Web Searching

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Search Example: Yahoo!

For the first example, we'll conduct a search on HTML editors using Yahoo!'s Advanced Search Options. Recall that Yahoo! is a Subject Directory site.

• First, open a new browser window.

   

• The easiest way to the site is to go to Yahoo's main site's home page:

  http://www.yahoo.com/

  

   

   

• Next, select the options link next to the Search button. This will take us to the "advanced options" site.

   

• We want to know what operators we can use at this site so click on the link for Advanced Search Syntax.

  

   

  Look at the section for the following topics:

  • Yahoo Advanced Search Topics
    • Required and Prohibited Search Words
    • Document Section Restrictions
    • Phrase Matching
    • Wildcard Matching

   

• Click on your browser's back button now to go back to the search page and examine the options available for conducting your search.

   

• Now ask yourself, "What are we searching for?"

  html editors

   

• Let's try a search on that. Enter into the search box : html editors .

   

• Next, set the options:
  • We want to search Yahoo! so we'll leave the default value.
  • Select a search method. We want all the words to be searched in all documents so select Matches on ALL words (AND).

    

     

  • Select a search area. For this search we want to look at Yahoo Categories, (i.e., the reviewed sites).
  • Searching documents within the last 3 years can be left as is.

    

     

  • And we will only want to view 20 matches per page.

   

• We're ready now to search, so click on the search button, .

  

   

   

• Yahoo! returned 9 category and 168 site matches. This is too many for us to sift through. So we should reconsider our choice of search words. Consider what other criteria we need to look at. If we're looking for software, we should probably look at only that which is suitable for our operating system. So we'll refine our search to HTML editors for MS Windows 95, (or whatever operating system you're using).

   

• This time, enter HTML AND editors AND (Win95 OR Windows 95). And this time select the options for Intelligent default and Web Sites.

  

   

   

• Go ahead and search now.

   

• This time the results were more relevant. The third hit on the list is a site for downloading. This may be the one we want.

  

   

   

• Also note that the sites returned by the search were from AltaVista. Even though Yahoo! is a Subject Directory site, it allows indexed searching of its reviews by utilizing an index search engine.

   

• OK, so now you know the basics of conducting a search using Yahoo!'s Advanced Search Options. Next we'll look at Lycos.