1 . 9 Internet Starting Points
"The Internet, of course, is more than just a place to find pictures of people having sex with dogs." Time Magazine July 3, 1995
One major service that has come into existence since the creation of the Web are the so-called Internet Starting Points. They are also called Jumpstations, net directories, and any number of other names. These sites have turned the diverse information sites on the Web into usable information resources. It cannot be overstated how useful these services have become.
An important thing to keep in mind is that the search engines work and gather their information in different ways. Some index all words in the text of Web pages. Some have a human providing editorial guidance and presentation. Still others try to find information by concepts, not simply by keywords. If one source doesn't lead you to what you're after, try another.
The presentation of the material found also varies. Yahoo's more hand crafted approach is difficult to scale but easy to read. It incorporates the OpenText search engine with their subject categories for more automation. Lycos, AltaVista, eXcite, and InfoSeek are all reachable from the Net Search button on the NetScape button bar. Microsoft's Internet Explorer provides an equally convenient search button. In fact, the position of default Internet Starting Point within a browser is an important selling and marketing issue. Around February of 1996 Netscape changed its default from Yahoo to Infoseek, causing some distress at Yahoo.(31)
Netscape's Net Search button points to a page with over a dozen Internet Starting points. In March 1996 it described the services as follows. They are listed in here in alphabetical order:
ALTA VISTA
Offering compact or detailed searches through what the company claims is the largest Web index, Digital Equipment Corporation's Alta Vista can help you find your way through 8 billion words filling 16 million Web pages. It also provides a full-text index of more than 13,000 newsgroups.
DEJANEWS
Search what the company claims is the world's largest publicly searchable Usenet news archive with DejaNews. Versatile search options allow you to find articles by date, author, subject, and newsgroup. Usenet is a powerful Internet resource; DejaNews helps put it to work for you.
THE ELECTRIC LIBRARY
Rather than searching the Web, check out the Electric Library's contents. Launch comprehensive searches across this deep database of more than 1000 full text newspapers, magazines, and academic journals, plus images, reference books, literature, and art.
EXCITE
Excite tracks down information by searching for concepts, not just keywords. Updated weekly, Excite's database contains what the company claims are more than 1.5 million Web pages, 50,000-plus Web page reviews written by journalists, the latest two weeks of Usenet news, and classifieds. Excite also includes City.Net, news from Reuters, and an interactive cartoon.
INFOSEEK GUIDE
This searchable directory provides reviews of popular Internet resourcesWeb sites, Usenet newsgroups, and FTP and Gopher sitescross-referenced across multiple topics. Once you've found a relevant site, the "Find Similar" function searches for more of the same. The guide performs precise searches for specific phrases and proper names, and searches are sensitive to case, numbers, and special characters (for example, AT&T or 49ers).
LYCOS
This comprehensive catalog of the Internet finds what you need in seconds, including text, graphics, sounds, and videos. PC World magazine recently rated Lycos best of the top 11 Internet search engines in both quality of information and relevancy of results.
MAGELLAN
Explore Magellan, McKinley's Internet Guide. Magellan provides reviews and ratings for a vast collection of Web, FTP, and Gopher sites, and Usenet newsgroups. Users can browse Magellan topics or search specific keywords or phrases. Magellan's green-light feature indicates content that is deemed appropriate for general viewing.
NET LOCATOR
Jump to and between the results pages of your favorite finding tools. Net Locator from NlightN uses frames to give you quick access to a variety of on-line search services. Try it. You can type a search just once, then get the results pages from many search engines.
OPEN TEXT INDEX
The Open Text Index searches every word of every Web page the company has indexedsome 21 billion words and phrases in all. The company claims it's one of the largest indexes available. Pose queries of virtually any length, or focus in by searching only titles or links.
SEARCH.COM
c|net's search.com combines more than 250 search engines at one site to offer a single gateway to all the information on the Net. search.com, a service of c|net, offers access to all of the major search services, plus hundreds of specialized databases.
SHAREWARE.COM
c|net's shareware.com makes it simple to find software on the Internet. More than 170,000 files are available for easy searching, browsing, and downloading from shareware and corporate archives on the Internet. According to Newsweek, "shareware.com does for software what Yahoo did for finding Web sites."
WHO WHERE?
Fast, easy to use, and free, WhoWhere? is a comprehensive WhitePages service for locating people and organizations on the Net. WhoWhere? intuitively handles misspelled or incomplete names, and it lets you search by initials.
YAHOO!
Arguably the pioneer Internet guide, Yahoo has been accepting submissions since what seems like the beginning of it all. There's an editorial filter at work herenot every college student's home page makes it into the directorybut Yahoo's veteran status has allowed it to build a comprehensive cross-discipline resource base.
Finally, Yahoo is branching out to a service called Yahooligans an Internet starting point for kids. After all, they know how to use this stuff better than we old folks.
A children's oriented version of Yahoo!
