"Just the Answers, Please": Sidebar Articles

Search Engine Feature Chart

features	AltaVista	Excite	HotBot
URL	www.altavista.digital.com	www.excite.com	www.hotbot.com
Coverage	WWW, usenet, listservs	WWW, usenet, 60,000+ Web site reviews, listservs	WWW, usenet, listservs
What is indexed	Text minus stop words. No words contained in images.	Text plus related concepts, minus stop words. No words contained in images.	Text minus stop words. No words contained in images.
Major commands	AND, OR, NEAR, AND NOT (note AND NOT) + Must contain this word - NOT this term * wild card. Use at end of word or after first three letters. Advanced Search: Choose Date range, or assign weights.	AND, OR, AND NOT ( ) for nested Boolean Must use caps. Commands turn off concept search + Must contain this word - NOT this term	AND, OR AND NOT ( ) for nested Boolean Must use caps Modify options: "must contain" or +, "should contain," "must not contain"(or -). Also \| and !
Default search	OR	a fuzzy AND (not a forced match).	AND. Change to "any of the words" for OR.
Phrase searching?	Use " ". Won't find common words like "the" or single letters	No.	Use " ". Won't find common words like "the" or single letters
plural/singulartruncation or wildcard	use *	Automatic.	No.
Case sensitive	Yes. Upper case is matched exactly. Lower case queries match both upper and lower case.	For capitalized proper names only.	For either a person search or for "interesting case "only: mixed case such as NeXt.
Search by field	Search by fields such as title, keyword, url, link, site, image. Use this format: url:query	No.	Search by fields: geographic location, media type, date range, or site. Use pull-down menus or "meta words."
Proximity (near) search	NEAR within 10 words	Concept searching avoids the need.	Just phrase search.
Multimedia searching	Searches multimedia files (image, sound, Java, etc.)	No.	Searches multimedia files (image, sound, Java, etc.)
Special features	New "Live Topics" feature compares concepts across documents.	Concept searching. "More like this." sort results by site.	Searches multimedia files (image, sound, Java, etc.) Duplicate pages are grouped
Comments	Duplicates a problem Advanced search turns off relevance ranking.	Duplicates a problem, though they are often grouped.	Duplicates a problem. Lack of plural/singular a problem, since using more than one form of word in query skews the relevance weighting.

features Infoseek Ultra Lycos Open Text
URL www.infoseek.com www.lycos.com index.opentext.net
Coverage WWW, usenet, one month of Reuters, PRNewswire and BusinessWire, company profiles Keywords, titles, links of Web pages. Also archived listservs, gopher, ftp. WWW, Usenet
What is indexed Text minus stop words. No words contained in images. Keywords, titles, links. No words contained in images. Every word. Open Text has no stop words.
Major commands , use comma to separate names
+ Must contain this word
- NOT this term
| to build sets., e.g,.A|B means search term A, then search for term B within the first set of A. Menus to find alternate spellings, to control percent relevance required, detailed results display.
- for NOT
. after term to force exact match
$ Truncation Use drop down menus for:
AND
OR
BUT NOT
NEAR
Followed by (phrase)
Default search OR OR AND
Phrase searching? Yes. Any phrase. Quotes not necessary, but can enclose in quotes. No. Yes. Use "followed by in Advanced search or "exact phrase" in simple search.
plural/singular truncation or wildcard Automatic parsing. Automatic search for word ending variants. Enter each word form separately. No automatic singular/plural. No wildcard.
Case sensitive Yes. Upper case is matched exactly. Lower case queries match both upper and lower case. No information available. No information available.
Search by field Search by fields such as title, keyword, url, link, site, image. Use this format: url:query No. Fields: Title, URL, summary, first heading.
Proximity (near) search Enclose in brackets to find within 100 words. No. Yes (NEAR).
Multimedia searching Searches multimedia files (image, sound, Java, etc.) Searches multimedia files (image, sound, Java, etc.) No.
Special features
Can enter natural language query.
Displays related topics for browsing.
Fewer duplicates
Excellent for company home pages--appear with a check mark.
Buttons on results screen make finding related sites, multimedia files easy.
Use "improve your result" by adding more terms to the original search.
Will be adding a "More like this" feature.
Automatic summaries created from first 100 words.
Comments Word order matters. Put most important term first. Information appeared older in many searches. Power search cumbersome—must click on each box, pull down menus to choose commands.

Source:
Feldman, Susan. "Just the Answers, Please": Choosing a Web Search Service.[Online] Available at http://www.infotoday.com/searcher/may/sidebar2.htm#chart", July 7, 1997. NOTE: Table from Surviving the Information Age

features	Infoseek Ultra	Lycos	Open Text
URL	www.infoseek.com	www.lycos.com	index.opentext.net
Coverage	WWW, usenet, one month of Reuters, PRNewswire and BusinessWire, company profiles	Keywords, titles, links of Web pages. Also archived listservs, gopher, ftp.	WWW, Usenet
What is indexed	Text minus stop words. No words contained in images.	Keywords, titles, links. No words contained in images.	Every word. Open Text has no stop words.
Major commands	, use comma to separate names + Must contain this word - NOT this term \| to build sets., e.g,.A\|B means search term A, then search for term B within the first set of A.	Menus to find alternate spellings, to control percent relevance required, detailed results display. - for NOT . after term to force exact match $ Truncation	Use drop down menus for: AND OR BUT NOT NEAR Followed by (phrase)
Default search	OR	OR	AND
Phrase searching?	Yes. Any phrase. Quotes not necessary, but can enclose in quotes.	No.	Yes. Use "followed by in Advanced search or "exact phrase" in simple search.
plural/singular truncation or wildcard	Automatic parsing.	Automatic search for word ending variants.	Enter each word form separately. No automatic singular/plural. No wildcard.
Case sensitive	Yes. Upper case is matched exactly. Lower case queries match both upper and lower case.	No information available.	No information available.
Search by field	Search by fields such as title, keyword, url, link, site, image. Use this format: url:query	No.	Fields: Title, URL, summary, first heading.
Proximity (near) search	Enclose in brackets to find within 100 words.	No.	Yes (NEAR).
Multimedia searching	Searches multimedia files (image, sound, Java, etc.)	Searches multimedia files (image, sound, Java, etc.)	No.
Special features	Can enter natural language query. Displays related topics for browsing. Fewer duplicates Excellent for company home pages--appear with a check mark.	Buttons on results screen make finding related sites, multimedia files easy.	Use "improve your result" by adding more terms to the original search. Will be adding a "More like this" feature. Automatic summaries created from first 100 words.
Comments	Word order matters. Put most important term first.	Information appeared older in many searches.	Power search cumbersome—must click on each box, pull down menus to choose commands.