> Harold B. wrote the following: > > >Is it possible to search the Internet for a page just knowing some of > >the text on that page? Are there any search engines that provide that > >convenience? > > Each search engine has a set of rules on how it works. For instance, > AltaVista follows these: > . When you type multiple words in the search box, AltaVista first looks for > Web pages that contain all of the words. Pages with all those words will be > at the top of your results; those with only one of the words will be at the > bottom. > . Enter words that you think will appear on the Web page you want. AltaVista > indexes all of the words on each Web page. > . To require a word, put a "+" directly in front of it. To exclude a word, > put a "-" directly in front of it. (Example: +dogs -cats) > . To search for an exact phrase, put it in quotes (Example: "to be or not to > be"). > . Uppercase and lowercase are treated the same. To maintain a certain > capitalization, put the word in quotes. > . Words with punctuation between them are treated as if they are surrounded > in quotes. All punctuation marks are treated equally. > > Most search engines have an advanced section to "fine tune" your search > requests. For example, Google advanced > (http://www.google.com/advanced_search?hl=en) allows you to force a search > on a particular phrase. > > HotBot also allows forced phrase searching. See > http://hotbot.lycos.com/text/?query= > > However, its best to know what search engines are good at what type of > results. Looking for Hamlet is best at Hotbot, worst at AltaVista and > mediocre at Google. > > To show how this works, let's try the phrase "to be or not to be" which most > of us know as being in Shakespeare's Hamlet. > > If we use http://www.altavista.com/sites/search/text > we don't find a reference to Hamlet in the first 10 results. Using advanced > "exact phrase" http://www.altavista.com/sites/search/textadv doesn't find a > reference to Hamlet either in the first 10 results. > > Using Google (http://www.google.com/) doesn't find Hamlet either. However, > using advanced Google (http://www.google.com/advanced_search) with "exact > phrase" at least finds a Shakespeare result as the second one. > > However, you will see that HotBot is the best at this search. Using > http://hotbot.lycos.com/text/?query= and look for "exact phrase" find > Hamlet: List of Scenes as the first result. > - -- > Gerry Boyd
PCWorkers, Unite! (a familiar ring), There is no question about it, and the responses to my question have made researching on the Internet much easier and more interesting (enough to repeat the summary above). And it frees up tons of time for me to do other things. In fact, I can now cut m computer time down to 18 hours a day. Imagine, what will I do with all that extra time. Harold B. ============= PCWorks Mailing List ================= Don't see your post? Check our posting guidelines & make sure you've followed proper posting procedures, http://pcworkers.com/rules.htm Contact list owner <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Unsubscribing and other changes: http://pcworkers.com =====================================================
