Cabrillo College Library                                                                                                      
  
Using Internet Search Engines
Some Sample Searches to show how to use the Search Engines
 
AltaVista Simple wild mushrooms California 6,180,743 If you don't indicate how the words are to be searched, AltaVista Simple returns Web pages that have any of the words.  It tries through a ranking algorithm to put  the most relevant sites on top -- but this  isn't easy!
AltaVista Simple +"wild mushroom*" +California 17,290 Put phrases in quotation marks.  Plus (+) in front of a term requires it in the search result. Asterisk (*) is a truncation symbol: any word beginning with letters preceding it is retrieved.
AltaVista Advanced "wild mushroom*" NEAR California 1322 An asterisk (*) searches for any word beginning with the preceeding  letters.  NEAR means within 10 words of each other.  Use AND to have the terms on the same page.
Excite "wild mushroom*" AND California 479 Phrases go in quotation marks.  Use asterisk (*) for word stems.  Find a really good site?  Return to the results list and click on Search for more documents like this one.
FAST Search +"mycorrhizal mushrooms" +California 19 Put phrases in quotation marks.  The plus (+) in front of a term (no space) requires it in the search result. Use a more specific (but likely to appear) term to narrow search results.
Google! "wild mushroom*" California 917 Terms are automatically ANDed together.  In the results list, sites are ranked higher according to how frequently they are referenced by other resources on the Web.
HotBot "wild mushrooms" AND California 390 For a Boolean search, you have to change the option box to    Click on More Search Options to explore ways you can limit searches, e.g., to audio or video files, to Web sites in specific countries, etc.
Infoseek "wildmushroom*"|California 65 Use the pipe key  |   ( it's near the Backspace key) to simulate a Boolean search.  Find a great Web site?  From the results list, click on  Find Similar Pages.
Northern Light "wild mushroom*" AND California 3,283 Try clicking on Power Search (at top of screen) and then in box next to.  Click to limit your search to the World Wide Web.  Results are sorted into folders for you -- a very useful feature!
 
The most important search tips to remember 
  • If you don't specify how you want a search engine to process your search terms, it will retrieve Web pages that have any of the terms
  • Put phrases in quotation marks, e.g., "wild mushrooms"
  • Use the asterisk ( * ) to search for word stems, e.g., mushroom* retrieves both singular and plural
  • Boolean searches give you control for focused searching.  Search engines that allow Boolean search statements are 
    • AltaVista Advanced (not AltaVista Simple!)
    • Excite
    • HotBot (when you change the option box)
    • Northern Light. 
  • Examples of Boolean searches: 

    • Set A AND Set B                            mushrooms AND California 
    Set A AND (Set B OR Set C)        California AND (chanterelle OR bolete)) 
  • To simulate a Boolean search in other search engines, use the plus sign ( + ) in front of a 

    • word (no space) to require it in the search result; use a minus sign ( - ) in front of a word to disallow it in the search result.
New search engines in 1999: FAST Search and Google.  Check table above for how to use

To get to a list of the search engines: 
Cabrillo College Library    Click on Search the Internet.  Then click on 
Keyword Search Tools 
 
 
The Importance of Evaluation  Don't trust everything on the Internet  ; -)
It probably doesn't need saying, but the Internet offers all kinds of resources.  You have to think about the type and quality of resources you get access to. 
Evaluating Internet Resources

T. N. Smalley  10/99