selecting a search engine for a library web site

[John R. Little]

I recommend Webinator 
<http://www.thunderstone.com/webinator/>.  There is a 
Windows NT version as well as UNIX and Linux.  I found it 
very easy to set up.  The documentation is good.  There is a
support listserv which is monitored by the company and 
on which the technicians are very responsive.  All this for 
the freeware version which is the version I use.  

Searches can be limited by ranking and by proximity within 
paragraphs, sentences, lines, pages, etc.  Basic truncation 
is allowed. Results can be viewed by relevance, with search 
terms highlighted, by showing the linkages to the results 
page from the indexed site, or in context with relevant 
results. 

The only major limitation I can think of is that the free 
version will index no more than 10,000 pages in any single 
search database.  But that is quite a lot and there is no 
limit on the number of databases created. The commercial 
version is not too expensive and has no page limit.

I also just noticed from the Webinator site that they will 
index your site for you, like AltaVista.  The documentation 
indicates that your site will be reindexed every 30 days.  


--John
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  John R. Little       Web Developer/Systems Librarian 
  Perkins Library * Duke University * Durham, NC       
  VOICE: (919) 660-5932    Email: john.little at duke.edu 
              http://www.duke.edu/~jrl/
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