Overview

How Big is the Internet?

Internet Search Basics

Frustrations Facing the Internet Searcher
Search Engine Basics
How Search Engines Rank Documents
Characteristics of Searchers and Searches

Sample Problem
Query Concepts
The Anatomy of a Query
Nouns and Objects
Truncation and Wildcards
Being Specific
Synonyms
Phrases

Overview of Boolean Operators
The AND Operator
The OR Operator

The NEAR Operator
The BEFORE and AFTER Operators
The AND NOT Operator

Parentheses
Combining Concepts
Punctuation and Capitalization
Multiple Queries and Refinements
Sample Problem Revisited

Misspellings
Redundant Terms
Ignored Terms and Special Characters
Alternate Spellings
Synonyms
Improper Boolean or Complex Queries

Site Filters
Size Filters
Date Filters
Specialty Filters and Search Options

Some Caveats
Duplication, Coverage and Responsiveness
When Should You  Use Boolean Queries?
A Comparison of 100 Search Services
Features of the Top 10 Search Services
Specialty Engines
Other Services
Perplexing Behavior

Product Searches
Competitor Intelligence
Market Research
Finding People
Finding Places
Finding Documents
Finding Recent News

Looking at the Future of Internet Searching

Derived from:
Guide to Effective Searching of the Internet
© 1998-1999. VisualMetrics Corporation

HTML Conversion and Content Editing by Matthew Armistead
© 1999 Matthew D. Armistead
Footnotes at botom of individual pages.