The Virtual Woman: A Woman's
Weekly Guide To Cyberspace
Netting Results from Your Web Searches
You don't have to tell me: This Web we've woven is a large and tangled thang. Finding what you need online can be more than daunting, especially if you don't know how or where to search. Enough of you have written with requests for surfing help that I've decided to dedicate this week's column to talking about search engines and directories.First off, let's discuss the difference between a search engine and a directory. Actually, the Web is evolving so rapidly that most sites that aspire to serve as portals (i.e., your default page, first stop online, and doorway to everything else) and hence now feature both directories and search engines--and free email, and updated weather, and up-to-the-minute news . . . (someday they'll be doing your dry cleaning-mark my words). Eventually, you'll be born at your desk and die there, clicking arm taut and extended.
Portal discussions aside, a search engine is that lovely white space into which you can type any old thing your heart desires, after which a click on "Find" will send your browser scurrying after sites containing (we hope) whatever you've entered. A directory uses a more encyclopedia-like approach, offering up a list of categories that you click through, beginning with the general and becoming increasingly more specific. (For example, on Yahoo, Regional --> Countries --> Micronesia, Federated States of --> Society & Culture --> The Ethnic Art Institute of Micronesia (Located on the Island of Yap).)
If you're armed with specific, distinctive keywords, a search engine is the way to go. Do I have a favorite search engine? I wish I did. But, as of yet, there is no one-stop shop for surfers such as ourselves. Different search engines are good at different things, so it's best to have a couple bookmarked. In particular, I'd visit AltaVista (http://www.altavista.com/), which offers the best hard key word searches of any engine, or Dogpile (http://www.dogpile.com), which searches no fewer than eleven other search engines, sequentially. AltaVista is perfect if you've narrowed your search to a proper name or title: Jessica Rabbit, say, or Cheese-Whiz. Dogpile is broader and can accommodate such queries as "Norwegian food" (which sent AltaVista reeling) with nary a blink. However, Dogpile can be overwhelming; you might have to click through five or six top-level pages to get a feel for what each browser found. Mercifully, it does rank its finds.
Which are the best directories? I favor two, Ask Jeeves (http://askjeeves.com) and The Mining Co. (http://www.miningco.com). Ask Jeeves is a hybrid: When you Ask Jeeves a natural-language question, "he" first breaks down your general question into smaller questions, along with surveying other search engines. Then, Jeeves lists your finds in categories, much as a directory does: Jeeves has already searched, rated, and organized the sites he offers up. The Mining Co. might also appear to be a search engine, as it provides a blank slot for inputting keywords. But what you're searching is key: Once you type something in, this engines goes trotting after only the sites that the industrious surfers and editors there have in-put. They claim to have "experts" doing this work who have already selected sites as relevant and worthwhile. Then, rather than throwing a haphazard list your way, The Mining Co. serves up your finds in organized categories.
There are also directories that just focus on one topic (vertical directories in web lingo). My favorite vertical is WWWomen.Com (http://www.wwwomen.com), the largest directory of all things female on the web. Searches are very fine tuned here: plug the word "golf" into WWWomen's directory and get close to 100 resources for female golfers. There are verticals for almost every topic imaginable. For example, for those wishing to find craft information, Crafts Search (http://www.bella-decor.com/search.htm) organizes listings for everything from ceramics to dolls to sewing to woodworking. StudyWeb (http://www.studyweb.com/) is another cool example of a vertical with 17,000 education and web reference links for students and educators. Or for my litigious readers out there there's Findlaw at http://www.findlaw.com. A beautifully categorized and searchable site, Findlaw will help you do exactly what is says: find just about anything law related on line.
Finally, you may discover (and this is a little spooky) that there is a certain search engine or directory that "speaks your language," or seems to know that when you say "little bayou doughnuts," you actually mean "New Orleans beignets." This has more to do with the people selecting and categorizing the sites, as well as the principles under which the engine searches, than it does any kind of connection you may have established with Excite or Infoseek. In the end it's kinda like dating. You need to test several times to see how each candidate generally performs. Fear not, you'll land on at least one or two search sites (or three or four if you're kinky like me) that'll become your cyberstomping grounds. At least for a few months.
Happy Surfing!
Find these links and more at WWWomen.Com (http://www.wwwomen.com) the web's largest search directory of topics for women online. Email the Virtual Woman with your Internet questions or send snailmail to: WWWomen.Com, Attn: Virtual Woman, 3701 Geary Blvd., #325, S.F., CA 94118. Copyright, 1998. WWWomen, Inc. All rights reserved.
This column can only be re-distributed with written
permission by
Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service or WWWomen, Inc.
Contributing Editor: Melissa Levine
© Copyright 1996-99. WWWomen, Inc.®. All Rights Reserved.
WWWomen is a registered trademark of the WWWomen company.