>... There should also be a standard mechanism for multiple searches and > complex searches.... "ANSI/NISO Z39.58-1992 Common Command Language for On-Line Interactive Information Retrieval." ANSI documents are generally not available for free; major university libraries often have trouble maintaining a collection of ANSI documents because of their high cost and the fact that there are so many of very limited utility. Z39.58 is availible from ANSI for USD $48.00 -- http://webstore.ansi.org/ansidocstore/product.asp?sku=ANSI%2FNISO+Z39%2E58%2D1992 -- but the fact that a quick reference guide for it can't be found via AltaVista or Google should give you an idea of how unpopular it is. Z39.58 is more complicated but has fewer features than the command syntax of either of those those major search engines. In my opinion, the only standard needed for search engines in an on-line command reference guide for the seach syntax, e.g. "search tips" or "help searching". There are still a lot of experimental features being sorted out, so standardization at that level might likely just get in the way at present. Someday it is bound to occur. Cheers, James
