number of documents in the world wide web?

[Jim Campbell]

        From Timothy G. Kambitsch:

  I'll trust the number of entries figure, but I wonder how Lycos got its
  percent figure.  I did some quick searching of its database to find entries
  on my web server and I could only find my personal page and our home page.
  
  
  Maybe I didn't do a very good job searching, but if _I_ cannot find known
  entries on a known server, maybe all those zealous catalogers adding
  intellectual value to the net is worthwhile...;-)
  
  Tim Kambitsch <kambitsch at dayton.lib.oh.us>


Second this comment. I've done this often myself and have also
used it as an exercise when teaching students to use the Web.
It's amazing how often a good page either isn't findable at
all under the obvious keywords or shows up so far down in the
hit list that it might as well not be there. In particular,
pages that address a specific topic often get lost behind
pages that deal with the topic at a broader level. If you do
the ultimate page on basket weaving, for example, you might 
mention basket and weaving only at the top of the page and
then have headers for oak, willow, fiber, whatever. In a
search on basket weaving, that page will usually show up only after
many general crafts pages that have multiple uses of the terms
basket and weaving. Of course searching for the phrase can
help in this instance, but not always.

   -  Jim Campbell
 
Networked Information Coordinator       campbell at virginia.edu
University of Virginia Library            Tel: (804) 924-4985
Charlottesville, VA 22903 USA             Fax: (804) 924-1431