic Boolean operators are represented by the words AND, OR and NOT Variations on these operators, sometimes called proximity operators, that are supported by some search engines include ADJACENT, NEAR and FOLLOWED BY Whether or not a search engine supports Boolean logic, and the way in which it implements it, is another important consideration when selecting a search tool The following diagrams illustrate the basic Boolean operations AND OR NOT Boolean operators are most useful for complex searches, while the + and - operators are often adequate for simple searches SEARCH TIPS In most cases, an effective search strategy, the correct use of Boolean logic, and familiarity with the features of each of the search engines will lead to satisfactory results However, there are additional techniques that may further improve your results in particular circumstances The following search tips apply to one or more of the search engines discussed in this workshop Ctrl-F: After following a link to a document retrieved with a search engine, it is sometimes not immediately apparent why the document has been retrieved This may be because the words for which you searched appear near the bottom of the document A quick method of finding the relevant words is to type Ctrl-F to search for the text in the current document Bookmark your results: If you are likely to want to repeat a search at a later date, add a bookmark (or favorite) to your current search results Right truncation of URLs: Often, a search will retrieve links to many documents at one site For example, searching for "Okanagan University College Library" will retrieve not only the OUC Library home page (http://www.ouc.bc.ca/libr), but also any pages that contain the phrase "Okanagan University College Library", whether or not they are linked to the home page (eg this page http://www.ouc.bc.ca/libr/connect96/search.htm) Rather than clicking on each URL in succession to find the desired document, truncate the URL at the point at which it appears most likely to represent the document you are seeking and type this URL in the Location box of your web browser Guessing URLs: Basic knowledge of the way in which URLs are constructed will help you to guess the correct URL for a given web site For example, most large American companies will have registered a domain name in the format www.company_name.com (eg Microsoft - www.microsoft.com); American universities are almost always in the edu domain (eg Cornell - www.cornell.edu or UCLA www.ucla.edu); and Canadian universities follow the format www.university_name.ca (eg Simon Fraser University - www.sfu.ca or the University of Toronto - www.utoronto.ca) Wildcards: Some search engines allow the use of "wildcard" characters in search statements Wildcards are useful for retrieving variant spellings (eg color, colour) and words with a common root (eg psychology, psychological, psychologist, psychologists, etc.) Wildcard characters vary from one search engine to another, the most common ones being *, #, and ? Some search engines permit only right truncation (eg psycholog*), while others also support middle truncation (eg colo*r) Relevance ranking: All of the search engines covered in this workshop use an algorithm to rank retrieved documents in order of decreasing relevance (3) Consequently, it is often not necessary to browse through more than the first few pages of results, even when the total results number in the thousands Furthermore, some search engines (eg AltaVista) allow the searcher to determine which terms are the most "important", while others have a "more like this" feature that permits the searcher to generate new queries based on relevant documents retrieved by the initial search These features are discussed in more detail in the following section of this document SEARCH ENGINE COMPARISONS This section compares some of the major Web search engines, based on the following features: Size of the database (4) Search interface Search features Results list display features Other features of note AltaVista URL: http://www.altavista.com Size: 550 million pages Interface: AltaVista includes simple and advanced interfaces They are less intuitive than most other search engine interfaces but they are well documented and allow some of the most powerful searching on the Web if you are willing to learn how to use them Both interfaces allow the use of Boolean logic, though different syntax is used in the two interfaces The simple interface includes a single search box and a pull-down menu that allows you to limit your search to one of 25 languages The advanced interface includes a search box, limit by language, and options to limit a search by date, to rank results according to keywords of your choice, and to restrict results to one per site Search Features: Search logic and syntax: AltaVista defaults to Boolean OR, that is it will retrieve results containing any of the search words; however, the greater number of search terms a document contains, the more highly it is ranked In its simple interface, AltaVista supports the use of + and - to require and exclude terms In its advanced interface, it supports all Boolean operators - AND, OR and AND NOT, plus the proximity operator NEAR (terms within 10 words of each other) In both interfaces, enclosing search terms in quotation marks searches for an exact phrase Limit options: Searches may be limited by date (Advanced only) and language (Simple and Advanced) AltaVista also allows you to restrict a search to certain fields (or sections) within a document, and by type of document, e.g Title, URL, Image, Java applets, and Links to a specified page For example, the search title:"sink or swim" will retrieve only those pages that include the phrase "sink or swim" in their title The search link:www.ouc.bc.ca/libr will retrieve all pages in AltaVista's database that include links to the specified URL Truncation: AltaVista uses the * character to support both right (e.g psycholog*) and middle (e.g colo*r) truncation Case sensitivity: If you begin a word with an upper case letter, AltaVista searches only for that word with an upper case letter If you use lower case, AltaVista retrieves upper and lower case For example, dodge retrieves dodge and Dodge; Dodge retrieves Dodge only Results: What is displayed: The result display includes the document title, URL, and first two lines of the document text Each entry is followed by links to translate the document, find more pages from the same site, and find related pages Order of results: Results are displayed in order of decreasing relevance In Advanced Search, you may specify "ranking keywords" that force documents that contain these words to appear near the top of the result list You may also limit your results to one per site Refining results: A "search within these results" checkbox allows you to narrow a search Other features: o Browseable subject categories (from LookSmart) o Specialty searches for images, audio and video o o o o Translate documents from and into the major European languages Family Filter blocks certain Web sites based on their content Free Web-based e-mail "Customize Settings" to make AltaVista "remember" your search preferences This feature uses cookies so you have to customize settings for each computer from which you use AltaVista o Numerous links to commercial services, e.g eBay Excite URL: http://www.excite.com/search/ Size: 250 million pages Interface: Excite offers two interfaces: simple and Advanced Web Search The simple interface consists of a single search box with options to limit by media type or site type, e.g News, Products, Photos, Audio, Video Advanced Web Search presents the searcher with a series of search boxes that allow you to perform either word or phrase searching and to instruct Excite which words and/or phrases the document CAN contain, MUST contain, and MUST NOT contain It also allows limiting by language, country, and domain (.com, edu, org, etc.) Search Features: Search logic and syntax: Excite defaults to Boolean OR, that is it will retrieve results containing any of the search words; however, the greater number of search terms a document contains, the more highly it is ranked Excite supports the use of the Boolean operators AND, OR and NOT (all of which must be in capital letters), the + and - signs to require and exclude words from your search, and phrase searching using quotation marks The "Zoom In" feature allows you to refine your subject before you search To use this feature, enter your search string in the search box, then click "Zoom In" rather than "Search" Excite presents you with a list of terms related to your search string (broader, narrower and related terms) from which you can choose only one term (it might be more useful if you could choose more than one) Limit options: Simple Search offers limits by media type These limits are not available in Advanced Web Search, which allows limiting by language, country and domain Truncation: None Case sensitivity: None Results: What is displayed: For each document, Excite displays title, URL, and first two lines of document text Links at the top of the result list allow you to "show titles only" or "view by URL" The latter feature sorts the results by URL and displays only the document title beneath the Web site to which it belongs Order of results: Results are displayed in order of decreasing relevance The "view by URL" link allows you to sort by Web site Refining results: There is no way to refine search results Other features: o Browsable subject directory o Online shopping o Specialty searches for stocks, companies, people, maps, weather, travel, etc o Free Web-based e-mail o Customizable portal site "My Excite" alltheweb URL: http://www.alltheweb.com Size: 575 million pages Interface: Simple and Advanced interfaces The simple search provides a single search box with a pull-down menu to select "All the words", "Any of the words" or "Exact phrase" The advanced interface includes all of the features in the simple interface, plus the ability to limit by language, domain, location of search terms in the document (text, title, link name, URL and link to the URL), and "word filters" (must include, should include, or must not include) Search Features: Search logic and syntax: Select "All of the words" (default), "Any of the words" or "Exact phrase", use "Word Filters" (Advanced Search), or + to include, - to exclude, and double quotes to search for a phrase Limit options: Language, domain, location of search terms in document (Advanced Search only) Truncation: None Case sensitivity: None Results: What is displayed: Alltheweb displays title, brief summary and URL for each document found Order of results: Results are displayed ten per page, ranked by relevance Refining results: Not available Other features: o MP3 search, FTP search, Multimedia search, Mobile search (for wireless devices) Google URL: http://www.google.com Size: 705 million pages (5) Interface: Simple and Advanced The simple interface is a single search box with two search buttons: "Google Search" and "I'm Feeling Lucky" The latter automatically displays the page deemed most relevant rather than displaying a list of results The advanced interface provides boxes for "all the words", "exact phrase", "any of the words", and "without the words", pull-down menus to limit by location on the page (anywhere, title or URL), language and domain, radio buttons to filter results using "SafeSearch", and search boxes that allow you to search for pages that are similar to or link to a given URL Search Features: Search logic and syntax: Google defaults to Boolean AND Enclose phrases in quotation marks Use + and - to require and exclude search terms Google also supports use of the Boolean OR Limit options: Limit by language, domain, Web site (Advanced Search only) Truncation: None Case sensitivity: None Results: What is displayed: Results include document title, first few words of text, URL, size (in bytes) and a link to a previously cached version of the page Order of results: Google's PageRank algorithm ranks pages based on the number of pages that link to a given document That is, the more frequently a document is linked to, the "better" it is It also analyzes the frequency of search terms and their proximity to each other in the document, like other search engines When there is more than one result from a site, Google groups the results by site, displaying only the first two results from that site followed by a link to find more results from that site Refining results: Clicking the "Similar Pages" link retrieves pages that are "related" to the current result Other features: o Indexes Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) files o Google Web Directory o Google Toolbar (IE 5+ only) and browser buttons allow access to Google whenever your Web browser is running HotBot URL: http://hotbot.lycos.com Size: 500 million pages Interface: HotBot offers two interfaces: a default (not to say simple, as it offers more options than most search engines' advanced interfaces) and an Advanced Search Both interfaces feature pull-down menus for modifying search criteria (for example, to switch between word and phrase searching), and for restricting searches by date, geographical location, language and domain name These pull-down menus make available advanced search features to users who otherwise might be intimidated by the complex Boolean logic needed to perform a similar search in AltaVista or another search engine Check boxes are used to limit searches to particular types of media Search features: Search logic and syntax: Pull-down menus in both the default and advanced interfaces allow you to select between "all of the words", "any of the words", "exact phrase", "the person" (HotBot automatically rotates search terms, so a search for "Bill Gates" will look for "Bill Gates" and "Gates, Bill"), "links to this URL", and "Boolean phrase" HotBot supports the Boolean operators AND, OR and NOT, the + and - signs to require or exclude search terms, and quotation marks to specify phrase searching Limit options: The default search screen allows limiting by date, language and media type (e.g Javascript, Image, Video) Advanced Search provides the same options plus an increased number of media types, and limiting by Internet domain (e.g .edu or www.ouc.bc.ca), geographical region, and page depth "Word Stemming" (Advanced Search only) searches for grammatical variations of your search terms (e.g searches for "thought" will also find "think" and "thinking") Truncation: HotBot offers the most sophisticated truncation features of any search engine The * character may be used to replace any number of characters, while the ? character replaces a single character Both of these symbols may be used at the end, in the middle, or at the beginning of a word Case sensitivity: Searches with all lower-case letters are not case-sensitive The use of an upper-case letter anywhere in a search string limits search results to documents that match the exact search, including the case Results: What is displayed: HotBot offers three options: full descriptions, brief descriptions, and URLs only The full display includes the document title, the first few lines of text, URL and date The brief display includes the title and first few lines of text Order of results: Matching directory categories, if any, are followed by matching Web pages, in order of decreasing relevance By default, HotBot displays only one result per site Click "See results from this site only" to see all the results from a given site Refining results: A check box allows you to search within the results of your current search, using whichever words you specify Other features: o Browsable subject directory o Search for companies, people, software, stocks, maps, etc o Free Web-based e-mail Dogpile URL: http://www.dogpile.com Interface: Single search box, with a very busy interface, and is very commercial in its orientation Allows you to restrict your search to one of the following categories: The Web, Images, Audio/MP3/ Action/ News, FTP, Discussion, Small Biz, and Streaming Media Engines Searched: Dogpile searches the following search engines: AltaVista, Bay9, Direct Hit, Dogpile Web Catalog, FindWhat, Google, GoTo.com, Kanoodle, LookSmart, Lycos, Open Directory, RealNames, Sprinks by About and Yahoo, but only will search at a time Search Features: Search logic and syntax: Dogpile defaults to a Boolean AND search Enclose phrases in quotation marks Use + and - to require and exclude search terms Limit options: Dogpile allows you the ability to search the following categories as the only mechanism to limit your search; The Web, Images, Audio/MP3/ Action/ News, FTP, Discussion, Small Biz, and Streaming Media Dogpile provides the user with the option to limit which search engines it uses You have the ability to select search engines per column Selecting column and the (or fewer) search engines limits your results to those engines alone for that page of results This function writes a cookie on your hard drive to maintain the information for future searches Truncation: None Case sensitivity: None Results: What is displayed: The search engine that was used and the number of hits that it returned Results include document title, first few words of text, URL Order of results: Based upon the engines searched, and their specifications of ranking Other features: A variety of commercial (shopping) services Ixquick URL: http://www.ixquick.com Interface: Single search box Ixquick allows the user the choice to search one of the following catogories: “Web”, “News”, “MP3”, and “Pictures” Engines Searched: Ixquick searches the following search engines: AOL, AltaVista, Euro Seek, Excite, Alltheweb, GoTo.com, HotBot, LookSmart, MSN, NBCi, Webcrawler, Yahoo Search Features: Search logic and syntax: Ixquick is one of the few metasearch engines that allows, natural language, simple, and Boolean searches Ixquick defaults to a Boolean AND search Enclose phrases in quotation marks Use + and - to require and exclude search terms Limit options: Allows for the user to choose whether to search “The Web”, “MP3”, “News”, and “Pictures” The user has the option to select from the following countries; Deutsch, English, English UK, Español, Franỗais, Italiano, Nederlands, Portuguờs On the results page you have the option to limit or select the search engines you wish to use, for a subsequent search Truncation: Ixquick has the ability to determine which search engines utilize wildcards, it has the ability to translate and use the search engines that have the ability to respond to them Case sensitivity: Yes, Capitalized results will retrieve only the pages where the search term is also capitalized, however lower case will disregard case sensitivity and retrieve everything Results: What is displayed: Results include document title, first few words of text, URL, which search engines it used to find the site and the numbers of times they are hit by each engine Clicking on the search engine will take you that search engine's list of related topic pages All search results open in a new page so that your Ixquick search page is always available Order of results: Ixquick provides one star to a result list item for each search engine that ranks that site in its top ten results That is, a five-star result is ranked in the top ten by five search engines Refining results: Clicking the "More Like This" link retrieves pages that are "related" to the current result Other features: Search for pages that link to a given page (e.g link:http://www.ouc.bc.ca) Metacrawler URL: http://www.metacrawler.com Interface: Normal Search: Single search box Metacrawler allows the user the choice to search for Any word, All words, or Phrase contained within the search box The interface is very busy and commercial in orientation Power Search: Within the power search mode Metacrawler offers the ability to customize how it performs its search The user is provided with the option of selecting which search engines to use, the order of the results displayed, and the domain (whether it be by country, or institution, government, education, etc.) The option is also provided to limit the number of results, and results per page The layout is very user friendly Metacrawler uses cookies to save customizations to your hard drive Engines Searched: Metacrawler searches the following search engines: AltaVista, DirectHit, Excite, FindWhat.com, Google, GoTo.com, Internet Keywords, Kanoodle, LookSmart, Lycos, MetaCatalog, Sprinks by About, Webcrawler Search Features: Search logic and syntax: Metacrawler defaults to Boolean AND Enclose phrases in quotation marks Use + and - to require and exclude search terms Limit options: Allows for the user to choose whether to search “The Web”, “Directory”, “Audio/MP3”, “Image”, “News Groups”, “Action”, “Streaming Media” Power search allows the user the ability to select which engines they wish to search, the domain (whether it be an Educational site, Government, or Country of choice) You may specify the amount of time you wish to wait, as well as the quantity of results on one result page Search by Country allows the user the ability to select a country of choice to refine one's search Metacrawler also provides the option to customize your search options This provides the user with the ability to customize the colour scheme, as well as the default interface (Normal search, Slide Show, Power search, Low bandwidth) This feature also provides you the ability to select which engines are searched, key word defaults, domains, the time out length, the number of results, and how they will be viewed, whether the cursor will appear in the search box each time, and if it should save search parameters automatically every time you change an option and issue a query This is all accomplished by writing a cookie on your hard drive to retain this information Truncation: None Case sensitivity: None Results: What is displayed: Results include document title, first few words of text, URL, which search engines it used to find the site, and a link to more sites similar to this title Order of results: Metacrawler’s PageRank algorithm ranks pages based on the frequency the document is accessed, i.e a document accessed 100 times will rank higher than a document accessed 50 times Refining results: Clicking the "More Like This" link retrieves pages that are "related" to the current result Other features: • View the most popular searches • A variety of commercial services ProFusion URL: http://www.profusion.com Interface: Single search box Provides search options below the search text box, thus allowing you the ability to customize your search Engines Searched: Profusion searches the following search engines; AltaVista, Yahoo!, GO, LookSmart, Britannica, Lycos, About, Excite, DirectHit Search Features: Search logic and syntax: ProFusion defaults to a Boolean AND search, but allows you to choose how you wish to change the search logic in a pull down menu Enclose phrases in quotation marks Use + and - to require and exclude search terms Limit options: Profusion provides you with the option to limit your search into one of the following categories: Web Search, Business, Computing, Discussion, Entertainment, Health, Investment, MP3, Sports, Kids Fun, Genealogy, People Allows you the ability to choose search sources: Best 3, Fastest 3, All, You Choose These allow you to pick yourself or allow ProFusion to choose which search engines to use You may predetermine the number of results that will be presented Truncation: None Case sensitivity: None Results: What is displayed: The search engine that was used and the number of hits that it returned Results include document title, first few words of text, URL, also the search engine that the document was found by is presented as an active link (but will only take you to the search page) It provides a "track it" feature that requires your email address, since Intelliseek's Web Tracker will email to you when the page changes or is updated Order of results: Results are displayed in order of decreasing relevance Other features: Search for pages that link to a given page (e.g link:http://www.ouc.bc.ca) SurfWax URL: http://www.surfwax.com Interface: Single search box Very simple layout, with the only option being a choice for the number of results that you wish to be returned Engines Searched: Surfwax searches the following search engines: All The Web, AltaVista, Excite, HotBot, InfoSeek, OpenDirectory, SearchEdu, Webcrawler, Yahoo, Yahoo News, Ditto Search Features: Search logic and syntax: SurfWax defaults to a Boolean AND search Enclose phrases in quotation marks Use + and - to require and exclude search terms Limit options: Uses a series of "dimensions" The 1st dimension aids the user in focusing their search The 2nd dimension allows for what the creators call a SearchBlanket™, which allows for the user to generate a concise list of results The 3rd dimension allows for the user the ability to review a site with more relevant information pertaining to the search The 4th dimension allows for you to personalize SurfWax to your preferred style of searching Truncation: None Case sensitivity: None Results: What is displayed: The display page is subdivided into two halves The right side displays the results of your search The left side, initially, makes reference to the various search engines that were used in generating the list of results By clicking on the green arrowhead, in front of the desired result, a description page is open in the frame on the left side This “Snapshot” provides you with the criterion that was used to find this page, as well as an abstract of the site and some key points that can be found in the site or page Also provided is a series of site focus words that will allow you to further refine your search if you so desire When a link is chosen, that link is opened on a separate page, so you always have access to the search results page Order of results: Unknown Refining results: By clicking on the focus button allows you the ability to refine your search SurfWax then provides you with a series of terms that are related to the word or words you are searching for For example "Hurricane" brought up the following choices: a severe tropical cyclone usually with heavy rains and winds moving a [definition truncated at this point] Broader