Searching the Internet
Table of Contents:
The Internet is growing at an alarming rate, and the portion
of the network known as the World Wide Web is
growing even faster. Gateways such as the CTI Centre for History,
Archaeology and Art History link pages do their best to keep up
with these developments and maintain pages that are up to date
and complete. These pages cannot, however, answer every inquiry.
A variety of searching services have grown up on the WWW. Most
are based on large catalogues of WWW sites generated by robots
that collect information from pages. Searches made on these
catalogues are quite quick and some benefit from the evaluation
done by human cataloguers.
Browsers such as Netscape and Internet Explorer come with link
to the suppliers' own search services. These services are often
over used and slow. It is better to avoid your browser's
"search" button and connect to a specialised search
services
Hint:
With so many different services available the best advice is; If
you do not find what you want with one search service try another
. . . and another.
- Altavista
from Digital
- (Northern Europe
server)
- A personal favourite. This searcher is among the quickest
even at busy times of the day. Its great strength lies in
the advanced
query language that allows the user to fine tune
searches for greater precision (after you have learned
the query language that is). No attempt is made to
categorise sites. The catalogue is based on the text of
the pages
-
- Magellan
- Offers ratings of sites as well as searching. Combines
searches with topical indexes.
-
- Excite
- A new search engine with commercial trappings. Combines
searches with topical indexes. Indexing tends to be more
"popular" than Yahoo or Lycos
-
- WebCrawler
- Another searcher and index. Again aimed at the
"popular" market, but rather less
commercialised than Magellan or Excite. Allows you to
customise your display preferences and store those
settings for later use.
-
- Yahoo
- A well known and well respected searching service that
also offers a hierarchical menu and alphabetical indexes.
Can be rather slow at peak times.
- There are also "Yahoos" in several US cities
and countries, including a UK and Ireland Yahoo.
-
- Lycos
- From Carnegie Mellon University, one of the best and best
known search engines. Can also be slow.
- There are "Lycoses" in Germany and Sweden.
-
- LookSmart
- An index that offers brief descriptions of all sites
listed. The index is presented in a sophisticated
display that allows you to visit each linked site without
leaving LookSmart. The index is wide ranging and
easy to navigate.
- LookSmart is directed at a popular audience and academics
may find the descriptions and evaluations of sites naive
or even wrong (e.g. the Koninklijke Bibliotheek
exhibition is not in Sweden). The site is also
marred by commercials which slow it down considerably .
- Excite
United Kingdom
- A UK edition of the Excite search engine.
Searches can be limited to the UK, to Europe, or opened
to the whole of the Internet. Also includes a UK
directory.
-
- UKIndex
- Index and searching of UK Internet sites.
-
- Yell
- Electronic Yellow Pages for the UK as well as Internet
indexes and search facility. Also includes
features, UK website awards, etc.
UK Higher Education Links
- NISS services
- UK
Clickable Maps
- Maps with connections to all UK Universities, Colleges,
and Research Centres. Takes you to the home page of the
institution.
-
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Page maintained by Sonja Cameron, History Co-ordinator, CTICH
Please email comments to CTICH@gla.ac.uk
Last modified: July 27, 2000
