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SEARCHING THE INTERNET
The following resources
have been selected to aid your search of the Internet. There are many tools
available and deciding which one to use depends on what kind of information
you are looking for.
Subject Directories - Subject directories arrange
links to Web resources by broad subject (science, for example), then
progressively narrower subjects (biology, then zoology, then entomology).
Subject directories are good for exploring a wide range of Internet resources
on a particular subject when you do not have a specific site in mind. Subject
directories are more selective than search engines. You will probably find
fewer, but more relevant, links by searching the subject lists in a subject
directory rather than typing the same subject into a search engine.
INFOMINE | Librarian's Index to the
Internet
Open Directory | Yahoo
Search Engines - Search engines search large
parts of the World Wide Web for specific words or phrases. Each search engine
will retrieve different results because search engines cover varying numbers
of sites and use different search mechanisms. Search engines are especially
useful if you are looking for a specific site and know a few key words that
might appear in the title or text, or are searching for a very specific
subject. Search engines allow you to search for keywords, not for context.
For example, a search for "sole" will turn up pages about fish and
shoes. It's up to you to evaluate sites or combine search words to narrow the
search results. Don't assume the first hit is the best one, but if you don't
find what you are looking for in the first 25 hits, modify your keywords and
search again. Most search engines include search tips that are worth
studying.
AltaVista | Excite
| Fast
Search | Google | HotBot | Northern Light
Meta-Search Engines - These tools allow you to enter
a search term in multiple search engines simultaneously. Getting results is
rarely a problem with one search engine so use this option sparingly unless
you are conducting an exhaustive search or have a very specific topic in
mind. Meta-search engines can't handle complex searches, so keep your search
expression short and simple.
Dogpile | Ixquick
AltaVista (Indexes about 300 million Web
pages)
- Reason to Use: Its extensive coverage and
wide range of power searching commands; it is one of the largest Web
search engines.
- Search Hints: Exact Word Search:
"nursing ethics"
Multiple Word Search: +nursing +ethics
Dogpile (Searches 15 search engines and
directories)
- Reason to Use: searches many search engines
all at once. To make the best use of the system, you need to be at least
reasonably familiar with several of the major search engines.
- Search Hints: Exact Word Search:
"nursing ethics" Multiple Word Search: nursing ethics.
Excite (Indexes over 150 million Web
pages)
- Reason to Use: Its extensive coverage makes
it one of the larger search engines. One significant advantage is the
ability to arrange the results of your search into groups of pages from
each Web site, allowing you to see all the relevant pages from each Web
site in one grouping.
- Search Hints: Exact Word Search:
"nursing ethics" Multiple Word Search: nursing AND ethics;
nursing OR ethics.
Fast
Search
(Indexes over 300 million Web pages)
- Reason to Use: Its response time is amazingly
quick.
- Search Hints: Exact Word Search:
"nursing ethics" Multiple Word Search: +nursing +ethics.
Google (Indexes about one billion Web
pages)
- Reason to Use: It ranks your search results
by rating each Web page by the number of other Web pages which link to
it. Consequently, you should get Web pages which other people think are
important; especially helpful in finding good sites on general topics.
- Search Hints: Exact Word Search:
"nursing ethics" Multiple Word Search: nursing ethics.
HotBot (Indexes about 300 million Web
pages)
- Reason to Use: Its extensive coverage and
sophisticated search capabilities.
- Search Hints: The combination of words in
search statements - exact phrase, all words, any of the words, etc. -
are controlled by buttons.
INFOMINE (Lists about 20,000 scholarly Web
resources)
- Reason to Use: It lists high-quality
scholarly resources -- intended for college- or university-level
research. Citations include descriptive summaries and links.
- Search Hints: Exact Word Search:
"nursing ethics" Multiple Word Search: nursing ethics.
Ixquick (Searches 14 search engines)
- Reason to Use: It is fast, comprehensive
and ranks findings by relevance. Results state information about which
search engine it came from. Currently one of the few meta search tools
that supports regular searches, natural language searches, and advanced
boolean searches, and knows which engines can handle which types of
searches. If a page is listed in more than one search engine, Ixquick
tells you which engines and how it was ranked.
- Search Hints: Exact Word Search:
"nursing ethics" Multiple Word Search: nursing ethics.
Librarian's
Index to the Internet (Lists about 8,600 selected Web resources)
- Reason to Use: It is a searchable,
annotated subject directory of more than 8,600 Internet resources
selected and evaluated by librarians.
- Search Hints: Exact Word Search:
"nursing ethics" Multiple Word Search: nursing AND ethics;
nursing OR ethics.
Northern Light (Indexes about 300 million Web pages)
- Reason to Use: The results of your search
will be sub-divided into several "Custom Search Folders" which
organize the results in helpful subject categories; and the search results
may include citations to articles in magazines, newspapers and journals.
- Search Hints: Exact Word Search:
"nursing ethics" Multiple Word Search: nursing AND ethics;
nursing OR ethics.
Open
Directory (Includes over 1.8 million listings in nearly 300,000 categories )
- Reason to Use: Similar to Yahoo, it's
possible to browse listings by category, sites are reviewed by editors,
though the Open Directory Project relies on a vast army of volunteer
editors. While Yahoo can take months to list submissions, they are
usually included in the Open Directory Project within weeks.
- Search Hints: Exact Word Search:
"nursing ethics" Multiple Word Search: nursing ethics; nursing
OR ethics
Yahoo (Lists over 1 million Websites
which are subdivided into thousands of subject categories)
- Reason to Use: It has the largest
collection of websites (as opposed to individual web pages). In
addition, the grouping of search results into subject categories allows
you to easily see related sites. The database is created by people, not
machines, with over 150 editors working to categorize websites of
interest.
- Search Hints: The various methods for
combining search words - exact phrase, all words - are controlled by
buttons
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