https://web.archive.org/web/19970405174547/http://www.webreference.com/content/search/features.html
`
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`
`III. Getting the Most Out of Your Search Engine
`
`Search Engine Features
`
`Web location services typically specialize in one of the following: their search tools (how you specify a search and how the results are
`presented), the size of their database, or their catalog service. Most engines deliver too many matches in a casual search, so the overriding
`factor in their usefulness is the quality of their search tools. Every search engine I used had a nice GUI interface that allowed one to type
`words into their form, such as "(burger not cheeseburger) or (pizza AND pepperoni)." They also allowed one to form Boolean searches
`(except Hotbot as of 7/1/96, which promises to install this feature later), i. e. they allowed the user to specify combinations of words. In
`Alta Vista and Lycos, one does this by adding a "+" or a "-" sign before each word, or in Alta Vista you can choose to use the very strict
`syntax Boolean "advanced search." This advanced search was by far the hardest to use, but also the one most completely in the user's
`control (except for OpenText). In most other engines, you just use the words AND, NOT, and OR to get Boolean logic.
`
`By far the best service for carefully specifying a search was Open Text. This form has great menus, making a complex Boolean search
`fast and easy. Best of all, this service permits you to specify that you want to search only titles or URLs. But then there's Alta Vista's little
`known "keyword" search syntax, now as powerful as OpenText, but not as easy to use. You can constrain a search to phrases in anchors,
`pages from a specific host, image titles, links, text, document titles, or URLs using this feature with the syntax keyword:search-word.
`There is an additional set of keywords just for searching Usenet. (To my knowledge, Alta Vista's keywords were undocumented before
`7/19/96, so tell your friends you heard it here first!)
`
`Which Search Page Should I Use When, and How?
`
`Use . . .
`
`If You . . .
`
`Using the Feature . . .
`
`Lycos
`
`have no good ideas for specific search strategies
`
`best test results for broad search terms
`
`" "
`
`want to find someone's e-mail
`
`People Finder.
`
`Magellan
`
`have more than one broad search word, or can't pick a site from
`Lycos' summaries.
`
`best available results summaries.
`
`" "
`
`want interactive news/ want details on today's headlines.
`
`news with links to related sites.
`
`OpenText
`
`want to search only document title or perform complex searches
`
`title search specification, best advanced search
`interface.
`
`Alta
`Vista
`
`" "
`
`are hunting for an image
`
`image:search_word syntax.
`
`want to find all the links to your page
`
`+link:your_site -url:your_site syntax.
`
`Yahoo!
`
`want the best national and international news
`
`Reuters world headlines.
`
`" "
`
`want a dictionary or other reference source
`
`Dictionaries or Reference Libraries.
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`https://web.archive.org/web/19970405174547/http://www.webreference.com/content/search/features.html
`
`What could really make engines with large data bases shine, however, would be an improvement in the way they rank and present results.
`All engines I tested had ranking schemes that were not well documented, based on how many times your search words were mentioned,
`whether or not they appeared early in the document, whether or not they appeared close together, and how many search terms were
`matched. I did not find the ranking schemes very useful, as relevant and irrelevant pages frequently had the same scores.
`
`Catalogs
`
`I have only been disappointed by catalog services. In practice, they
`seem to aim for the lowest common denominator, and reflect very
`little thought to how and when they might be useful instead of
`search engines. All the ones I tested were directed toward novices
`and favored popular commercial sites. I would have thought they
`would be very good for finding software at least, but this was not the
`case. See the example below trying to find Web server related
`software.
`
`Advanced or Boolean Queries
`
`Making queries very carefully in Boolean terms to narrow a search
`rarely produces useful results for me (but see below). In practice,
`other ways of specifying a search besides detailed logic are much
`more useful. Specification of exact vs. approximate spelling,
`specification that search terms must appear as section headings or
`URLs, using more keywords, and just specifying the language of the
`document would have been more valuable in all of my search
`examples.
`
`Example: Eliminating Unwanted Matches
`
`Useful Non-Search Goodies
`
`E-mail address books:
`Most engines allow you to search for someone's name if
`you quote it "John Q. Webhead", but you have to be
`careful about exact spelling, use of initials, etc. Try the
`genuine special purpose people finder by Lycos (it only
`works for people on the Web or e-mail).
`
`News Services:
`Yahoo! has the best news, in my humble opinion, as they
`have Reuters international news headlines. Most other
`news are ultra-brief summaries which read like
`"MacPaper." Another service that is very exciting is
`Magellan's news, which provides links to learn more
`about subjects. A recent Israeli news item included links
`to a Likud party page and a Palestinian Information
`Center Page; very impressive concept!
`
`The exception to this is the AND NOT operator - it is essential to exclude unwanted but close matches when they outnumber the desired
`matches. An example of when to use this operator is given by the problem of finding information on growing apples, because you will be
`deluged by information on Apple computers. With enough work, you can start to see apples with stems, not cords, but it isn't easy. Using
`Alta Vista, "+apple -mac* -comp* -soft* -hard* -vendor" got me information on the Payson-Santaquin apple farming region and a federal
`apple agriculture database on the first page of results.
`
`Useful Search Features
`
`Find Images to Steal (Alta Vista)
`I bet you will all use this at one time or another, so I insist you credit this article and webreference.com for this goodie: With Alta
`Vista, you can limit your search to image titles by using the format:
`
`image:title_string
`
`This was the only way I could find a useful picture of a nose for a physician's page - I had searched through jillions of clip art pages,
`and even contacted graphic artists, and they couldn't come up with anything as good as I found for free! USE THIS.
`
`Try it now (replace ansel with your choice of image search string):
`Alta Vista Search:
`
`Search for Strings in Titles (Alta Vista, OpenText) for faster results.
`If applicable, this kind of search eliminates chaff by sticking to the pages that center on your subject, not ones that just mention a
`lexically related word. Use the syntax:
`
`in Alta Vista, or just use the simple pull-down menus in OpenText's "advanced search mode."
`
`title:search_string
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`Find the Links to Your Own Site (Alta Vista)
`Alta Vista claims that you can get all the links to your own site by searching with the keyword construction: +link:http://mysite.com/
`-host:mysite in the Simple query
`...I found that the most important link to one of my sites was missing from this search, so I was not impressed; however, my editor
`swears by this. Try it now (replace webreference below with your site name):
`Alta Vista Search:
`
`Find the Number of Links to Your Own Site (Alta Vista)
`For a more accurate estimate of the actual number of links to your site (or backlinks), use Alta Vista's advanced search, and display
`the results as a "count only." The above method will give you links, but approximates their number, this method more accurately
`estimates the number of backlinks. Try it now (replace webreference below with your site name) ABK-12-29-96:
`
` and Display the Results
`Search
`Selection Criteria: Please use Advanced Syntax (AND, OR, NOT, NEAR).
`
`Which is the Best Search Engine?
`
`(It's not just how big your data base is, it's how you use it.)
`
`To decide which search engine I would choose as the best, I decided that nothing but useful results would count. Previous articles have
`emphasized quantified measures for speed and database sizes, but I found these had little relevance for the best performance in actual
`searches. By now, all engines have great hardware and fast net links, and none show any significant delay time to work on your search or
`return the results. Instead, I just came up with a few topics that represented, I felt, tough but typical problems encountered by people who
`work on the net: First, I tried a search with "background noise", a topic where a lot of closely related but unwanted information exists.
`Next, I tried a search for something very obscure. Finally, I tried a search for keywords which overlapped with a very, very popular
`search keyword. I defined a search as successful only if the desired or relevant sites were returned on the first page of results.
`
`Example - Search Terms Which Yield Too Many Matches
`
`For the first type of search, I wanted to find a copy of Wusage to download, free software that lets you keep track of how often your
`server or a specific page is accessed, a common tool for HTML developers. This site is hard to find because output files are produced by
`the program on every machine running it that have the string "wusage" in their title and text. When I simply typed "wusage" into search
`page forms, Infoseek and Lycos were the only engines to find the free version of the software I wanted. (Note I gave no credit for finding
`the version for sale. A careful search of the sale version's page, did not produce any links to the free version's download site.) Infoseek's
`summaries were very poor, however, and all matches had to be checked.
`
`Always Search As Specifically As Possible
`
`Most engines failed to find their quarry because the search was too broad. After all, how is the engine supposed to know I want the free
`version? After spending a long time to find out the exact name of what I wanted, "wusage 3.2", Infoseek, Excite, Magellan, and Lycos all
`found the site I was interested in. Alta Vista, Hotbot, and OpenText yielded nothing of interest on their first page. Magellan came out the
`clear winner on this search, as the site summary was by far the best. (Asking Alta Vista to display a detailed version of the results didn't
`change things at all!) Infoseek and Excite performed well, but Lycos listed a much older version of wusage (2.4) first.
`
`Think About Search Terms
`
`It eventually occurred to me to search for "wusage AND free" to find the free copy of wusage. In some sense, Lycos was the winner this
`time because the free version was the first match listed; however, its summary was not very useful. While it did a better job than
`Infoseek, it didn't tell me whether each site was relevant or not. Magellan's response was very good, as it included a link leading to the
`software on the first page of matches, again with an excellent summary. Yahoo and Alta Vista also found it, but all these engines rated the
`fee version higher than the free version. OpenText did very well here, but only in advanced search mode where it was possible to specify
`
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`https://web.archive.org/web/19970405174547/http://www.webreference.com/content/search/features.html
`
`that wusage must be in the title, and "free" could be anywhere in the text. Wusage3.2 was listed as the second of only two entries - no
`digging here! Excite failed to find the site at all, and HotBot found only 10 matches for statistics of a server in Omaha.
`
`Curiously, a search for "download wusage" did not improve the results over the single-word searches for any of the search engines! (It
`may be time for rudimentary standardized categories to be used on the Web: e.g. this is a download archive, this is an information only
`site, this is an authoritative site, etc.) The lesson here may just be "if at first you don't succeed..."
`
`Catalogs
`
`Catalogs were not helpful. Yahoo!, under computers/software had nothing whatever to try for wusage: no http, no HTML, no wusage, not
`even servers. In Excite!, under computing/www/web ware, three more clicks got me to wusage, but -surprise!- I could not get to the free
`version. See why you don't want anyone else filtering your information?
`
`The lessons from this search, which I have found repeated in other searches, are given in the "Examples: Summary . . ." box below.
`
`Example - Finding The Really Obscure
`
`For this example, let's try to find out how to care for a "tegu", a
`South American lizard that is only moderately popular even among
`lizard enthusiasts. (If that's not an adequate example of obscure
`information, I don't know what is.) I know that a page exists called
`"TEGU INTRO" at http://www.concentric.net/ ~tegu/tegu.html, but
`we will simulate a blind search here. This search was full of
`surprises.
`
`First I began by just searching for the string "tegu." Infoseek's first
`match was a tegu page I did NOT know about! Still, the one I
`wanted was not listed on the first page. Excite yielded nothing about
`tegus, only information on a vaguely related reptile, the "dwarf
`tegu." A search on the string "tegu care" yielded nothing relevant.
`(A search on their handy Usenet database did find the old tegu
`article I was looking for, three weeks old, which was no longer on
`my local news server. Other engines found this as well.) Lycos came
`up with the URL Infoseek found, plus two more, however, the
`additional listings were only pictures, not information. Searching for
`the string "tegu care" got nothing. Alta Vista found nothing useful
`either way, just ads for lizard food. OpenText found nothing, even
`when I searched for "tegu lizard." Hotbot found a picture of a tegu
`with "tegu care," but it did not return any relevant information with
`any search.
`
`Examples Summary: How To Improve Your
`Searches
`
`The most valuable search tool is specific information
`on a search. (In the search for wusage, I had no problems
`when I knew that version 3.2 was what I needed.)
`
`Think about your search terms - the next most important
`search tool
`Obviously, since I wanted the free version of wusage in
`the example, I should have searched for "free AND
`wusage"; I got nothing with just "wusage" with most
`engines.
`
`Good site summaries save you time by saving you surfing
`Use Magellan or OpenText if possible. To research the
`example above, I had to pour through dozens of pages.
`Only Magellan's summaries really gave me any
`confidence that I did not have to check every site.
`
`Specify a "title only" search if applicable
`Title only searches are available only with OpenText and
`Alta Vista. In the examples, it yields more practical results
`than coming up with lots of search words, (as help pages
`suggest) or than forming logically complex search queries
`(as one might think). Adding more search words made the
`results above worse, not better. A Boolean search also did
`no better, e.g.. "wusage AND (free or download)" yielded
`nothing from Alta Vista.
`
`None of the searches I tried came up the URL I knew about. The
`lesson here is that you can really find new things on the Web with
`search engines, but if you need to find a specific page, it will always
`be a crap shoot. Advanced searches yielded nothing more with any
`engine ("tegu in title AND (care or lizard)", etc.) Some way to
`require that the searches were only among English language
`documents would have been much more helpful. Some northern-
`European sounding language apparently has the word tegu in it, not
`referring to a lizard, and many foreign language pages fouled my
`results on some engines. Another feature that would really have
`made a difference would be a filter for sales pages -- most of the mentions of tegu on the net are ads for "Monitor and Tegu Food",
`containing no care information. As expected, Yahoo! and Excite! Catalogs were useless here as well.
`
`Searches Can Yield New Information, but they are never
`complete
`None of my searches ever found the good page on tegu
`care that I know exists.
`
`Example - Selectivity: Apple Trees NOT Apple Computers
`
`There are gobs of stuff on the net about Apple Computers, but what about growing apple trees? Surprisingly, this search was very easy!
`apple* alone always yielded lots of stuff about the computers, and one often had to add as many as five excluded terms (apple* -vendor*
`-hard* -soft* -comp* -mac*) before receiving any matches for apples you can eat. Surprisingly, however, just apple* tree* usually
`yielded detailed information on growing apple trees on the first page of results. The poorer results required one to increase the search
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`command to apple* tree* grow*.
`
`And The Winner Is. . .
`
`I don't really want to pick a winner. . . All right, if you insist: The "Search Test Results . . ." table, below, lists the engines in order of their
`ranking. Lycos is therefore the official heavy weight search engine champion of the universe, based on the tests above. However, I think
`this is missing the point. As shown in the table, "Which Search Page . . . ?", above, you should choose different engines for different
`tasks. None of the engines tested were able to limit their searches to images except for Alta Vista. This engine must therefore surely be
`the best one for graphics designers if they are allowed to use only one, but for most other purposes, the user will have to wade through the
`mountains of chaff and drek to find what they want. It is more beneficial to use different engines for different tasks; at most only a few
`are required.
`
`Engine
`
`Lycos
`
`Infoseek
`
`"One Item Among
`Many Related Pages"
`Test
`
`Found item with
`broad search word
`and exact name.
`Found item first on
`results list with two
`search terms.
`
`Found item with
`broad search word
`and exact name.
`Found item with two
`search terms.
`
`Search Engine Test Results
`
`"Obscure Item"
`Test
`
`"Selectivty: Apple Trees Not
`Computers" Test
`
`Comments
`
`Found unknown
`item, but not
`known item.
`
`Just apple$ tree$ yielded
`good results.
`
`Returned the most relevant matches
`in the tests, but requires more time
`to check bad matches than
`Magellan.
`
`Found unknown
`item, but not
`known item.
`
`Just apple$ tree$ yielded
`good results.
`
`Poor Summaries.
`
`OpenText
`
`Found wusage in title
`search
`
`Found Nothing.
`
`Good results with 2 or 3
`terms, most useful with 3
`terms due to superior
`summaries.
`
`Ability to specify title searches
`very useful and user-friendly.
`Summaries very good.
`
`Alta Vista
`
`Magellan
`
`Failed with
`approximate and
`exact words.
`Found item low on
`first page with two
`search terms.
`
`Found with exact
`name.
`Found item low on
`first page with two
`search terms.
`
`Found nothing
`
`Good results with apple*
`tree* grow*.
`
`Keyword searches for images,
`titles, etc. are very useful in other
`searches.
`
`Found nothing
`
`Required three search terms:
`apple* tree* grow*
`
`Superior summaries always save
`you surf time.
`
`Excite
`
`Found with exact
`name, failed with two
`word search.
`
`Found nothing.
`
`Required third search term:
`apple* tree* grow*, even
`then irrelevant results were
`first.
`
`. . .
`
`HotBot
`
`Failed all searches
`
`Failed all
`searches
`
`Found only images, and did
`worse when grow* was
`
`Poorest Performer (excluding
`catalogs).
`
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`https://web.archive.org/web/19970405174547/http://www.webreference.com/content/search/features.html
`
`Excite!
`Catalog (not
`engine)
`
`Yahoo!
`Catalog (not
`engine)
`
`Failed all searches
`
`Failed all searches
`
`Failed all
`searches
`
`Failed all
`searches
`
`added!!!
`
`Failed all searches
`
`Catalogs not at all useful.
`
`Failed all searches
`
`Catalogs not at all useful.
`
`Comments are welcome
`
`Copyright © 1996 Athenia Associates
`Revised: Dec. 29, 1996
`
`URL: http://webreference.com/content/search/features.html
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