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AltaVista           http://www.altavista.com/
ADVANCED SEARCH (recommended)
http://www.altavista.com/cgi-bin/query?pg=aq&what=web
HELP PAGES:
http://www.altavista.com/av/content/help.htm
http://www.altavista.com/av/content/help_advanced.htm

SIZE of database:   large (125 million documents)
SEARCHES:  Web, Usenet
SCOPE: searches every word on every page
RELEVANCE: poor to fair organization by relevance
SPECIAL FEATURES: can do very specific searches; retrieves large
      number of results (not always relevant); powerful search engine
WHEN TO USE : when wanting to search the entire Web, when
      wanting a large number of results, when doing a specific search
      for obscure sites, documents or information;
WHAT TO REMEMBER WHEN USING ALTAVISTA:
      use +, -, "" for simple searches on regular search page;
      use  the advanced search page when you wish to use Boolean
      searching options;  AND, OR and ( ) for advanced searches.
      Pay attention to case.

CAPITALIZATION:  AltaVista IS case-sensitive. If you use lowercase
letters, both lowercase words and capitalized words will be searched. If
you use capitals, only capitalized words will be searched.

PUNCTUATION: the semi-colon ; is treated as a blank space.
ADDITIONAL FEATURES: can search within particular fields of
a document. Use    text:    image:    url:     title:    link:    host:  etc.
 

ALTAVISTA SIMPLE SEARCH
URL:  http://www.altavista.com
Use + immediately before a word to require that word
Use - immediately before a word to exclude that word
Use double quotes ("word") to search for a phrase.
Use a wild card * (*root) to search for variations of a word root
 

ALTAVISTA ADVANCED (BOOLEAN) SEARCH
URL:  http://www.altavista.com/cgi-bin/query?pg=aq&what=web
Use top field for regular searches, second field for Boolean searches.
For Boolean searches:
Use AND if the following word must be included.
Use AND if the following word must be included.
Use OR between words if one of them must be included.
Use NOT to indicate that your chosen word must NOT be included.
Use AND NOT if your following word must NOT be included.
Use NEAR between words which must be within 10 words of each other.
Use parentheses around a phrase or group of words that must NOT
    be found together.
If operators such as and, or etc. are part of your search words, then
    include them in quotation marks.

See also: Windweaver's AltaVista review.
 

Webcrawler       http://www.webcrawler.com

SIZE of database:  small
SEARCHES:  Web, Usenet, gopher, ftp
SCOPE: searches only title, keywords, urls
RELEVANCE: fair to good organization by relevance
WHEN TO USE: when searching for gopher as well as the Web:
      when searching for popular sites and documents or information
      likely to appear in title and keywords of a site; when wanting
      a manageable number of relevant results
WHAT TO REMEMBER WHEN USING WEBCRAWLER:
      The default is OR not AND, so use Boolean terminology
      for effective results.
 

SEARCHING SYNTAX:
Use AND between words which must appear.
Use OR between words when one must appear.
Use NOT before a word you wish to exclude.
Use NEAR for words which must appear next to each other.
Use NEAR/n for words which must appear with a specified number
     of words from each other (substitute a number for n)
Use ADJ for words which must be adjacent to each other, in the order
     you have indicated.
Use " " for a phrase.
Use ( ) when applying an operator to a series of words and operators
    (e.g. oranges AND grapefruits AND NOT (pears AND peaches)
 

NEXT  Search syntax for  HotBot
BACK  to beginning of  Search Guide
 

BASIC SEARCH INFORMATION
Preliminary Searching Hints
Choosing Search Terms and Syntax
Which Search Engine or Directory to use?

HOW TO USE....
Yahoo
AltaVista  (Simple and Advanced Search)
Webcrawler
HotBot

(See also our SEARCHHELPER page for Net newbies, and visit
Windweaver's online Search Resources Bookstore - 70+ books,
discounted, secure ordering from Amazon.com!)
 

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copyright 1997 by Tracy Marks    Windweaver    Arlington, Massachusetts  (781) 641-3371
TO BE UPDATED IN FALL 2006
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