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The World Wide Web is a vast, disorganized mass of resources of varying quality and reliability. Finding what you’re looking for on the Web can be an incredibly difficult and frustrating experience. This guide will help explain how you can overcome these problems and find information on the Web.
According to a recent study in the journal Nature, there are over 800 million individual Web pages. 83% of these pages are commercial in nature, while only 6% are educational or academic. When trying to find Web pages in this seemingly overwhelming environment, there are two major types of resources you can use: Web directories; and search engines.
Directories are organized collections of Web resources, created by human beings, and containing items selected using some form of evaluative criteria. Web directories are usually organized by subject, and can be both browsed and searched. Yahoo is the best example of a Web directory. Other examples of Web directories include:
Search engines, on the other hand, are automated programs whose databases are created by software called spiders or robots. These spiders go out and find Web pages to add to the search engine’s database. As a result, search engines offer much larger databases than do directories, but their contents are not selected or evaluated in any way. Altavista is one popular search engine.
Search engines index and retrieve Web sites by keywords that appear in that page. All search engines draw keywords from a site’s title or Web address (URL). Many also retrieve results based on how often a keyword appears, or if it appears near the top of the page. Finally, a few search engines search the entire text of a page.
Please be aware that search engines will only allow you to search Web sites that their spiders have already indexed. No single search engine can search the entire World Wide Web. Currently, FAST Search has the largest searchable index with 300 million pages, or only about 33% of the entire Web.
One major difference between directories and search engines is in the size of their databases. Yahoo, the largest Web directory, has over 1 million items. Altavista, one of the largest search engine, indexes 250 million. Therefore, searching in Altavista for "French history" will probably return a lot more results than browsing Yahoo’s list of French history Web sites.
The other side of this question is relevant results. Remember that directories are organized and evaluated while search engine databases are not. While far fewer in number, you can be certain that all of Yahoo’s sites are about French history. With Altavista, many of the items retrieved will have little to do with the topic, but simply include one or both keywords somewhere in the page. Overall then, Web directories index far fewer sites than search engines, but offer a far higher percentage of relevant items.
As a general rule, it’s best to use Web directories when researching broader topics such as French history, or education. For information on narrower topics, such as specific individuals or organizations, search engines, with their much larger databases and ability to find words within a page, are preferable.
Put phrases or full names in quotes:
-For example, when looking for material on Brad Pitt, put the name in quotation marks: "Brad Pitt". This will let most search engines know to look only for pages where these two words appear together.
Avoid using commonplace words, if possible:
-Searching for shopping or travel is likely to return an overwhelming list of results. Use synonyms and words that are less commonly used.
Be as specific as possible:
-Probably the best way to do this is to use what are called Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT). For example, if you want to do a search on the health effects of steroids, type in steroids AND health. The search engine will then only return items containing both terms. Exercise OR fitness will retrieve Web pages containing either term. NOT allows you to exclude certain keywords. For example, if you want to do a search on biological viruses, as opposed to computer ones, type in viruses NOT computer.
The answer to this question depends on what you’re looking for. If you’re interested in size, here are the engines that currently have the largest indexed databases, according to the May/June 2000 issue of Online Magazine:
It’s important to realize that there are other factors besides size to consider in choosing a search engine. Accuracy of results is also important. In a recent study, CNET rated 5 popular search engines by accuracy of search results. In order, they are:
It’s important to weigh both size and accuracy as well as other factors like ease of use in determining which search engine is right for you.
One final approach in searching the Web is to use a metasearcher. Metasearchers allow you to search more than one search engine at the same time. They are extremely useful when looking to conduct as wide a search as possible. Several examples of metasearchers are:
For further information on search engines, directories, and tips for Web searching, try the following Web sites:
David Durant
Joyner Library Reference
Last Updated: August 11, 2000
Please e-mail me with any comments at: durantd@mail.ecu.edu.
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