Searchtools Strategy

Information Need Strategy Keyword search Google Keyword search with refinements Excite , HotBot , FAST , SurfWax , AltaVista Broad academic subject Librarians'Index to the Internet, Infomine, NorthernLight, Encyclopedia Britannica, Encarta Popular or Commercial Topic Yahoo! , dmoz , Go Subject Expert About.com, WWWVirtualLibrary, ArgusClearinghouse, AlphaSearch Pinpoint phrase search AltaVista Proper name, case sensitive InfoSeek , AltaVista, HotBot Biographical Biography.com, BiographicalDictionary, Lives Government FirstGov News Yahoo! News , NorthernLightCurrentNews, Moreover Automatic Search Informant, NorthernLightSearchAlertService Almanac Information InformationPlease, CIAWorldFactBook Map TIGERMapService, MapMachine, MapQuest

Search Engine Mathematics

Since search engines work on keywords, the words a user submits are going to be the most important criterion of what the engine returns. The submission of that key word, or group of words or phrase is crucial. The best tactic to use will depend on the nature of your search, and the capabilities of the engine you are submitting to.

The '+' sign is the most commonly used operator. It tells the search engine to produce only documents which contain all the words of your search. For instance if you were to submit 'vanilla + fudge + sundae', the engine would return only documents which had all of those words, as opposed to returning all articles with 'vanilla', all articles with 'fudge', and all articles referring to 'sundae', which would result from a submission of those words without the plusses.

The '-' sign, conversely, is a restrictor operator. The term 'vanilla +fudge -sundae' would return all articles referring to vanilla and fudge, but which did not mention sundae.

To get a specific phrase, enclose it in quotes. A submission of "100 years war" would return articles mentioning only that specific war.

Here's a table summarizing the math capabilities of the most popular search engines.

SearchTool	Match Any	Match All	Exclude	Include	Phrase
AOL Search	Menu	Auto	-	+	" "
AltaVista	Auto	+	-	+	" "
Ask Jeeves		+	-	+	" "
Direct Hit		+	-	+	" "
Excite	Auto	+	-	+	" "
FAST Search		+	-	+	" "
Go / Infoseek	Auto	+	-	+	" "
GoTo	Auto	+	-	+	" "
Google	No	Auto	-	+	" "
HotBot	Menu	Auto	-	+	" "
IWon		+	-	+	" "
Inktomi		+	-	+	" "
LookSmart	Auto				" "
Lycos	Menu	Auto	-	+	" "
MSN Search	Menu	Auto	-	+	" "
NBCi		+	-	+	" "
Netscape Search	Auto	+	-	+	" "
Northern Light	OR	Auto	-	+	" "
Open Directory		+	-	+	" "
Raging Search		+	-	+	" "
RealNames			-	+	" "
WebCrawler	Auto	+	-	+	" "
Yahoo!	Auto	+	-	+	" "

SearchTools Introduction SearchTools Tactics

 

 

		Copyright © 2001 by Paladin Consultants,LLC Chatham, NJ All Rights Reserved This page revised   May 23, 2006