| Information need
|
Search strategy
|
| I need
a few good hits fast.
|
Google returns
important, relevant hits quickly with bold terms; pages cached in case the
site's down. Weighs "collective judgement"1
of links in highly ranked pages.
Meta search engines 2
1. Vivismo can phrase
or boolean search major engines, then clusters documents into a hierarchy.
No paid listings.
2. Ixquick uses refined searching (phrases,
boolean, wildcards, capitals) and returns
results ranked in the engines' top ten. About 10% paid listings. |
| I have a general broad
academic subject and need to focus it. |
Infomine
high-quality directory; librarian-selected with flexible search options
Librarians' Index to the Internet - "thinking
person's Yahoo"3 frequently
updated
Teoma organizes results by grouping into
topic folders at the top, as well as listings of relevant authoritative
sites and expert or "hub" links.
Northern Light 4
an engine that catagorizes results into folders
by concept, document and site type.
Encyclopaedia Britannica has a topic article and
selectiveWeb links, as does the more concise Encarta
Online Encyclopedia. |
| I have a general popular
or commercial topic and need to focus it. |
Yahoo
a "tree" of unreviewed user submissions, thus has a commercial
focus
dmoz
"tree" maintained by volunteer editors (AOL owns)
GO focuses on entertainment,
recreation, leisure and lifestyle (Disney owns) |
| I have general keyword(s) and need help refining my search strategy. |
HotBot
SuperSearch's template helps you create a Boolean or phrase search, or
limit by media type, date, domain, etc.
FAST Search Advance Search
² template casts a fast, wide
net.
Surf Wax
"Focus" to refines term before you search; "SiteSnap"
abstract to review content before you go
Excite suggests word lists to refine
your first search term; identify a successful hit to bring up other
on-target results.
Altavista suggests
phrase search terms on your results page. |
| I need a better idea of what is
available. |
Start by searching a term in Researchville.
The results page, which looks just like the previous page, pre-configures
the search for each link. Click on a link to perform the search, then
return to the page to repeat the process. |
| I bet this search has been done
before. |
Ask
Jeeves! database of answers to natural language questions
Direct Hit a "popularity
engine" which ranks your hits based on other searchers' behaviors. |
| I need quality, evaluated pathfinders prepared by a subject expert. |
About.com
popular/commercial subject guides
AlphaSearch points to gateways for a subject, discipline or idea
WWW Virtual Library search or browse
subject-organized full-text
documents, databases and gateways
Argus Clearinghouse
librarian/academic subject guides
BUBL LINK- organized by Dewey number
(European focus)
Scirus is a specialized Science
search engine |
| I need balanced information from verified sources for a school research project to take
home. |
Nueva's Library
catalog is geared to the school's curriculum |
| I want to search on often-ignored words in a phrase (e.g. "Vitamin A"
or "to be or not to be"). |
Infoseek
and AltaVista includes little words (such as a, to, be, not
)in the search |
| I need a pinpoint search using a unique phrase or
word. |
AltaVista works
best for needle-in-the-haystack search for unique word or phrase (Himalayan cat
not cat) |
| I need information on a proper name (a place, person, or object). |
AltaVista
and Infoseek search with capital letters to force
an exact case match on the entire word (e.g. Al Gore and NeXT)
A person search on HotBot
SuperSearch will retrieve the name in both reversed and normal order (e.g. Picasso,
Pablo and Pablo Picasso) |
| I need biographical information. |
Biographical
Dictionary - quick identification of a name
Biography.com -
paragraph-length biographies
Lives links to
biographies, autobiographies, memoirs, diaries, letters, narratives and oral histories |
| I need US government
information. |
First Gov
is the portal for the U.S. Government, with links to state and local
government. |
| I need hard-to-find or late-breaking
news. |
1st Headlines
searches current news headlines and can be refined by topic, country,
breaking news.
YahooNews updates continuously from
newswires
Moreover
gathers headlines from 1,800 online news sources
Northern Light Current News
updates headlines, weather, and sports continuously; can search two weeks
archive
News Index refreshes hourly |
| I need fuller coverage of news from
magazine or newspaper articles. |
Yahoo Full Coverage gains you
expertise through selection and organization by editors
AJR NewsLink links to US/Canada newspapers and
magazines
News Directory links to worldwide English language media
BBC
Advanced Search Archive
PBS Online
NewsHour
TotalNEWS and Northern
Light search current news
UnCover
free search of large current multidisciplinary journal index, but
full-text delivery is fee-based |
| I need accurate, objective information on
hot topics. |
Social Issues -
Multnomah County Library's Homework Center
BIOTN compiled by
Catholic university librarians about controversial current events issues (e.g. gun control, human
rights, censorship) |
| I want perspectives from other countries and
regions. |
Regional and local search engines and country-specific Web directories located around the world. |
| I need statistical data. |
Statistical Information help
page at Nueva |
| I need almanac-type information. |
Information
Please (almanac facts) CIA World Factbook
(country facts) |
| I need a short reference information. |
xrefer searches and
interlinks encyclopedias, dictionaries, thesauri, books of quotations and reference works. |
| I need primary sources. |
Online Digital Library links
US focus: American
Memory, U.S. History, California Heritage
Ancient Greece: Perseus Project, |
| I need images and
sounds (photos, art, designs, logos, videos, music, noises), media types
(Java, VRML) or file extensions (.gif) |
Google Image Search over 150 million
digital images.
Amazing Picture Machine (NCREL)
ClassroomClipart suitable for K-12
American Memory US
historical images and sounds; search by formats (maps, motion pictures,
photos and prints, sound recordings)
Fine arts: ADAM, FAMSF, SILS
Lycos MultiMedia or AltaVista images,
audio,
video
FindSounds locates sound effects
and sample sounds
HotBot
SuperSearch template for media types and technologies
WebSEEk at Columbia catalogues images and videos
Jacob Richman has compiled an list of quality picture/art
sites. |
| I need free or inexpensive software. |
SoftCrawler
is a metasearch of shareware sites. |
| I need a map. |
TIGER Map Service
maps for Web pages from U.S.Census
National Geographic Map
Machine - printable country, physical and political maps, star charts
MapQuest interactive service for driving
directions
Cartography Links |
| I need a quotation. |
The
Quotations Page Quoteland Quotations Archive, Search Creative Quotations, Bartlett
(1901) |
| I want to get advice and opinions from others. |
Opinion-Pages
editorials and columnists from newspapers and magazines
Ask Kids'
Connect question answering and referral by librarians
AskA+ authoritative, non-commercial
experts, suitable for
K-12
Pitsco's Ask an Expert volunteers with varying
levels of expertise
Liszt catalogs discussion groups
by topics
Google Usenet Advanced Search searches newsgroups |
| I need a virtual librarian. |
KidsConnect,
Internet Public Library Reference,
Debbie, Marilyn |
| I want notice of new sites as
they're announced. |
Scout
Report Signpost reviews of new sites not yet listed on expert sites |
| I've got a good search to rerun
automatically. |
Informant
repeats your search, sends e-mail when hits change.
Excite's NewsTracker
tracks your news topic, refining search based on results
Northern
Light Search Alert Service runs your search on large database |
| I want to see sites just for kids. |
KidsClick!
Yahooligans!
Ithaki metasearches Dmoz
Kids, Yahooligans, and others. |
