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Useful Web Resources on Searching Biopoint Search Tool 1 Search Engine Watch or Search Engine Showdown for everything about search tools Learning More about Search Engines and Subject Directories: FAQs Kathy Schrocks List of Search Engines and Directories Beaucoup's Huge page of Search Tools How to Search the World Wide Web : A Tutorial for Beginners and Non-Experts Tutorial: Guide to Effective Searching of the Internet Seven Steps Toward Better Searching from WebQuest guru Bernie Dodge. Also: Specialized Search Engines and Directories |
Explanation of Search Tools available to locate resources on the Web Keyword Searches: This search uses keywords or combinations of keywords (using Boolean operators). Use the search engines AltaVista, Lycos, Infoseek,or Hotbot to conduct keyword searches. Search directories such as Yahoo!, Magellan, Looksmart, Encyclopedia Brittanica or About.com can be used to conduct keyword directory searches. Natural Language Queries: This type of search permits you to enter a question directly into the search engine. For example, in a natural language search, you would enter: what are the causes of acid rain. The search tool would return Web pages relevant to that question. Natural Language search is a type of keyword search; the search engine uses words in your question as keywords. Lycos Pro and AltaVista support natural language search. Concept-based Searching: Begin a concept-based search by typing in a keyword or keywords and the search tool returns additional keywords to include in a search. The search engine is actually "intelligent" and can be especially useful if you are unfamiliar with the research topic and need help defining keywords. Clicking in the box next to the suggested keyword adds the keyword and narrows your search. Use Excite for concept-based searching. Metasearching: Metasearch engines combine many search engines together and as a result, can be quite powerful. For example, Metacrawler combines Yahoo!, Infoseek, AltaVista, Excite, Google,Thunderstone, Looksmart, GoTo, DirectHit, RealNames, Webcrawler, and Lycos. Dogpile is also useful for metasearching. Directory Search: Directories are compilations of Web sites preselected by humans and entered into a database. You search their database; not the World Wide Web. Directories, because of the human interaction, can contain very useful sites. Use search directories such as Yahoo!, Looksmart, Encyclopedia Brittanica, About.com or Magellan.
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