After spending some time surfing the Internet or browsing the WWW, people often say that there is too much information available on the Internet; it's difficult to find what you need or want. Here we'll look at some ways of finding or discovering information on the World Wide Web.
And just a quick mention of the navigational aids that are part of most Web browsers.
You use those to "surf the Web." Start at one page and follow hyperlinks form site to site, building a bookmark list.
Fun, but then everyone has to build their own list or use a list from someone else.
For more information on the preceding topics take a look at
A list of Web pages or URLs is useful if the items are classified in some sort of hierarchical scheme; a directory or subject tree. Looking through directories is appropriate when you want to peruse a collection of items in a specific category.
Suppose, for example, you wanted to find information about a specific operating system. You could use a directory that had a category "operating systems". Several subject trees were very well developed when Gopher was the rage, and there are several good subject trees or directories as part of the WWW.
The depth and breadth of the subject tree have an impact on whether it will be useful to a large audience. Including some descriptive information or a review of items in the directory is also important to efficient retrieval of pertinent items.
Construction and maintenance of a subject tree: adding items, wring the reviews, deleting items, is labor-intensive and hasn't been automated to a high degree.
| Argus/ University of Michigan Clearinghouse for Subject-Oriented Internet Resource Guides | Many listings are reviewed and rated. | |
| Excite Directory | ||
| GNN Select or Whole Internet Catalog | ||
| Information Sources-The Internet and Computer-Mediated Communication | ||
| Inter-Links | Created and is maintained by Rob Kabacoff, from the Center for Psychological Studies at Nova Southeastern University, in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. | |
| Internet Services List | Created and maintained by Scott Yannoff, is a list of sites and services on the Internet. | |
| InterSerF - Reference Center | List of resources provided by a very good Internet Service Provider | |
| The McKinley Internet Directory | Also known as Magellan. All entries are reviewed and many are rated. | |
| TechHelper | Specialized directory that can serve as a source for technical help related to computing | |
| Tradewave Galaxy, or Galaxy | A comprehensive directory in which several of the areas are monitored and developed by volunteers or "guest editors." | |
| World Wide Web Virtual Library Arranged by Subject | This extensive directory is staffed entirely by volunteers and has existed almost since the beginning of the World Wide Web. Topics range from aboriginal studies to zoos. | |
| Yahoo | The premier and perhaps most extensive directory on the World Wide Web |
Search engines are programs that take a query from a user (client) search an indexed database of information retrieved from a variety of sources. The ones used on the Web all have information collected from Web pages and some also contain items from Usenet newsgroups, Gopher menus, and other resources.
The database is built by a robot, software that goes throughout the Web from URL to URL gathering information that's indexed in the database. Some of the search engines index only the title and the URL for a Web page, some do full-text indexing, some retrieve the most important concepts of a Web page.
| Alta-Vista | Simple keyword or more complex boolean expressions including proximity | Full text of Web pages and Usenet newsgroups. |
| Excite | Either all words (concept) or any word (keyword) in a phrase. | Select one of Web pages (full text), Usenet articles, or Classified ads from Usenet articles. |
| Galaxy | All words or any word in a phrase. Boolean expressions allowed | Select one or more from Web pages (full text, titles, hyperlinks), Gopher sources, or Telnet directory |
| InfoSeek | All words or any word in a phrase. Boolean phrases allowed-also can require exact match, proper names, words appearing in specified order, and words appearing near each other (proximity). | Web pages or Usenet newsgroups. |
| Lycos | All words (AND), any word (OR), or a number of words (2,3,..,7) in a phrase. Allows for different degrees of matching from "loose" to "strict." | Web pages, Gopher menus, FTP |
| Open Text | Exact phrase, all words, any words. Other options include boolean expressions and proximity constraints in search phrases. | Web pages, Usenet newsgroups, FTP, and Gopher. |
| WebCrawler | Keyword, boolean expressions. | Web pages. |
Collections of Search Tools
Some folks have put together Web pages that contain a collection of search engines or tools.
| All-in-one Search Page | http://www.albany.net/allinone/ |
| Search.com | http://www.search.com |
| Internet Sleuth | http://www.intbc.com/sleuth |
| Search Tools & General Listings | http://www.indiana.edu/~librcsd/resource/search-list.html |
Others have constructed meta-search services. Several search engines are accessed, results are obtained and compiled.
| Meta Crawler | http://www.metacrawler.com |
| Savvy Search | http://www.cs.colostate.edu/~dreiling/smartform.html |
Conclusion
We've mentioned two forms of finding information or discovering resources
on the World Wide Web: subject trees
(directories) and search engines.
When searching for information related
to a topic, a directory might be better to
use are several ways to find information that's part of the World Wide
Web.
Search engines are more appropriate
to finding information on a specific topic and often bring together items
that would be listed in different categories
in a subject tree.
Search engines take a key word or phrase as input, search an indexed database, and return, for each item retrieved, a hyperlink and (often) an abstract or extract of the resource. Web pages are also available containing collections of search engines. Some meta-search tools, which pass the search phrase to several search engines are available as well.
For more information and resources on these topics take a look at
Finding Information on
the Web - Directories and Searching. This goes along with Chapter 6
of Learning to Use the
World Wide Web.
Compare and/or rate search engines
Best search engines for finding scientific information in the Internet: comparison list of their efficiency, http://www.chem.msu.su/eng/comparison.html, Alexander Lebedev
Beyond Surfing: Tools and Techniques for Searching the Web, http://magi.com/~mmelick/it96jan.htm, Kathleen Webster & Kathryn Paul
General Internet Resource Finding Tools: A Review And List Of Those Used To Build Infomine, http://lib-www.ucr.edu/pubs/navigato.html, Steve Mitchell
Search Engine Comparisons, http://www.imt.net/~notess/compeng.html, Greg R. Notess.
Web Matrix: Overview Matrix, http://www.sils.umich.edu/~fprefect/matrix/overview.html, Matt Slot
Descriptions of search engines/robots
How Search Engines Work, http://wwwlibrary.csustan.edu/lboyer/gold/websrch/exsg.htm
How WebCrawler Works, http://www.webcrawler.com/WebCrawler/Facts/HowItWorks.html
Multi-Service Search and Comparison Using the MetaCrawler, http://minbar.cs.washington.edu/papers/www4/html/Overview.html, Erik Selberg and Oren Etzioni
Web Matrix: What's the Difference? Some Answers about Search Engines and Subject Catalogs, http://www.sils.umich.edu/~fprefect/matrix/answers.html, Matt Slot
World Wide Web Robots, Wanderers, and Spiders , http://info.webcrawler.com/mak/projects/robots/robots.html, Martijn Koster
Resources for Finding Discussion Groups
| Listz.com | Search by key word(s) for discussion group. Some information provided |
| tile.net | Search by key word(s) for discussion group. Full information provided |
| Dejanews | Search for Usenet News articles |
| Liszt of Newsgroups. | The searching results in a list of newsgroups, each with a brief description. |
| Tile.Net/news-Search for Newsgroups. | Searching here brings up a list of newsgroups. Clicking on the name of a newsgroup takes you a page that tells about the amount of articles that are posted daily and what percentage of Usenet sites carry the group. |
| Usenet Info Center Launch Pad | Good resource for general information about Usenet |
For more information on Usenet look at these Web pages
Some other places you may want to visit
| Learning to Use the Internet | Learning to Use the World Wide Web | Searching and Researching on the World Wide Web |
|---|