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Search engines are commercial enterprises that collect and index Web pages
or Web page titles. You can use them to help you sift through all the Web
pages out there so that you can find the information you need.
Some of these enterprises review the sites they collect, and others provide
site information unfiltered and unedited. Some search engines (like Yahoo! at
www.yahoo.com) are hierarchical indexes and use subject listings that are
similar to the card catalog in a library. Often, you can search hierarchical
indexes by keyword (a word that sums up or describes the item or concept
that you’re seeking) and by topic.
Knowing how to use a search engine is a basic Internet skill. Currently, more
than 600 different search engines exist on the Net. These Internet tools can
be divided into two categories: metasearch engines and search engines.
Metasearch engines enable you to enter a single search term to query many
individual search engines. This kind of all-in-one shopping is used to match
your inquiry to the millions of Web pages on the Internet. Metasearch engines
often have different approaches to presenting your results. Some metasearch
engines just query a wide variety of search engines and report your results
without you having to go to several search engines. Other metasearch engines
bypass existing search engines and query multiple online sources for your
search results. Here are some examples of metasearch engines:
Dogpile (www.dogpile.com) searches the Web, Usenet newsgroups, FTP
sites (sites for downloading software and data via FTP — the file transfer
protocol), weather information, stock quotes, business news, and other
news wires. (For more information about Usenet newsgroups, see the
section “Understanding How Newsgroups Can Help You,” later in this
article.) This site also includes a Web catalog.
Momma (www.momma.com) simultaneously queries a series of search
engines and properly formats the words and syntax for each source
being probed. The search results are then organized into a uniform
format and presented by relevance and source.
Metacrawler (www.metacrawler.com/index.html) works like Dogpile
but doesn’t search Usenet newsgroups and FTP (file transfer protocol)
sites. Search results aren’t annotated.
SurfWax (www.surfwax.com) allows users to put together search sets.
For example, an “Investor” SearchSet can include The Wall Street Journal,
CNNfn, The New York Times, and so on.
You can also use tools for exploring
search results. For example, SiteSnaps allows you to quickly view page
content, and ContextZooming allows you to search highlighted terms.
FocusWords offers suggestions about how you can narrow or broaden
your search. Finally, you can use an InfoCubby to save your search results
for later retrieval. SurfWax offers three levels of service (free, silver, and
gold). With your free registration, you receive the free level of service that
includes three SearchSets of up to 15 sources each. Silver and Gold
subscribers pay $24 and $60 per year, respectively. Each registered level
has access to all of SurfWax’s capabilities; the difference is the extent of
permitted uses. (Firm pricing is available on a custom basis.)
Profusion (www.profusion.com) allows you to search one, some, or
all of the listings from AltaVista, About, AOL, Lycos, Raging Search,
WiseNut, Metacrawler, MSN, Adobe PDF, LookSmart, Netscape, Teoma,
and AllTheWeb. You can fine-tune your search by selecting your search
type, the number of results per page, the number of results per source,
and when you want the search to timeout. You can narrow your search
by looking into vertical search groups, such as Business or Finance.
Vivisimo (www.vivisimo.com) technology was developed by researchers
at Carnegie Mellon University. Vivisimo doesn’t index the Web; it simultaneously
searches several major search engines and directories (such
as Fast, MSN, Yahoo!, AltaVista, Lycos, Open Directory, Excite, and
WebCrawler). The Vivisimo technology then groups results into clusters
of titled folders that best fit the query.
Popular search engines are trustworthy Internet programs that match the words in
your query to words on the Internet. Each search engine is a competitive,
commercial enterprise with different databases, search programs, and features.
Everyone has a favorite search engine. The search engine that is best is
the one that works the best for you.
Search engines employ spiders or crawlers (robot programs) that constantly
seek new information on the Internet. These robot programs index and categorize
their findings and then let you probe their lists with keywords. The
engine shows your search results with short descriptions and hyperlinks.
Just click the hyperlink to go to the Web page you seek. Here are a few of the more popular search engines on the Net:
Excite (www.excite.com) enables you to browse many subject categories,
such as investing. It uses a combination of concept (a general
idea) and keyword (a specific word in the Web page) searches, so the
results are usually pretty good. If you’re unsatisfied with your findings,
click the Excite Metasearch link at the bottom of the page for more
results.
Google (www.google.com) is currently ranked as the number-one
search engine. It has the largest amount of the Internet indexed. Google
offers the Google Toolbar, a quick-and-easy-to-install toolbar that automatically
appears along with the Internet Explorer toolbar to increase
your ability to speedily find information on the Net.
MSN (search.msn.com) enables you to set preferences to automatically
correct spelling errors, select the number of results per page, and determine
whether search responses should include summaries. Additionally,
you can search from any one of MSN’s international Web sites. If you’re
unfamiliar with search engines, click Help to get the advice you need.
Additionally, MSN has a new beta that is supposed to be a “Google
beater,” a search engine, index, and crawler. For more information see
beta.search.msn.com/default.aspx?FORM=HPRE.
Yahoo! (www.yahoo.com) is a popular starting point. This directory
search engine includes a vast array of subject directories, categories,
and special services, such as People Search, Weekly Picks, What’s New
This Week, Yahoo! Loan Center, Finance Yahoo!, and Real Estate Yahoo!
Selecting the best search engine With more than two billion Web pages on the Internet, finding the one page
you need to complete your investor research can be difficult. Using search
engines is often like a crapshoot. Sometimes you win (and you find the Web
page you want), and sometimes you lose (you find no relevant Web pages in
your search results). If you lose, you have to go to another search engine and
spend more time researching.
Not all search engines are equal. Some have indexed a large portion of the
Internet. Others are just starting or are slow in keeping up with the thousands
of new Web pages that are added each day. To be competitive, search
engines are always adding new features. Some search engine databases
include Usenet, mailing lists, news sources, indexes, directories, Web sites,
company profiles, and other information. Other search engines include only a
portion of this data.
When you evaluate search engines, see how they match up to the following
criteria:
Subject directory: Does the search engine enable you to limit searches
to specific subject areas? Searches are quicker if the search engine offers
a subject directory because it searches only in the topic area that you
specify.
Results ranking: Does the search engine rate your search results so that
you know how likely you are to find what you’re looking for? (For example,
listings with relevancy ratings of less than 90 percent are usually
worthless.)
_ Web: Does the search engine look through the World Wide Web for your
results?
URL (Uniform Resource Locator): Does the search engine provide the
Internet addresses for your search results? Getting the address can be
very helpful; you can save or print the results of your search and then
later you can backtrack and get to those difficult-to-find Web sites.
Summary: Does the search engine provide a short text description of
the search results?
Boolean searches: Does the search engine allow you to conduct more
targeted searches? Portal is another name for search engine. Portals are designed to be the
Internet user’s first window on the Web. Often, you can personalize portals to
get financial news, current portfolio data, and interest rate information before
moving on to other Web sites. Examples of portals include CBS MarketWatch
(www.cbsmarketwatch.com), Microsoft Network (www.msn.com), and
MSNBC (www.msnbc.msn.com).
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