Searching The Internet

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Searching The Internet
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Open Text Searching vs. Subject
Tree Search

• Open Text Search
• Search Engine scans the Weblooking for a word
  or group of words you have entered as your search
  string
• e.g. intelligent agents

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Subject Tree Search

• A Subject Tree is a catalogof a great number of
  pages on the web, neatly organized by category,
  sub-category, sub-sub-category,etc. (called
  hierarchical organization)
• Yahoo is one of the most comprehensivesubject
  tree indices Also, Snap, (www.snap.com) and
  Looksmart(www.looksmart.com) are other
  well-known subject tree sites.

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Subject Tree Search

• Suppose you want to search for information on
  mutual funds
• Finance - Investing - Mutual Funds
• People not robots programs compile subject
  trees, and these people cut out links that are
  useless.
• Subject trees can help orient search by showing
  sites that fall into same category.

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Open Text Search

• You enter a keyword for the search engine to use
  in scouring the Web.
• The search engine returns a listing of all the
  Web pages that match your keyword, ranked in
  order of relevance.
• Generally, pages on which the keyword appears the
  greatest number of times receive a higher
  relevance rating.
• (some sights PAY their way into relevance)

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Search and GOOGLE

• E.g. Google Displays its search results in two
  ways.
• First, it lists the relevant categories (from the
  subject tree index portion of the site).
• Then it provides a listing of sites that contain
  the keyword, with the most relevant site at the
  top of the listing.
• Google uses indentation to show which pages are
  connected to a particular web site.

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Advanced Search Techniques

• When you want the search words to appear right
  next to each other with no words in between, type
  your keywords in quotes.
• electronic commerce forecast --
• Find all sites that have the words electronic,
  commerce, and forecast (not necessarily in
  that order
• electronic commerce forecast
• Finds all sites that have the words electronic,
  and commerce and forecast right next to each
  other, in that order

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• electronic commerce forecast china
• Find all sites that have the words electronic
  commerce forecast next to each other. These
  pages must also contain the word china
• Boolean Searches Possible (And, Or, Not)
  e.g.Automobile Premium Size-SUV

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Search / Cont.

• When in doubt, use Lowercase
• Lowercase keywords match both lower and
  uppercase, but uppercase matches uppercase only.

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Search / Cont.

• A star () for the Wildcard
• Suppose you want to include Europe and
  European, use
• electronic commerce forecast
• europe
• europe electronic commerce forecast
• european electronic commerce forecast

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Go Beyond with Metasearch

• Each search engine uses its own technique or
  strategy to conduct a search. That is why
  entering the same keyword on two search engines
  will usually produce different results.
• For a more comprehensive search try a METASEARCH
  SITE

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Examples of Meta Search Sites

• Dogpile http//www.dogpile.com
  18 search engines
• Metacrawler http//www.metacrawler.com
  12 search engines
• Husky Search http//www.huskysearch.cs.washington.
  edu
• Ixquick http//www.ixquick.com 14
  search engines
• Northern Light http//www.northernlight.com
• Nominal fee for many of the documents.
• MetaEureka http//www.metaeureka.com
• Savvy Search http//www.savvysearch.com/search
• Maamma http//www.mamma.com/

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Meta Tags

• A META tag is an HTML tag that contains
  information about a Web page. The tag does not
  change how a web page is displayed, but can
  contain a description of the page, keywords, and
  the pages title.
• Search engines often use this information when
  ranking a site.
• Some search engines rank your site by sending out
  a program, called a spider to inspect the site.
  The spider reads the META tages, determines the
  relevance of the Web pages information and
  keywords,
• And then ranks the site according to the visits
  findings.

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Meta Tags / Cont.

• Not uncommon to review competitors web sites and
  see what META tags they are using.
• ASK If I wanted to search for products or
  services that my company offers, what keywords
  would I type when using a search engine?
• Good idea for your site to appear in top 10
  listings (results) because many people will not
  look further.

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Search Engine Registration

• Register by submitting keywords and a description
  of your business
• Search engine will add your information to its
  database of Web sites.
• When search engine is used, your site may appear
  in the list of results.
• Many search engines constantly scour the Web,
  visiting and ranking Web pages.

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Search Engine Registration/Cont.

• Your page may even appear on a list if it is not
  registered, if it is linked to another site which
  has been found.
• Some companies will register your web site with a
  major search engine for a fee.
• Details www.searchenginewatch.com/Webmasters/ind
  ex.html