The table shows some of the features and techniques for the
most common general Web search services to show how to use them
and to help decide which may be the most appropriate. Each service
also provides more detailed instructions. Note that some features
will be available under an 'advanced', 'power' or other further
search option.
|
Alta
Vista |
Excite |
FAST |
Google |
Hotbot |
Infoseek
(Go.com) |
Lycos |
Northern
Light |
Other sources |
Usenet, sounds, pictures |
Usenet, news, email addresses |
Multimedia
(from
Lycos) |
None |
Usenet, sounds, pictures |
Usenet, email addresses, news, pictures |
Sounds, pictures |
Journal articles |
Implied OR, AND |
Implied OR |
Implied OR |
Implied AND |
AND |
Implied AND |
Implied OR |
Implied AND |
Implied
AND |
+ or - |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
AND, OR, NOT |
In Advanced Search |
Yes |
From
menu |
No |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
Fields |
Title, URL, text, etc.
Uses title: |
No |
Title, domain,
language
Uses title: and from menu |
No |
Title, domain, etc.
Uses title: or from menu |
Title, URL, etc.
Uses title: or from menu |
URL, title, text, etc.
Uses title: or from menu |
Title, text,
URL etc.
Uses title: or from menu |
Truncation |
Uses * |
No |
No |
No |
Uses * |
No |
No |
Uses * |
Adjacency (phrase) |
Uses " " |
Uses " " |
From
menu |
Uses " " |
Uses " " or from menu |
Uses " " |
Uses " " or from menu |
Uses " " |
Proximity |
Uses NEAR |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
Uses NEAR or from menu |
No |
Other sources. The service may search Internet sources other than
World Wide Web pages: most commonly the message archives of Usenet
newsgroups. Many also link to services providing e-mail address
directories, company information and so on and may have a
directory of Internet resources arranged by subject.
Implied OR, AND. Search words will be automatically
OR'd together to look for pages with any of the words
or AND'd to look for pages containing all of
them.
+ and -. Terms that must be present can be prefixed
with + (require). Those not required can be indicated
with - (reject).
AND, OR, NOT. Terms can be linked with AND to show all words must
be present, eg White AND House; with OR to look for synonyms, eg
football OR soccer; and NOT to exclude words. Some services have
options, such as 'any words', 'all these words' which have the
same purpose.
Fields. It may be possible to search, for
example, just the document title or the URL. The format usually is
to prefix the search term with title: or URL: or whatever.
Truncation. The system may be able to search for a
number of words beginning with the same stem, eg medic* would find medical and
medicine.
Adjacency. Specify that words must be next
to each other, as in a phrase or person's name.
Proximity. Ensure that search words are
near each other, say, in the same sentence.
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