Cabrillo College Library                                                                                                     topsy.org  
 
 
Using Internet Search Engines
 
Some Sample Searches 
 
AltaVista Simple esl childcare workers 545,800 If you don't indicate how to handle the words, AltaVista Simple returns Web pages that have any of the words.  Tries to rank the most relevant ones on top, but this is hard to do.
AltaVista Simple +esl +"childcare workers" 13 Put phrases in quotation marks.  Plus (+) in front of a term requires it in the search result. 
AltaVista Advanced esl AND "childcare worker*" 29 An asterisk (*) searches for any word beginning with those letters.  AND means the terms will be on the same page.
Excite esl AND childcare AND vocabulary 17 The addition of specific (but likely-to-appear) terms can focus your search.  Find a really good site?  Return to the results list and click on Search for more documents like this one.
FAST Search +"childcare workers" +esl 41 If you search for "all of the words:" Put phrases in quotation marks.  The plus (+) in front of a term (no space) requires it in the search result.  Can switch the option box to any of the words, or the exact phrase.
Google! childcare vocabulary esl 80 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 "childcare workers" AND vocabulary 14 For a Boolean search, you have to change the option box to  
Infoseek (GO Network) "childcare workers"|esl  8 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 "childcare workers" AND esl 32 Try clicking on Power Search (at top of screen) and then in box next to  Sort results by date (you'll have most recent results on top). 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., "childcare professionals"
  • Use the asterisk ( * ) to search for word stems, e.g., worker* retrieves worker and workers  NOTE: The asterisk does not work in phrase searching on HotBot.
  • Boolean searches probably give you the most 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                            esl AND "childcare workers" 
    Set A AND (Set B OR Set C)        "esl"  AND (childcare OR "child care") 
  • To simulate a Boolean search in search engines that do not allow Boolean search statements, 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.
To get to a list of the search engines: 
Cabrillo College Library    Click on Search the Internet.  Then click on 
Keyword Search Tools 
 
 
T. N. Smalley  8/99