Some search engines recognize a plus sign (+) to mean that a term must appear, and a minus sign (-) to mean that the term must not be there.
Most search engines don't use meta tags yet. There are too many kinds of meta tags (Dublin, IMS, etc.). Waiting for standards.
Lynn's "bad day" site is http://www.highway61.com. It gives you things to read while you're waiting.
Search engines are trying to become portals -- your entry point to the world. Ask Jeeves provides access to Alta Vista. Companies pay $100 to register for RealName. Alta Vista has a photo finder. Lycos and Alta Vista have family filters.
Alta Vista's Tools and Gadgets is neat, but too buried.
ProSearch is Lycos' advanced search feature.
HotBot is usually ranked highest in magazines. It gives the 10 most popular sites for the inquiry. HotBot is powered by http://directhit.com.
Northern Light has a special collection. You can get full text of journal articles for $1-$4.
http://www.google.com tells who's linking to a page. Lynn mentioned e-Blast, Proteus, and PolySearch. With EuroSeek, you can restrict the region and language. http://search.msn.com has Web, Yellow, and White pages. http://www.searchterms.com ranks the terms people are searching for.
Netscape Navigator 4.0.7 and Netscape 4.5 have a "What's Related" button that will use what you have in the location bar and help you find more info.
Search Engine Watch is a place to go to keep up with what's happening with search engines.
When you do a search, don't expect the best hits to be on the first page. Go down at least three pages.
Note that sometimes operators (like AND) must be in uppercase. Also, some search engines default to "OR" terms and some default to "AND" terms.
Judy Hallman (judy_hallman@unc.edu, http://www.unc.edu/~hallman/)
Campus Webmaster, UNC-Chapel Hill
Last modified:
1999 Mar 15