Advanced Searching

Search engines are algorithmic information retrieval systems that allow searching of massive web-based databases. A web search engine is designed to search for information on the World Wide Web and FTP servers. The search results are generally presented in a list of results and are often called hits. The information may consist of web pages, images, information and other types of files, such as:

• Google;
• Bing;
• Yahoo;
• AOL Search;
• AlltheWeb.com;
• Ask Jeeves;
• Excite;
• Lycos; and
• Alta Vista
  

Google Hacks

• Tara Calishain, RaelDornfestPublisher: O’Reilly Media http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596004477
  

Search Techniques

• Quotations
• Keyword Order and lowercaseTruncation (*)
• Allinbody, [allinbody: keyword] (Allintitle, Allinurl)
• Boolean logic
• Enclose OR statements in parentheses.
• Always use CAPS. Most engines require that the operators (AND, OR, AND NOT/NOT) be capitalized.
• http://www.internettutorials.net/boolean.asp
  

Meta Search Engines
Search engines that search other search engines and directories. They are designed to extract the best search results, from up to twenty popular search engines and directories, and provide an aggregate result of the information obtained, in their own search results. Here is a list:

• Dogpile;
• WebCrawler;
• Excite;
• Google;
• MSN;
• MetaCrawler; and
• Ixquick
  

Search Directories
Search directories are online resources, usually with extensive databases, that are used for searches and online marketing. Search directories provide different functionality than meta-search engines in that they are usually a compilation of specific searches, can have advertisements, news, and other services, and may have different specified categories for users to search URLs and links. Here is a list:

• Yahoo Directory;
• BOTW;
• Jayde
• LookSmart;
• Open Directory Project (DMOZ.org); and
• Wikipedia
  

Information Aggregators
These are tools that pull in information from multiple sources and consolidate that information into a smaller and more easily digested number of streams. RSS Feeds, like Google Reader and Bloglines, pull blogs into a single stream of information:

• Spokeo – Big Brother Of Social Networking http://www.pandia.com/sew/620- spokeo.html
• 123people.com– Gateway to Paid databases. Shows available websites around a specific name.
• Pipl- The most comprehensive people search on the web
• yoName – Searches Social Networks
• Brizzly, Seesmic web,
• HootSuite,
• Dabr,
• Slandr, etc.
• Real-time news interceder.net
• Email alerts
• Real-time news