Tip: Searching for a known item (URL,company/individual/organization name) offers the most chance for success.
Step #1: Think of likely sources that would offer the information you are seeking, ie. extrapolate what is probable from what is known.
Step #2: Which search method will work best?
Now that you understand the anatomy of an address, can you use that knowledge to construct a URL for the source that you think might have the information you seek.
In this case, http://www.microsoft.com
Note: Often acronyms are used rather than full names. For instance, http://www.ibm.com
Important: Address guessing not 100% certain, so what other type of known-item search can you do. In other words, where do you go from here?
Answer: Net Search
The Liszt Directory of Email Discussion Groups is at
http://www.liszt.com/
And, you can do a keyword search for lists at
http://catalog.com/vivian/interest-group-search.html, Search the List of Lists.
You are encouraged to join a mailing list on a topic of interest to you. By being in touch with people who have a similar interest as yours, you have access to a vast amount of experience and advice. If you join a mailing list, you are not expected to jump right into the conversation. "Lurking" is a time-honored tradition in mailing lists and newsgroups. Lurking means reading the messages that are generated from the list, but not contributing any of your own. In fact, it's strongly suggested that you lurk for at least a short while to get the flavor of the group, and not embarass yourself by saying something off-topic.
Most effective for known-item searches. Not appropriate for subject searching - you'll get back an overwhelming number of returns.
Robots (artificially intelligent agents) search the Internet, noting the text of Web documents, and building databases of words found in those documents. When you make a request, the search software builds its results from that database based on the words you input. Results can include people’s personal pages, as well as substantive information.
All have different programs that use different criteria to build their databases with the intention to balance number of returns against precision. Consider the following list of selected Search Engines:
| AltaVista | Search tips:
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Results are ranked by how near search words are to the top of the document, by how close the search words are to one another, and by their number in the retrieved document. |
| Excite | Search tips:
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Results are ranked by "confidence level" which calculates how closely the site matches the search request. |
| HotBot | Search tips:
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Results are listed by confidence ranking based on word frequency in document, search words in title, search words in keywords lists, and document length. |
| Infoseek | Search tips:
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Results list provides title of Website, URL, score, size of file, and brief summary. |
| Lycos | Search tips:
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Results are ranked by decreasing relevance based on word frequency counts. Three display options: summary, standard, and detailed. User can also select the number of results to be presented. |
Use these tools to simultaneously search multiple search engines from the same screen.
| Dogpile | Dogpile is a multi-engine search tool. It can limit the search to the Web, newswires, newsgroups, or FTP sites. About 15 standard search engines are searched simultaneously. |
| MetaCrawler | MetaCrawler provides a single interface for parallel searches of Lycos, InfoSeek, and four other search engines. It can sort results in a variety of ways. |
| Savvy Search | Savy Search provides one-screen access to about fifteen search engines. Results can be displayed in order by search engine, or can be integrated into one list. |
Web directories make excellent resources and, if you know how to use them, will help you find almost anything you want. The people who maintain these directories use special programs to do most of the work. These programs (called spiders, worms, crawlers or robots) search the Web looking for new and updated items.
There are a number of free, well-maintained directories available on the Web and, in general, there are two ways to use them. First, some directories have home pages organized into categories. To use such a directory, you access the home page and choose the category you want. Within that category, there may be subcategories. Thus you can select categories and subcategories, until you narrow down your search to find exactly what you want.
Other directories allow you to look for something by using a search engine. To use a search engine, you use your browser to fill in a form in which you describe what you are looking for. Once you submit the form, it is sent to the search engine which looks through the directory, finds what you want (if it exists) and sends back the results.
The following tools provide subject lists and directory lists to simplify searches.
| Yahoo | A directory of Internet links grouped by subject categories and subcategories. Click on Options for enhanced search capabilities. |
| Argus Clearinghouse | Topical guides compiled by librarians that identify, describe, and evaluate Internet-based information sources on a wide range of topics. |
| Britannica Internet Guide | Extensive guide to selected Internet resources organized by topical area, from Encyclopedia Britannica. |
| BUBL Link | The Bulletin Board for Libraries (BUBL) organizes access to new Internet resources by subject categories. |
| Librarians' Index to the Internet | Extensive guide to Internet resources by category; can also search by keywords. |
| WWW Virtual Library | Subject experts from around the world contribute to this collection of subject oriented guides to the Internet. |