Search engines article

[Ian Winship, Univ Northumbria Info Services]

The latest issue of the UK edition of PC Magazine has an extensive article on
Internet search services.

        [Catching sites 
         PC magazine February 1997, 108-153 (21 pages excluding ads)]

(There is no online version)

The assessment concentrates on search features, useability and online help
and doesn't seem to have examined information quality or performance in a 
systematic way, other than commenting on the problem of redundant links.
There is a table of about 40 features for each, though some, such as title 
only or proximity searching are shown for all 11 services, which is not what 
I believed to be the case, unless there have been developments I have not
noticed.

Alta Vista is the Editor's choice, with Infoseek Ultra (now incorporated into
Ultraseek) as highly recommended.


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Ian Winship                             
Information Services Dept.              |    e-mail: ian.winship at unn.ac.uk
University of Northumbria at Newcastle  |    phone:  0191 227 4132
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