Using Search Engines

This presentation was prepared for an ad-hoc 'Using the Internet' session in Auchencairn Village Hall on 23rd Novembar 2000


Searching the Web


Crawlers


Lycos

Originally
An academic research project to explore the Internet
Now
A stand-alone business funded largely by advertising
What's good about it

Alta Vista

(and Raging Search)

Originally
Technology demonstrator for Digital's superfast Alpha machines (written in Scotland)
Now
A stand-alone business funded largely by advertising
What's good about it

Alta Vista's search language

"exact phrase"
Finds pages which contain exactly this phrase
+important word
Finds pages which include 'important', preferring those which also include 'word'
important -word
Finds pages which include 'important' but not 'word'
this near that
Finds pages which include 'this' near 'that'
this and that
Finds pages which include both 'this' and 'that'
this or that
Finds pages which include either 'this' or 'that'
host:www.jasmine.org.uk
Finds pages just on our Web server
domain:org.uk
Finds pages on all servers in the 'org.uk' domain, that is personal and not-for-profit sites in the UK
image:auchencairn
Finds pages with pictures of Auchencairn...
link:www.jasmine.org.uk
Finds pages which have links to our server
title:Jasmine
Finds pages with 'Jasmine' in the title
auchen*
Finds pages with words which start with 'auchen'

Northern Light

Originally
A business set up to operate a search engine
Now
A business set up to operate a search engine, sells 'value-added' search services, slightly business oriented
What's good about it
Categorisation system ('Search Folders')

Google

Originally
A business set up to operate a search engine
Now
A business set up to operate a search engine, slightly geek oriented
What's good about it

Fast Search

Originally
A business set up to operate a search engine
Now
A business set up to operate a search engine, sells technology and database to other search engines.
What's good about it

And the rest...


Indexes

Largely hand-maintained -- very labour intensive.

Consequently far fewer good ones than with search engines.


Yahoo

Originally
A hobby project set up by two students (David Filo and Jerry Yang)
Now
A stand-alone business funded mainly by advertising (now charges for commercial organisations to be listed)
What's good about it

Open Directory Project

Originally
Volunteer project to produce comprehensive Web index
Now
Volunteer project to produce comprehensive Web index
What's good about it

Yell

Originally
Yellow pages online
Now
Yellow pages online
What's good about it
Yellow pages online

Scotland.org

Originally
Innovative project to produce national index for Scotland
Now
Rather tired national index for Scotland, not very actively promoted
What's good about it
Quite useful for Scottish resources

Searching Usenet

What is Usenet


Deja

Originally
A very successful (and profitable) archive of Usenet
Now
A loss-making consumers guide, currently for sale.
What's good about it

(Since this presentation was given, DejaNews has been taken over by Google and become groups.google.com)


Others


Other guides and tutorials

There are a number of useful guides to searchin the Internet out there. We would recommend


Simon Brooke
Last modified: Wed Feb 13 17:57:21 GMT 2002