two additional searches using keywords "average rainfall Ajo."Yahoo! pointed to 17 Web pages. Each of the top three sites had the information I was seeking Oust under 9 inches annually). .
Alta Vista pointed to 92,680 Web pages. The first site was connected to a different "AJO," the American Journal of Ophthalmology. The second site had the rainfall information I was looking for, but the - third site offered a recipe for something called "Shrimp mojo de ajo.'' Go figure.
Search site tip No. 2: if at first you don't succeed, try a different search site.
Here's an example why: There is a Scottsdale-based company called Sierra Alliance. I happen to know it has a Web site.
A Yahoo! search using keywords
sierra alliance" incorrectly points to a single site maintained by the Alliance for America.
The same "sierra alliance" search on Alta Vista, is 'successful. It'
produces a list with 13 hits, the first of which is the Scottsdale company's Web site.
Search site tip No. 3: Use a
search site that matches the way you like to search. I
For I example, if you like to search by asking complete questions in- stead of keywords, you should try a Web site that supports natural Ianguage.
If you type "What is the average rainfall in Ajo? on Yahoo!, you get nothing. The same question on Web Crawler (www.webcrawler. .com ), which supports natural language searches, provided a list of 44,365 pages,, the first of which pointed to a site with the correct answer.
Another popular search site that supports natural language is Ask Jeeves ( http://www.askjeeves.com ). It has a companion search site for kids called Ask Jeeves for Kids ( http://www.ajkids.com ).
Search site tip No. 4: Learn to use your favorite search site's advanced search features.
Nearly every search
site offers
conduct
the ability m ore
users
specific searches using Boolean logic or other parameters.
One of my favorite tools is sometimes called " search site math."
Relax. We're not talking algebra here. Just the use of simple "+" and signs in front of keywords.
A
As you might guess, the plus sign tells the search engine to include the keyword that, follows. The minus sign does the opposite.
Let's go back to our Ajo rainfall example.
On Alta Vista, if you search using keywords "weather rainfall ajo," you get 534,960 hits.
If you type it in this way, "+weather +rainfall +ajo'' you get 38 hits, the first of which has the information you are seeking.
As for the minus sign, consider a search for information about good old Windows 3. 1.
On Alta Vista, if you search using keywords "windows 3. 1," you get 22.2 million pages that include refgrences to Windows 3.1, 95 and 98.
this
conduct search his
+windows +3.1 -95 -98," you