How-to Guides
- Boolean
Searching on the Internet
- A primer in boolean
logic from the University at Albany Libraries
- How
to Effectively Locate Federal Government Information on the Web
- Sherry Dedecker and
Patricia Cruse, librarians at the University of California, San Diego have
prepared an online interactive tutorial called "How to Effectively Locate
Federal Government Information on the Web. Each module has an explanatory
section, links to sites, and a set of questions and answers.
- Lexis/Nexis
Tutorial - From the Johns Hopkins University, for the Academic
Universe version
-
- Lexis/Nexis
Tutoria - Legal Literature - From
the University of Toronto - Ted Tjaden, author..
- Using
Lexis/Nexis
- From SUNY Morrisville, for the Academic Universe version.
- Researching
Companies Online
- A tutorial and a series
of pages with recommended sites for obtaining specific kinds of information
like telephone numbers, financial information and high-level company information.
- Web
Search Strategies
- A tutorial by Debbie
Flanagan, a Houston-based Internet trainer. A good place to start if you are
new to Web searching, or if you have never had a systematic introduction to
search strategies. Even if you think you already know how to search you may
find techniques or tricks you don't know. Very well written, no wasted words
here.
Evaluating Web Site Contents
Major Search Engines
- Alta
Vista -
large database, capable of complex search techniques & specialized searches
- Excite
- attempts to find concepts related to search terms with "Search
for more documents like this one"
- Google
- results ranked by "importance" measured by which
sites and how many sites link to the page.
- HotBot
- complex searches, sophisticated limitation abilities
- Lycos
- Home of the Top 5% has been purchased by USA Networks (home
shopping network) - expect changes
- Magellan
- PlanetSearch
- Snap
- WebCrawler
- Yahoo!
Specialized Search Engines
Listserv and Newsgroup search engines
- Liszt
- Perhaps the
largest search engine to find e-mail-based discussion groups, including
listserv, majordomo, listproc and others.
- Deja.com
- Use Deja.com (was
Deja News) to find newsgroups and to search the contents of newsgroups by
newsgroup, author, subject, or date
- The
Directory of Scholarly and Professional E-Conferences
The listservs
listed here are primarily populated by professors and grad. students. The
lists tend to be focused on particular disciplines and narrow topic areas
-- many are closely moderated.
- Reference.COM
- Search the
contents of newsgroups, web forums and listserv archives (not all listservs
are archived and many make archives available only to members).
- TileNet/Lists
- Search listservs and
other e-mail mailing lists.
People Searches (phonebooks)
- Switchboard
- A phonebook
with a twist - national listings include e-mail addresses. Search for individuals
or businesses. You can change or delete your own listing. Once you've found
your party you can find their address on a map, click to send a card or
flowers.
- Yahoo!
People Search - Search
for either e-mail addresses or phonebook information.
Miscellaneous
- AnyWho
- Search for
People, Business, Toll-Free (800 numbers), and Web Sites, and Reverse Search
- ASE
- Airport Search Engine - "ASE
searches for airports either by the IATA-identifier or the city. Links to
airport homepages are displayed as well.."
- The
List - Find
an Internet Service Provider (ISP) - search by country or area code.
- News
Hunt - "Searching
here will return a list of news resources that are searchable, reliable
and free."
- Radio
Scout
- search engine created specifically to do keyword searches of the archives
of public radio shows.
- Yahoo!
News and Media
- Over 50 categories of Journalism Resources
- Yahoo!
News
- Sources: Reuters, AP and ABCnews, NPR
- Zip
Code Lookup (USA Postal Service)
Image Searches
Software Searches
- Download.com
- downloadable commercial
software and shareware - software reviews
- Shareware.com
- search by platform, database of 250.000 programs
Meta-Search Engines
- Cnet
Search.com
- Searches 11 engines or choose search by subject category.
- DogPile
- Simple and Boolean
searches 25 search engines, you choose order.
- go2net
- replaces Metacrawler - number and identity of search engines queried unavailable
- Profusion
- highly customizable and capable of fairly complex searches
- my favorite.
Directories and Portals
- e-Blast
- Enyclopedia
Britannica's Internet Guide. Reviewed sites, not strictly educational.
- Excite
- customizable news, TV listings, movie releases, etc. plus search engine
- HotBot
- news, shopping, search, other search engines.
- Lycos
- recently purchased by USA Networks (home shopping network)
- expect changes
- Netscape
Net Center
- Subject directory, search with choice of engines, personal info maintenance.
Web Review Services
Internet
Scout Project
One of the premiere review
services, and one of the oldest. The focus is more academic than commercial
or entertainment. Sites are carefully evaluated and well described. You can
subscribe and receive regular e-mail postings of the latest additions, or browse
the database on the Web. There are three reports issued: The
Scout Report for Science & Engineering - The
Scout Report for Social Sciences - The
Scout Report for Business & Economics
Lycos
Top 5% of the Web
You have probably noticed
the Top 5% award on some of your favorite Web sites. Started by the Point Foundation
and now run by Lycos, the Top 5% staff review sites based on three criteria:
content, design, and overall experience. Many times the links pages on Top 5%
sites are great starting places for a topic.