Search Engine Access

Google
Experimental: based on site popularity
Inference Find

MetaEngine, groups results
AltaVista

Largest database
HotBot

Large database
Northern Light

Web index + News, Magazine, Scientific journals
Excite

 
Yahoo

hits

 Categorized, hand-built database
FAST Search

Experimental: large database

Searching Hints (including Boolean Operations)

Inference Find

Use this engine for quick and dirty searches.  It gets you results fast.

 You can use search modifiers, but because Inference Find uses many search engines, not all retrievals will reflect the modification request. 

It is probably best to follow the Alta Vista modifiers.
Alta Vista

There are many advanced search options. Click link above for information.
Match Any Automatic jobs work
Match All Preceding plus sign to force use of term +jobs +work
Exclude Leading minus sign to force exclusion jobs -work
Phrase Search Surround phrase with quotation marks "job jar"
Proximity Link terms with NEAR job NEAR jar
Wildcards Trailing asterisk job*
HotBot

Click the link above to gain access to many advanced search features
Match Any Link terms with OR jobs OR work
Match All Automatic jobs work
Exclude Leading AND NOT to force exclusion jobs AND NOT work
Phrase Search Menu selection job jar (plus menu selection)
Proximity Not available  
Wildcards Not available  
Northern Light

Note: full Boolean supported (AND, OR, NOT) and nesting with parentheses.

You can substitute + and - for AND and NOT.
Match Any Automatic jobs work
Match All Link terms with AND or use preceding plus sign. jobs AND work, +jobs +work
Exclude Leading NOT to force exclusion jobs NOT work, jobs -work
Phrase Search Surround phrase with quotation marks "job jar"
Proximity    
Wildcards Asterisk for multiple letters, percent for single letter. Can occur anywhere in word. Plurals are handled automatically. colo%r (for "color" and "colour"), miss* (for missing, misses, etc.)
Excite

Full Boolean supported (AND, OR, NOT) and nesting with parentheses.

You can substitute + and - for AND and NOT.
Match Any Automatic jobs work
Match All Link terms with AND or use preceding plus sign. jobs AND work, +jobs +work
Exclude Leading NOT to force exclusion or preceding minus sign. jobs NOT work, jobs -work
Phrase Search Surround phrase with quotation marks. "job jar"
Proximity Not available.  
Wildcards Not available.  
Yahoo

The default search is for the Yahoo categories.
Match Any Automatic jobs work
Match All Preceding plus sign. +jobs +work
Exclude Preceding minus sign jobs -work
Phrase Search Surround prhase with quotation marks "job jar"
Proximity Not available.  
Wildcards Trailing asterisk. job*

 

Other Search Engines & Important Search Sites

University of Hawaii Faculty/Staff Directory Current searchable listings of faculty and staff on all campuses of the University.
Hawaii Catalogue of Web Pages Bob Cunningham's extensive listing of web sites in Hawaii.
All-in-One Access to more search engines than you would ever imagine exist.
Rankdex Data Easy An unusual search engine that gets its data from links to pages, not the page content itself.  Experimental.  Try this for searches on popular topics.
   
   
Search Engine Watch Monitor the developments in search engine technology and application.
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Last Updated: 09/26/99