arizona republicmonday, november 1, 1999
david hoye
a primer on how to search the web
Having trouble finding what you want on the Internet? Join the club. Although Web- based search sites number in the thousands, finding that specific piece of information or just the right Web site remains a frustrating task for most people.
There are those in Computer Land who claim they can find what they want every time they go ,looking. If you ask me, those people either spend way too much time online or they aren't very picky. The rest of us have a life. We work all day, come home at night and discover that little Johnny needs to know the average rainfall in Ajo to complete a report for school. And, of course, it's due the next day.
Where do you start?
No search site has all the answers all the time. But here's a quick search site primer that will put things into perspective and increase the chances that you'll find what you want the next time you go looking.
,First off, search sites come in different flavors:
Diretory's .8 ! ( http://www.yahoo.com ), which categorize the most popular stuff on the Web. Think of them as branch libraries - facilities that offer a healthy chunk of what's available, but not everything.
Search engine sites such as Alta Vista ( http://www.altavista.com ), which actively search what's available online. Think of them as the central library downtown - huge depositories of everything (or almost everything) that's available.
"Meta" search sites such as MetaCrawler (www.go2net.com/search.html ), which search a variety of other search sites.
Specialized directory and/or search sites such as Switchboard ( http://www.switchboard.com ), which provide information in a particular area. Switchboard, for example, helps users locate people and businesses.
Search site tip No. 1: Always start with a directory site, such as Yahoo! They tend to be simple to use, and are likely to point you in the right direction as long as your query isn't too obscure.
Here are two simple examples that show why:
I conducted searches using the keyword "weather." Yahoo! pointed me to 190 categories of Web sites and to 3,592 actual Web sites. Alta Vista, meanwhile, provided a list of nearly 15 million Web pages.
Granted, "weather" is a pretty broad term. But if we were weather nuts and just wanted general weather-related Web sites, Yahoo!