[WEB4LIB] all in one search engines and search techniques

[sean dreilinger]

Andrea Mandel wrote:
> We try to offer as many handouts as possible to enable them 
> to reach their goals most effectively.  

if anybody out there offers library handouts or fact sheets that cover
metasearch, i'd be very curious to have a look at them online or as email
attachments...

> Since most of the search engines differ as to how to form
> booleans, etc (many better at differing searches!) - is there any site
> that offers characteristics of each that we may use to pass on to our
> patrons?  

several sites in the extended LIS community compare search engines and
query language options - danny sullivan (searchenginewatch.com) offers
articles and tables targeted for public and business users; greg notess
(notess.com) does the same targeting librarians and information
professionals. if you are a SE junkie you'll want to subscribe to danny
sullivan's monthly newsletter, and another excellent one c/o tara
calishain (researchbuzz.com)...

> Also, I use both Metacrawler and Dogpile if I am having
> trouble finding something with the traditional search engines.  I have
> found them to be inconsistant often not even giving me sites remotely
> related to my search terms.  

two recent reviews of metasearch engines are worth a look, one is popular
audience, one is LIS-oriented:

  Repman, Judi and Randal D. Carlson. ``Surviving the Storm: 
  Using Metasearch Engines Effectively,'' Computers in Libraries. 
  May, 1999: http://www.infotoday.com/cilmag/may/repman+carlson.htm

  Keizer, Gregg. ``Search Engine Shootout,'' CNET. April 7, 1999: 
  http://home.cnet.com/category/topic/0,10000,0-3817-7-276933,00.html

> Is there better "all-in-ones"?

try savvysearch, at your service since 1995, one of the top 1,000 sites on
the web (somebody must like it :-). if you want examples for SE handouts
and teaching, a recent thread from nettrain covered that, here's my $.02:

http://x31.deja.com/getdoc.xp?AN=469757044&CONTEXT=930616540.662437968&hitnum=1

birthday alert: if you're in a friendly mood **today**, stop by 
http://www.savvysearch.com/ and wish the inventor (daniel) a happy
birthday! c/o feedback at savvysearch.com or the `feedback' link on the site.

hth, would love to see your handouts on search/metasearch!

--sean :-)

--
mailto:sean at savvysearch.com                sean dreilinger, mlis
 http://www.savvysearch.com                http://durak.org/sean