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Home Search Central Powersearch Metasearch People Search Newsfinder Radio Search Tutorial Bookstore Resources Newsletter |
The Pandia Post Newsletter No. 3
No. 3, June 2000 The Pandia Post is the newsletter of the Pandia Search Central, your online guide to Internet searching. EDITORIALDear fellow searcher, If you are searching for news, you should take a look at the Pandia News page. We have removed some of the clutter to make it easier to navigate. In this issue of the Pandia Post we will take a look at Boolean searching, discussion groups for search related matters, a couple of new books and more. Feel free to forward this newsletter to others as long as you forward it in its entirety and leave this notice. The Editor Pandia News with news search engine, headlines and news sources:
The Powersearch All-in-One Search Page:
The Goalgetter Search Tutorial:
Reviews of the best search resources:
SEARCH TIPSTO BOOLE OR NOT TO BOOLESearch engine maths has strong supporters in the search community. It’s so easy, they say, put a "+" in front of the words you want to find, a "-" in front of the words you really don’t like and quotation marks around phrases and fixed expressions. And indeed, the method is simple and effective. But do not let that lead you into believing that Boolean searching is more difficult. It can be, if you use all the intricacies of this logic language, but if you limit yourself to the most basic search terms you’ll find that it is just as easy as search engine maths. We guess that it is the term "Boolean" that many find so intimidating. You have to blame the 19th century mathematician and professor George Boole for that. He invented this kind of logical algebra, and made it all sound very scientific and complicated. Still, don’t leave Boolean searching to the scientists and librarians yet. Although the queries follows strict logical rules, they are actually based on normal everyday language. Let’s say you are looking for pages on cats and dogs. Here’s the Boolean query: cats AND dogs That certainly makes more sense than the math equivalent +cats +dogs OK… What about a search for websites that contain information about cats or dogs? cats OR dogs Using search engine maths you would have to write cats dogs and that would not work in all search engines, as some of them default to AND, interpreting the query as cats AND dogs. What if you were looking for pages containing information about cats, but that at the same time did not mention dogs? cats AND NOT dogs Actually, some search engines will even let you write cats NOT dogs This is not difficult at all! There is another great advantage to using Boolean searching instead of search engine maths, and that is the use of nesting or brackets. You can build more complex queries this way: (cats OR felines) AND dogs To learn more about Boolean searching, go to the Goalgetter tutorial at http://www.pandia.com/goalgetter/. If you want to do Boolean searching in Alta Vista you must use the form for advanced searching. In HotBot select "Boolean" from the pull down menu. PANDIA SEARCH WORLDCHATSCANSearch Engine Watch has drawn our attention to a new search engine for chat rooms. Internet Relay Chat is, as some of you might know, a world beyond the ordinary Web, where people can exchange pleasantries in real time, discuss the meaning of life or explore hidden fantasies behind a veil of anonymity. eNow's ChatScan engine searches relevant chat groups for dialogue that contains the text string you are looking for, as it goes through the last five minutes of online talking. You may then use the engine to take part in any relevant conversation without leaving your browser. Impressive! Unfortunately, the engine does require that you download a special Java engine, and - alas - it does not work on a Mac. eNow ChatScan is at http://www.enow.com/website/index.html This is what Time has to say about it: http://www.time.com/time/personal/technology/0,5392,42900,00.html ALTA VISTA’S NEW DIRECTORYAlta Vista is taking it step by step. Last year it redesigned its main site. This spring it not only launched a new search engine called Raging (which is more or less Alta Vista with a Google-like interface), it also gave us a new and improved directory. Alta Vista is best known for its search engine, but the search site has for a long time had its own hierarchical Web directory based on the Open Directory (which also - by the way - underpins the Pandia Plus Directory). Alta Vista has now merged the Open Directory database with the one from Looksmart, giving us the largest search directory in the world. Just like in the Google version of the Open Directory, Alta Vista sorts the listings according to special search algorithms, putting (hopefully) the best and most relevant sites at the top. It is definitely worth a visit! Alta Vista Directory is at http://www.altavista.com/ Alta Vista on the new directory: http://doc.altavista.com/help/search/direct_new.shtml The new Raging search engine is at http://raging.com/ For more Internet search news, visit Pandia Search World at http://www.pandia.com/searchworld/. The headline section (left margin) is updated daily! SITESEEINGI-PROBEDirectories like Yahoo, Looksmart, Snap and Pandia Plus give you nothing more than a short presentation of the search sites listed. Two lines of text at the most. There are, however, other forms of directories, often called search catalogues, that give you fewer but more extensive site descriptions. We have already told you about Apples new iReview sites, which gives quite thorough reviews of the sites visited. Then there is the high quality old-timer Signpost from the Scout Report. Today we will tell you about a Web catalogue edited by one (yes, one!) mechanical engineer with the name of Anthony D. Baker of North Carolina, USA. The site is done on his spare time, but there is certainly nothing amateurish about it. The overall design is outright beautiful and the site reviews are useful and to the point. "i-probe", as the site is called, is very useful when you are looking for an introduction to a rather broad theme, as Baker will give you a few high quality sites that can function as gateways to that particular part of the Web. Take a look! i-probe: http://www.i-probe.com/ iReview: http://ireview.mac.com/ Signpost: http://www.signpost.org/ SPECIAL REPORTSEARCH ENGINE DISCUSSIONSTutorials and guidebooks can bring you a long way, but sometimes you just have to ask somebody for help. Why not use the interactive nature of the Net to your advantage? There are several forums or discussion groups out there that focus on the topic of Internet searching, and you can learn a lot from all of them. Note, however, that many of them are centred on the topic of search engine promotion, with Web masters discussing how they can get a favourable listing of their website in the search engines and directories. Still, even ordinary searchers can learn a lot from following these discussions, as they tell you a lot about how search engines work. WEBSEARCH ABOUT.COMAbout.com has probably the best discussion forum for the non-professional searcher. And yes, it is for searchers, not only Web masters trying to promote their sites. You have to register, but it is free, and once you get in it is clear sailing. The "front page" will give you a list of recent discussions. Click on "Messages" to get a list of all available topics. Be warned: There are lots of them. This is the place to get the latest news on search engines and directories, to give and receive advice on where and how to search, and to ask "stupid" questions. Then of course there is Gary Price, the well-known Web research guru, giving us interesting info from the world of Internet searching. SEARCH ENGINE FORUMSThe Web based Search Engine Forums is part of a Jim's World, a larger site devoted to website promotion. Hence this forum is primarily for Web masters trying to get top search engine positions for their websites. Nevertheless, we would recommend most "serious" searchers and researchers to make a visit and lurk around, as thy will find a lot of interesting information. This is a very active forum. The main categories are sorted according to the various search engines and directories - hence there is a "Yahoo forum", an "Excite forum" and so on. It is easy to use and easy to navigate. http://searchengineforums.com/ THE I-SEARCH DISCUSSION LISTThis is an e-mail discussion list, meaning that the participants send in their opinions and questions to an editor or moderator by e-mail. The moderator Detlev Johnson, Director of Search Engine Optimisation Services Outrider, then sends out a digest to the rest of the subscribers twice a week. The discussion centres on proper ways to optimise websites in order to achieve high ranking in search engine listings. Todd Kellner of List-Tips says this about I-Search: " I-Search is concerned with every aspect of search engine optimization and technique. There are more than 8,000 members, many of which are industry experts, and this list is unrivalled in terms of scope and volume. For anyone interested in keeping up-to-date with the cutting edge of search engine strategy and development, I-Search is essential." We have nothing to add, really… http://www.audettemedia.com/i-search/ SEARCH-LGreg Notess of Search Engine Showdown has a great e-mail based discussion list for information professionals, researchers, librarians, and other "search engine power users". Topics include advanced search techniques, comparisons of search features, unusual search engine behaviour, new search engines, helpful strategies, advanced search questions, specialised searches, teaching search engine use and much more. Highly recommended! http://searchengineshowdown.com/lists/search-l.shtml ALT.INTERNET.SEARCHThere is a world beyond the World Wide Web - yes, some would even say outside the Internet - called Usenet. In order to take part in these so-called "newsgroups" you need a newsreader, and your Internet service provider must subscribe to the relevant groups. Do not worry, if you are using Outlook or Netscape Communicator you already have a newsreader and you can always ask your ISP to subscribe to the newsgroups you need. If this does not work, you can visit the newsgroups on the Web, via Deja.com or Remarq. While the newsgroup comp.infosystems.search is for the specialist, alt.internet.search is for the rest of us. You can write about the search sites you use, ask about how to use them, get information on how to promote sites and more. Unfortunately, alt.internet.search has its share of spam (or "ads"). Note that if you post messages to groups like these you risk getting a lot of junk mail. On the Web: http://www.remarq.com/list/975?d=103&q=search&si=board You will find these and more reviews of search engine forums at: http://www.pandia.com/resources/ BOOKSA SIMPLE GUIDE TO SEARCHING THE INTERNETThe idea behind this book has been to make a simple guide to net searching novices. To a certain extent the French author Gilles Fouchard and his British companion Rob Young succeed. The book gives a good introduction for beginners in basic searching skills, including Boolean searching, how to interpret search results, using browsers etc. Our European readers will appreciate the broad coverage of European search sites. Nevertheless, we hesitate to recommend this book, as it is - to a certain extent - outdated. It is published in 1999, but the book’s many screenshots and logos indicate that significant parts of it must be written in 1997. That's a long time ago in Internet history. They describe, for instance, DejaNews, Infoseek, Open Text, The Internet Sleuth, Four11 and other sites that have changed names, been merged with others or that have ceased to exist since then. Buy this book form Amazon.co.uk: http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0130212490/pandiasearchcent/026-5982962-5646062 The book is not available from Amazon.com in the US. FIND IT ONLINENow, this is a great book! Find It Online, The Complete Guide to Online Research, by the Washington author, reporter and producer Alan M. Schlein, is a treasure trove of rare and interesting search tools beyond the world of the ordinary search engines and directories. Here are people finders, mapping tools, yellow pages, government sources, public records, news resources, business tools, and much more. This is the book for professional researchers - librarians, journalists, scientists, investigators, salesmen and information managers - who are looking for detailed information on rather obscure topics. Nevertheless, the accidental searcher will also benefit from browsing this book. Find It Online does give a short introduction to the gentle art of Internet searching, as well as on how to use the major search engines. But there are also chapters on how to save and download results, on managing and filtering information, on how to evaluate accuracy, credibility and authority and on the question of privacy and protection. The book includes tips from search experts like Greg Notess and Barbara Quint. The book has a strong American slant. However, our European readers should not let that stop them from buying it. We have learned a lot reading it. Deadline Online, the books companion site, is well worth a visit. Buy this book form Amazon.com:
Buy this book from Amazon.co.uk Europe:
Deadline Online is at http://www.deadlineonline.com/ For more books on Internet searching, visit the Pandia Bookstore at http://www.pandia.com/bookstore/ FINALLY...If you are using newer versions of Internet Explorer or Netscape: Enter "pandia" (without the quotation marks) in the address field and hit Enter. The browser will take you directly to the Pandia Search Central. Do you like Pandia? Click here to recommend it to a friend: http://www.recommend-it.com/l.z.e?s=328530 --------------------------------------------------- The Pandia Post is edited by Per and Susanne Koch Pandia Post Home Page: http://www.pandia.com/post/ Send suggestions and comments to: editor@aviana.com The Pandia Post is copyright 2000 P&S Koch. All rights reserved. Visit the Pandia Search Central for more information on Internet searching: http://www.pandia.com/ Sign up for our free newsletter today! |
