Other Search Tools
You can narrow down your search further by using these specialized search
tools according to the information you are looking for.
By the Experts
A type of search by humans. Experts on various topics evaluate and compile
related sites. Some of these search tools are called answer searching because
these allow you to submit your query in question form. The most popular
example is AskJeeves:
Other search tools compiled by subject specialists are About.com, AskScott,
Ask an Expert, answers.com, Allexperts.com, and KnowPost. Other sites let
you submit a question to "columnists" and they will respond through their
column.
Scholarly/Academic
The electronic equivalent to finding articles in peer reviewed professional
journals which carry more weight and authority than regular newsletters.
It is no coincidence that most of these are maintained by universities.
Notice that these are often organized like catalogs. A good example is
the Argus Clearinghouse in Michigan. Sites are submitted to, evaluated
and rated by graduate students of Library and Information Science. Another
good site is the Librarian's Index to the Internet hosted by the
University of California, Berkeley. Its annotated directory is designed
for librarians and users of public libraries. The WWW Virtual Library
is the oldest and was established by Tim Berners-Lee. It is a catalog of
catalogs separately reviewed by different subject experts following a universal
set of guidelines. Mirror sites are can be found in the United Kingdom,
Switzerland, and Argentina.
Miscellaneous
You will find most of these specialized searches in special sections of
major search sites like Excite, AltaVista, Lycos, Infoseek, and MSN. These
are usually located in the top, left, or right side of the main page such
as this sample from Infoseek:
| References |
Dictionaries, thesauri, encyclopedia,
jokes, quotations, news, weather, maps |
 |
| Specialty Search |
FTP, newsgroups, jobs, shopping,
travel, transportation, legal, medical, business/financial, sports, computers,
science, etc., etc. |
| Multimedia |
Downloads, MP3, Clip art, product
reviews, Internet channels (news, weather, radio, videos), etc., etc. |
| White & Yellow Pages |
As the names suggest, these directories
help you located addresses, e-mail, and phone numbers of people and organizations.
Don't fret if you can't find a childhood friend or college buddy in your
first attempts. A lot of people who don't want to be found will not register
their names in Internet directories. You might still be successful
if you know the zip code, state, or e-mail address. |
Recommended site:
-
SearchIQ
- Reviews and ranks search engines, also features specialized
search engines.
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