|
The effective use of search
engines and, hence, the efficient and productive use of your
on-line time can be greatly enhanced by some understanding of
the types of query they can handle. The following aspects are
summarized, for the major search engines, in the table below
(SEED, 2004).
|
Aspect
|
All the Web
|
Northern Light
|
AltaVista
|
Google
|
Excite
|
Lycos
|
Infoseek
|
HotBot
|
|
Default multi word query |
AND
|
AND
|
OR
/ phrase |
AND
|
OR
|
AND
|
OR
|
AND
|
|
Boolean AND OR NOT ( ) |
N
|
Y
|
A
|
N
|
Y
|
N
|
N
|
Y
|
|
Phrase |
All engines support
enclosing double quote syntax |
|
Adjacency |
N
|
N
|
NEAR operator |
N
|
N
|
N
|
N
|
N
|
|
Case sensitive |
N
|
?
|
U
|
N
|
N
|
N
|
U
|
U
|
|
Country Restriction |
A
|
A
|
Y
|
N
|
A
|
N
|
N
|
?
|
|
DNS
Restriction |
A
|
N
|
Y
|
N
|
?
|
A
|
N
|
?
|
|
Language Restriction |
A
|
A
|
Y
|
N
|
Y
|
A
|
N
|
Y
|
|
Date Restriction |
N
|
Y
|
N
|
M
|
?
|
N
|
N
|
A
|
|
Link Search |
A
|
N
|
Y
|
Y
|
?
|
?
|
Y
|
Y
|
|
Stop Words |
N
|
N
|
N
|
Y+
|
Y
|
Y
N(A) |
N
|
Y
|
|
Results Displayed |
10/100 |
10
|
10
|
10/100 |
10/50 A |
10
|
10/50 A |
10/100 |
-
Y
= YES N = NO A Yes when using advanced interface
-
U
means lower case searches are case insensitive, any upper
case character in the query forces case sensitive matching.
-
Y+
refers to stop words that can be included in queries by
preceding them with the symbol "+"
-
Default multi word query means if you enter a query
consisting of more than one word the implication can be
either that you are expecting pages containing all the words
(a default AND query) or that you are expecting pages
containing any of the words (a default OR query).
-
Boolean AND OR NOT is the facility to construct complex
queries.
-
Phrase searching is a valuable and powerful technique and a
phrase match can include the last word of one sentence along
with the first word of the next sentence.
-
Adjacency looks for pages in which the words quoted in the
query appear "near" to each other in the page without being
next to each other. This is a rare facility.
-
Case Sensitivity refers to the ability of the search engine
to distinguish between small letters and capital letters.
-
Country Restriction refers to the restriction of the results
to pages from a particular country.
-
DNS Restriction refers to restriction in terms of the host
computer’s DNS address.
A link search is a search
for all pages that contain links to another page whose URL is
specified in the query.
Another table that captures
the differences in other features is given below (Gray, 2004):
|
Internet Search Engines |
|
Category |
AltaVista |
Excite |
WebCrawler |
Lycos |
OpenText |
InfoSeek |
Yahoo! |
NlightN |
|
Case Sensitive? |
Y |
N |
N |
N |
N |
Y |
N |
N |
|
Considers Phrases? |
Y |
N |
Y |
N |
Y |
Y |
N |
Y |
|
Required Term Operator |
+ |
+ |
N |
N |
N |
+ |
N |
N |
|
Prohibited Term Operator |
- |
- |
N |
N |
N |
- |
N |
N |
|
Wildcard Expander |
* |
N |
N |
$ |
N |
N |
N |
N |
|
Limiting Character |
N |
N |
N |
. |
N |
N |
N |
N |
|
Results Ranking? |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
N |
N |
|
Controllable Results Ranking? |
Y |
N |
N |
Y |
N |
N |
N |
N |
|
Booleans Allowed? |
Y |
Y |
Y |
N |
Y |
N |
N |
Y |
|
Proximity Operators Allowed? |
Y(10) |
N |
Y(range) |
N |
Y(80) |
Y(100) |
N |
N |
|
Subject (Directory) Searching? |
N |
Y |
Y |
Y |
N |
Y |
Y |
N |
|
Refine Based On First Search? |
N |
Y |
N |
N |
Y |
N |
N |
N |
|
Controllable Display Format? |
Y |
N |
Y |
Y |
N |
N |
N |
N |
|
