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Web Search Engines

by Nita Mailander
Dr. Robert C. Foreman Health Sciences Library
Scottsdale Healthcare Osborn
Scottsdale, Arizona

Editor's note: PSRML makes available awards of up to $1,000 to individuals in Primary Access Libraries in Region 7. These Professional Development Awards support development of skills and knowledge in using technology for health information access and delivery. Award application information is available at this URL: http://www.nnlm.nlm.nih.gov/psr/libproa.html.

Funded by a Professional Development Award from the Pacific Southwest Regional Medical Library, I attended the Internet Librarian 1999 Conference and course offerings in San Diego, California, in November. One of the themes of the conference was that the Internet is constantly changing and being updated. As a consequence, many Internet sites and search engines have changed names and addresses, and are continually evolving. It is important to be familiar with more than one search engine as they each have varying coverage of the Internet. One of the most valuable classes I attended at the conference was the "Extreme Searcher's Web Finding Tools," presented by Ran Hock of Online Strategies.¹ This article presents a summary of what I learned at that class.

Simplified Boolean can be used in most search engines. Often more complicated Boolean, such as nesting and multiple strings are not successful. When using the simplified Boolean (+word, -word), the relevant ranking system for most search engines is applied. When using the actual Boolean terms AND, OR, and NOT, the relevant rankings are overridden. So it is important to understand which search engines recognize full Boolean statements.

Below is a listing of some well-established search engines and some of their capabilities as they were highlighted in the course.

AltaVista - http://www.altavista.com
Size: 191,213,426 Web pages indexed. 174,004,218 when adjusted for dead links.²
Boolean: Simple (+word, -word), Advanced Web Search offers full Boolean (AND, OR, AND NOT) and NEAR operator. To eliminate a term make sure to use "AND NOT."
Truncation: *, replacing 0-5 letters only. AltaVista is case sensitive, but searching in only lower-case will retrieve both upper and lower-case results.
Special Attributes: Translation option with SYSTRAN software. Extensive coverage of the Web.
Comment: I was eager to use the translation option to translate a French site into English (German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish are also available). Although you cannot translate an entire Web page all at once, I was able to piece the translation together in separate sections.

Excite - http://www.excite.com
Size: 71,195,996 Web pages indexed. 68,822,706 when adjusted for dead links.²
Boolean: Simple (+word, -word) and full Boolean available. Use "quotes" to search for phrases. Click on "more," next to the "Search" button, to access Advanced Web Search.
Truncation: None apparent.
Special Attributes: Nice news features and customizable content.

Fast Search - http://www.fastsearch.com
Size: 192,647,990 Web pages indexed. 157,971,352 when adjusted for dead links.
Boolean: Simple (+word, -word).
Truncation: None apparent.
Special Attributes: Extensive coverage of the Web.

Go Network (formerly Infoseek) - http://www.go.com
Size: 52,454,119 Web pages indexed. 50,355,954 when adjusted for dead links.²
Boolean: Simple (+word, -word)
Truncation: None apparent.
Special Attributes: Able to modify a retrieved set of records by date.

HotBot - http://www.hotbot.com
Size: 39,334,805 Web pages indexed. 38,810,341 when adjusted for dead links.²
Boolean: AND, OR, NOT, and nesting with parentheses ( ), use "quotes" to search phrases. Advanced Search option allows language, date, and media type limits.
Truncation: *
Special Attributes: Extensive and obvious advanced search options from the Advanced Version page.

Lycos - http://www.lycos.com
Size: 55,462,074 Web pages indexed. 53,243,591 when adjusted for dead links.²
Boolean: Simple (+word, -word) and full Boolean, plus many more proximity operators in Advanced Search: ADJ, NEAR, FAR, BEFORE. Use "quotes" to search phrases.
Truncation: None apparent.
Special Attributes: Modification to relevancy rankings is available.

Northern Light and Google
Two search engines I would like to focus on in more detail are Northern Light and Google. I had been unfamiliar with these search engines before attending the Internet Librarian Conference. Although Google and Northern Light differ in their approach and appearance, these two Internet sites provide us with valuable tools to conquer the Web.

Northern Light - http://www.northernlight.com
Size: 200,352,984 Web pages indexed. 196,345,924 when adjusted for dead links.³
Boolean: simple (+word, -word) and full Boolean: AND, OR, NOT, ( ). Use "quotes" to search phrases.
Truncation: * for right-handed truncation, % for single characters.
Special Attributes: Custom folders and proprietary content. Extensive coverage of the Web. Natural language searching available, for example, "why is the sky blue." Excellent help available on how to use their site.

Northern Light is a unique site developed by librarians that not only retrieves sites from the Internet, but also includes free abstracts from journals, books, newspapers, and news transcripts. For a nominal fee, payable with a credit card or established subscription, searchers can access the full text of abstracts retrieved. This is quite an exciting cross between a proprietary database and an Internet search engine. Northern Light offers custom search folders that organize similar information by topic, or by type of material. Boolean operators and nesting are recognized by this search engine. Truncation symbols can be used separately or together in the same term: (*) for right-hand truncation and (%) for single letter truncation. To search for phrases, quotation marks are necessary. In the Power Search option, you can download a full list of indexed titles, or browse subject areas. Limit options in the Power Search include the ability to restrict results to commercial, education, government, military, non-profit, or other types of Web sites. You are also able to specify a certain field to be searched, for example, words in title, words in URL, or publication name. The October 1999 PC Magazine named Northern Light the "best engine for searching the World Wide Web."⁴ The Northern Light search engine leads the pack in size and has fewer dead links. With the addition of proprietary materials, Northern Light offers Internet searchers a unique and effective tool.

Google - http://www.google.com
Size: 126,264,723 Web pages indexed. 124,581,193 when adjusted for dead links.²
Boolean: Automatic "AND" only.
Truncation: None.
Special Attributes: "Lucky" button. No advertisements or banners, simple-to-use format.

I began using Google quite recently after hearing much praise about this site from colleagues attending the Internet Librarian Conference. The simplicity of the Google site is one of its main attractions. There are no advertising banners, subject directories, or other distractions on the Google homepage. To initiate your search, there is a simple "Google Search" button and one titled "I'm feeling lucky". The "lucky" button brings up the first hit that Google retrieved and if you're lucky, it's the one you want! The ranking in Google is based on how many other popular pages refer to a specific page. Ran Hock terms this a "popularity" engine. Google will automatically "AND" your search terms together. Unfortunately there is no truncation or advanced search options available. Even with these search limitations, I have found Google to be most valuable as a place to do a quick search with good results and minimal extraneous information. PC Magazine awarded Google top honors for Technical Excellence in the Internet Infrastructure: Web Applications category, referring to Google's search engine as "simply a smart web application."⁵

REFERENCES

1. Hock, Ran. (7 Oct. 1999). Web Finding Tools: Choosing and Using the Right One. Workshop presented at the Internet Librarian, San Diego, CA.
2. Notess, Greg, R. "Search Engine Statistics: Database Total Size Estimates." http://www.notess.com/search/stats/sizeest.shtml (17 Dec. 1999)
3. "Northern Light Intelligent Searching." http://www.northernlight.com/docs/intelligent_stats.html (17 Dec. 1999).
4. "PC Magazine Names Northern Light 'Best Engine for Searching the World Wide Web.'" http://www.northernlight.com/docs/press_company_pr99_1006.html (17 Dec. 1999)
5. "Google Wins PC Magazine's Technical Excellence Award for Innovation in Web Application Development." http://www.google.com/pressrel/pressrelease6.html (17 Dec. 1999).

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