Internet Tools - Search Engines

Search engines are programs provided by various organizations, they help find things for you out across the net. Keywords are entered by the user and the search engine combs web pages and usenet groups for matching words.

With so many web pages being added to the web every day, programs were developed that actually detect new documents. Called spiders or worms, they jump tirelessly from link to link on the web and in the case of the Lycos's spider can discover up to 5,000 new pages per day.

However, how much of the document the search engine actually draws from affects the results of future searches. A search engine that only checks the author's description or the first few lines of text may miss relevant information.

Search tools can normally be categorized into two broad groups: individual search engines which often search only particular databases or sites that have been submitted by the author and metasearch engines which utilize multiple individual search engines and collate their results.

Of the individual search engines, the most powerful would include: Alta Vista, Infoseek Guide, Lycos, and Yahoo. Of these, only Alta Vista and Infoseek guide search the usenet groups. Usenet refers to newsgroups that have articles or commentary on specific topics. So if in the course of research, you are looking for people who might have shared common experiences or who might have a new or different perspective this would be a good place to search.

All of these, provide the URL, which is the Internet's equivalent of an address and a summary of the information (generally the first few lines of text) to be found. This will often help you determine the relevance of a site even before you visit. Of the four search engines, only Lycos and Yahoo will not allow you to include or exclude specific terms which allows the user to further refine their search.

The most comprehensive of the metasearch engines include: The Internet Sleuth, MetaCrawler, and SavvySearch. Metasearch engines submit your request to the individual search engines and then displays the hits. The best of these use a single entry to inquiry multiple search engines and some automatically eliminate redundant listings prior to displaying the results.

All of these search engines have strengths and sometimes weaknesses. Internet Sleuth provides over 1,500 searchable databases but may require the user to enter their information in multiple forms. SavvySearch uses a single form but only presents the results as a list of URL's which doesn't provide the user much information. As a plus SavvySearch can display the results in several different languages.

MetaCrawler is the best of the search engines that I've tried. Using a single form, the user enters their keywords and MetaCrawler queries all the other individual search engines, eliminates duplicate responses and then displays the results as both URL's and brief descriptions.

Some of the most visited search engines are those who search only limited databases. Genealogical research is a growing interest on the Net. The State of Utah has a site that lists both commercial and non-commercial sites. This site provides research links from throughout the United States and from several countries.

Need information on farming techniques? Pathfinder, one site on the web provides access to online publications including Time, Sports Illustrated, and Progressive Farmer. Looking to fix up your house or perhaps a canning recipe? Pathfinder also has This Old House and provides recipes through their virtual kitchen.

Want a current medal count? Visit one of the on-line Olympic sites. Tired of having rainouts? Check out KMOL's weather page. It provides the latest NEXRAD images and current radar summaries.

A very special search site for children is Yahooligans which provides a safe environment including a search engine especially designed for children ages 8 to 14. Here is a place for even the very young to experience the web at its best.

Junior High and High School students will have no problem in using search engines like MetaCrawler to do school research. MetaCrawler queries among others, Alta Vista and Infoseek Guide which provide the type in-depth searches that are appropriate for science or term papers. Topics on which information is scarce will receive multiple hits.

Worried about what information your teenager might access? Programs are available to screen out sites that are considered objectionable.

The Internet's most powerful tools, search engines are not only are tremendous time savers, but they also allow you to draw information from a vast array of resources.


Alta Vista: http://www.informatik.uni-kiel.de/~car/.alta_vista_search.html
CNN Olympic Site: http://cnn.com/SPORTS/OLYMPICS/games/index.html
Genealogy Research: http://utstdpwww.state.ut.us/%7Earchives/referenc/!genealo.htm
Infoseek Guide: http://guide.infoseek.com/Home?pg=Home.html&sv=IS
The Internet Sleuth: http://www.isleuth.com/
KMOL:http://www.kmol.com/
Lycos: http://lycos11.lycos.cs.cmu.edu/cgi-bin/pursuit
MetaCrawler: http://metacrawler.cs.washington.edu:8080/index.html
Pathfinder: http://pathfinder.com/@@VnWBSQYAv*pLlhD*/welcome/
SavvySearch: http://guaraldi.cs.colostate.edu:2000/
Yahoo:http://www.yahoo.com/
Yahooligans: http://www.yahooligans.com


Susan Wehe
swehe@ix.netcom.com
http://www.netcom.com/~swehe/family.html

Susan Wehe is a member of the Seguin Internet Club. "Teenagers and the Net" is the topic of another article authored by her, to be published in this column on August 18.


The Seguin Internet Club will hold its monthly August meeting this Saturday from 10:00 am to 11:00 am at the Seguin Guadalupe County Public Library. This meeting will be an unstructured opportunity for members (young students, home and commercial users) to network with other club members who share interest in the same Internet topic. Interest topics of the club are: writing web pages, connecting to the Internet, browsing the World Wide Web (search engines), sending e-mail, posting to newsgroups, using the IRC, downloading files, setting up Internet software, writing articles for the newspaper column The Internet Beat, etcetera.

To offer ideas or contribute to The Internet Beat column, contact Gloria Rivera at riverag@connecti.com, 303-4764. To join the Seguin Internet Club, contact Jerry Weers, weersjt@texas.net, 303-0818; or Alton Hierholzer at altonh@connecti.com, 303-9260.

Next Week: Will Meier: "How to make your own web pages".