Life on Earth
Audesirk & Audesirk
Prentice-Hall, Inc.

	Search Engines We hope that the following tools serve you in your exploration of the Internet. They are two of the best search engines available on the Internet.

Alta Vista

Lycos

        Query:  

        Search Options: 
        match all terms (AND)
        match any term (OR)
        match 2 terms
        match 3 terms
        match 4 terms
        match 5 terms
        match 6 terms
        match 7 terms
        
        loose match
        fair match
        good match
        close match
        strong match

        Display Options: 
        10 results per page
        20 results per page
        30 results per page
        40 results per page
        
        terse results
        standard results
        verbose results       

Other Search Tools

Searching Basics

Other than randomly wandering through these pages and relying on luck, you can use a tool called search engine to help you find information. Don't be confused by the term; it is nothing more than a program that runs a search for you. There are many search engines on the web. For the most part, they operate in the same way. You submit a keyword and the search engine replies with a list of sites containing that keyword. Remember that search engines are dumb. They don't think (that is your job). To perform an effective search, spend time before the search to prepare your search strategy. When you see the results of using a search engine, you will find that many links are unrelated to your intended topic. But all in all, search engines are still very powerful tools.

From the Search Engine page at the Life on Earth site, you can reach most of the search engines available on the web. For a more in-depth description of search engines and information searching, read the Life on the Internet student's guide.

Designed in cooperation with Andrew Stull and Steven Brunasso.

Last Update - July 9, 1997

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