Beyond plain Boolean — Uplink Archive

Advanced web search techniques using Boolean operators and specialized search engine features can significantly improve search results and save time by reducing irrelevant hits. The article provides examples of supercharging searches through phrase matching, proximity searches, and weighted terms, along with recommendations for major search engines of the era.

Searching the Web with pizzazz and aplomb requires going beyond (yawn) plain Boolean.

By some estimates, the Web contains more than 150 million pages-some 50-60 billion words. (Let's not get too picky over the "exact" size. The point is the Web is huge and growing exponentially. It's time to learn advanced searching tips and tricks and to keep current with searching advancements.)

If you're still doing searches only with plain "and" and "or" connectors/operators, you must love to plow through junk hits. Since search engines and directories offer some of the same advanced Boolean logic options available in Nexis, Dialog and DowJones, why not take advantage to save time and frustration?

Serendipity has its place in any searcher's toolkit, but when you're on deadline-or just not in the mood to plow-try focusing your search with supercharging techniques.

Sample supercharges

Making sure "and" means AND! Add a (plus) sign in front of each word you absolutely want to include in the results: +pet+care finds both pet+care finds 'care" and may find "pet" Proximity: "phrase" and "near" searches Add quote marks around words you want to search as a phrase: "pet care" looks for both as a phrase "+pet+care" finds both as a phrase pet near care looks for "pet" within a certain number of words of "care"

Order can make a difference Change the order of your search terms to adjust the weight assigned to each part: breeders and title:"maltese" may find different results than title:"maltese" and breeders

Test your searching savvy

Alta Vista (http://www.altavista.digital.com) I'll either use this or Yahoo (http://www.yahoo.com) to start a Web search quest. The advanced search page "Help" area reveals one of the most comprehensive tip sheets out there. Run the same query on the simple and advanced pages and you'll get different results. Search words are automatically weighted on the simple page-you're in charge on the advanced page. Caution: If you don't specify a word to sort by, the advanced results will be in no particular order. FindLaw - Internet Legal Resources (http://www.findlaw.com) DejaNews (http://www.dejanews.com) The best place to search Usenet newsgroup postings, including complete threads. California State University at Stanislaus (http://www.library.csustan.edu) Links to search engines maintained by librarians. Lycos (http://www.lycos.com) Search for pictures or sound files through the drop-down menu. Pro search help area has a link to "Web Guides." Choose "Education" and browse the "Reference" link to locate electronic favorites. HotBot (http://www.hotbot.com) The form-based interface looks simple to use, but spend some quality time checking out the options since documentation is lacking. The "Browse by Category" area has a unique cascading interface. Check out the "Reference" link to see the effect.

InfoSeek (http://www.infoseek.com) The tip sheet is a fast scan, the interface is simple, and the results come back at rocket speed. The Virtual Reference Desk (http://thorplus.lib.purdue.edu/reference/index.html) I know this is not a search engine or directory, but I couldn't help myself. This page is so wonderful, it will convince any jaded journalist that the Web is a tool that belongs at everyone's desk! Magellan (http://www.mckinley.com) Simple to use. What's best about this site is the "Find Similar" link on the results page. This feature helps you modify your original search with one click. Reviews are also included. Excite (http://www.excite.com) Once you get a results page, the "List by Web site" feature is a handy way to look the top 40 hits as multiple links from the same site address are grouped together for easy evaluation. The "More Like This" link on the results page is a quick way to modify a strong link for further results. WebCrawler (http://www.webcrawler.com)

Fast and simple to use. The "Similar Pages" feature on the summary results page helps to focus the next search. Choose between "titles" or "summaries" for display options. Don't have enough time to check out all the links? Save the page in HTML format and explore them later!

Reference.com (http://www.reference.com)

Metasearch sites

Internet Sleuth (http://www.isleuth.com) Allows you to search one-six engines/directories at a time and completes the task in seconds, but the results display takes time. The interface also likes the lowest-common-denominator search strategy, which frequently limits what you are looking for to plain Boolean. The service indexes only links to what it considers "searchable databases."

All4One (http://www.all4one.com)

Search four engines simultaneously: AltaVista, Lycos, HotBot and Excite. Each engine is displayed in a frame taking up a quarter of the screen.

Highway61 (http://www.highway61.com)

This is a down-to-earth site, and when you get there, you'll see why. It searches six engines at once: Excite, Infoseek, Lycos, WebCrawler and Yahoo. The display intermingles the results and ranks each hit on a scale of 100. Response time is fast.

MetaCrawler (http://www.metacrawler.com)

Search six engines at once: Excite, Lycos, Yahoo, WebCrawler, Vista and Infoseek. The display is intermingled, and the results are ranked by confidence level on a scale of 1,000. Check out the "MetaSpy" link for a fun, red-light district of what other folks are searching for. Response time is extremely fast.

ProFusion (http://www.designlab.ukans.edu/profusion)

Search nine sites, including Excite, AltaVista, WebCrawler, Lycos, Magellan, Infoseek and Yahoo. You can ask the site to pick the best three, the fastest three, or all nine. The interface is very thorough and user-friendly. Ranked results are displayed by title and URL only.

Dogpile (http://www.dogpile.com) Quickly search 13 Web engines and directories, four Usenet newsgroup sources, and 2 FTP archives including Filez (http://www.filez.com). Results are displayed ordered by the engine where they were found. This is my top pick for metasearch sites.

Verio MetaSearch, previously known as OnRamp (http://search.verio.net)

Search eight sites including Excite, HotBot, Infoseek, Lycos, WebCrawler and Yahoo. Be sure to read "About" and "Origins," then go to the advanced search area and experiment with the weight options very cool! BONUS SITE: Search Engine Watch (http://searchenginewatch.com) This is your homework!

Debbie Wolfe can be reached by email at dpwolfe@sptimes.com