1694 words >>> Finding What You're Looking For on the World Wide Web by Garth Catterall-Heart Searching the Internet for specific information can be both rewarding and frustrating. The are many tools available to choose from, including search engines (automated search services), human compiled directories, search services and search utilities. Which you choose depends on your needs. If you do a lot of searching, you will probably benefit from a service or utility such as Copernic or Alexa . Both of these tools have versions for Windows and Macintosh that you download onto your computer. Copernic simultaneously consults the best search engines and lists summaries of the most relevant sites. Alexa provides information about the page you are on and suggests related pages. It also offers a web archive and desktop reference. JotBot Search began as an alternative interface to HotBot and grew to support six major search engines: AltaVitsa, Yahoo, HotBot, DejaNews, Four11, and UBL. Using a tiny JavaScripted input window, JotBot facilitates immediate searches at speeds up to 10 times regular -- all by avoiding those large front pages and skipping directly to the data. There is nothing to download and the service is free to use. For very advanced searches check out Direct Search or the Librarians' Index to the Internet . Both of these provide links to information not available to most search engines or directories. If you only have occasional need for searching the web, then "web portals" are probably the logical choice. These include many of the search engines listed below. (In this article the term "search engine" will be used to mean both the service and the web site that uses it.) In addition to search directories and search engine results, they offer current news, weather, stock info, chat rooms, e-mail accounts and many other services. Check out the list below and make your favorite one your browser's home page for easy access. There are two ways to proceed with most search engines. The easiest approach is to just type in one or more words and then sift through the long list of sites. The second method is to use the directory that the service provides. This involves choosing (and in some cases guessing) which category you think the information you're looking for might be in. Using the search feature is certainly quicker and easier. You will get back a list of web sites that theoretically have something to do with the words you searched for. They will be listed by relevancy, determined by a mysterious formula. Unfortunately, most of the time, many of these listings will not be relevant, or will be outdated, or will be duplicates. Often the more methodical approach of using directories is more rewarding. You get back a list of web sites that have been categorized by humans rather than computer programs, which means that there will be no irrelevant or duplicate listings. You may still find that some of these web sites no longer exist or that the information they contain is not what you're looking for. Using a combination of the two search methods often produces the best results. Start by doing a search by using words that have to do with the topic you have in mind. Then after checking out the first few listings, check the related categories or search terms that the page recommends. This should lead you either to a directory category page that has more relevant listings or a page of search listings that may be more relevant than your first attempt. There are under twenty major search engines and they are often shared by different "web portals". Almost all of the major "search engines" also maintain directories that list web sites in a more orderly fashion than you get by merely doing a search. Similarly, there are perhaps a dozen major directories and these too are shared by several different companies. The Open Directory is one of the most popular choices. The Open Directory Project has approximately 2 million web sites, collected and organized by more than 20,000 expert editors worldwide, with more than 3,000 new sites added daily. These editors are dedicated to an open-source volunteer effort to make the best human-edited Directory on the Web. Here's a rundown of the major search engines: * AOL NetFind - offers search listings and a directory based on the Open Directory Project. The directory and search engine also bring thousands of additional sites to AOL Search from AOL and AOL.COM. * AltaVista - In terms of pages indexed, AltaVista is one of the largest search engines on the web. It has very comprehensive coverage and a wide range of power searching commands, which make it a particular favorite among researchers. * Ask Jeeves - A humanized search service that attempts to direct you to the exact page that answers your question. If it fails to find a match within its own database, then it will provide web pages from various other search engines. * Direct Hit - Direct Hit's technology provides highly relevant results for any Internet search. By analyzing the activity of millions of previous Internet searchers, Direct Hit determines the most relevant sites for your search request. Direct Hit is a subsidiary of Ask Jeeves. * Excite - One of the most popular search services on the web. Offers many features such as email, news, weather, etc. along with a very good search engine and directory. * FAST Search - Formerly called All The Web, FAST Search aims to index the entire web. It was the first search engine to index 200 million web pages. However it has no related search feature and no directory. * Go/Infoseek - Go has many partners including ABC.com, Disney.com, Family.com, ABCNEWS.com and ESPN.com. They have good directory that is compiled by "Go Guides" and a popular search engine called Infoseek. * GoTo - Unlike many other search engines, GoTo sells its listings. Companies can pay money to be placed higher in the search results, which GoTo feels improves relevancy. This model is now being adopted by several other search engines. * Google - Google claims to have indexed 1,060,000,000 web pages. They have recently partnered with Yahoo to create probably the most comprehensive Directory/Search Engine combination. * HotBot - Like AltaVista, HotBot is another favorite among researchers due to its large index of the web and many power searching features. In most cases, HotBot's first page of results comes from the Direct Hit service (see above), and then secondary results come from the Inktomi search engine, which is also used by other services. It gets its directory information from the Open Directory project. HotBot is part of the Lycos network (see below). * LookSmart - Another human-compiled directory of the web. In addition to being a stand-alone service, LookSmart provides directory results to many other partners. * Lycos - Lycos' main listings come from the Open Directory project, and then secondary results come from spidering the web. Lycos also features another directory of web sites called Lycos Community Guides. Lycos is one of the oldest search services, around since May 1994. * MSN Search - Microsoft's MSN Search service has a complete directory and a full-featured home page. Search results are good, but there's no related search feature. * Netscape Search - Netscape Search's results come primarily from the Open Directory and Netscape's own "Smart Browsing" database, which does an excellent job of listing "official" web sites. Secondary results come from Google. At the Netscape Netcenter portal site, other search engines are also featured. Here's a FAQ about searching with Netscape Navigator. * Northern Light - Another favorite search engine among researchers. It features one of the largest indexes of the web, along with the ability to cluster documents by topic. Northern Light also has a set of "special collection" documents that are not readily accessible to search engine spiders. There are documents from thousands of sources, including newswires, magazines and databases. Searching these documents is free, but there is a charge of up to $4 to view them. There is no charge to view documents on the public web -- only for those within the special collection. * Snap/NBCi - NBC recently acquired SNAP.com and offers a full featured home page and very good search results. Sites in NBCi's LiveDirectory collection are ranked according to their popularity in search. The most popular sites rise to the top of the list in their respective topics. * WebCrawler - Has the smallest index of any major search engine on the web -- think of it as Excite Lite. The small index means WebCrawler is not the place to go when seeking obscure or unusual material. However, some people may feel that by having indexed fewer pages, WebCrawler provides less overwhelming results in response to general searches. * Yahoo - The web's most popular search service has a well-deserved reputation for helping people find information easily. It is the largest human-compiled guide to the web, employing about 150 editors in an effort to categorize the web. Yahoo has over 1 million sites listed. Yahoo now supplements its results with those from Google. Yahoo is the oldest major web site directory, having launched in late 1994. For more information about Search Engines, see About Using Search Engines (c) Copyright 2000, Garth Catterall-Heart, All rights reserved. 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