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23feb07 AR
Directories are not really search engines, but mainly systematically arranged listings of links selected by humans instead
of a computer program. This ensures low recall and high relevance. ALso consider encyclopedias.
o - BUBL -- United Kingdom. The BUlletin Board for Libraries is an excellent organised listing of links, collected by cybrarians.
o - Librarians Index to the Internet -- Based in California.
o - Open Directory
o - Digital Librarian: a librarian's choice of the best of the Web
o - EiNET.net -- One of the oldest directories on the Net, EiNET lists 2.000.000 links in about 700.000 categories. Links are annotated.
o - Infomine -- ''Scholarly Internet resource collections''. InfoMINE is built by librarians and intended for scholars.
o - Internet Public Library -- Michigan, USA.
o - LookSmart
o - The WWW virtual Library -- Geneva, Switserland.
o - World Wide Web Virtual Library
o - Yahoo -- The first, but no longer maintained.
o - NL-Menu -- "Dé Nederlandse webgids sinds 1992". September 2006 bought by Vinden.nl from the Royal Library, this site is the oldest Dutch
language webdirectory (started in 1992) originally built by librarians and up to 2004 maintained by the Royal Library, then
by Public Libraries, until september 2006.
o - Start Nederland
o - Startpagina -- Dutch language systematic arrangement of all kinds of subjects and 'daughterpages'. Popular.
Introduction: For one reason or another, the below directories are on the decline. Use them only when the above dirs do not give the answer
being looked for.
o - About.com
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25nov07 AR
Here are the search engines that in general are considered to be the Top Four, or Big Four. In general, it is pretty safe to assume that none of the folllowing four may be missed for any serious search. Or, in other
words, if the user after having used all four still cannot find the required info, chances are that the info is pretty difficult
to find anyway.
o - Ask -- Ask is probably the most promising search engine at this moment. Development of its functionalities are clearly showing results
that is of benefit to the general user, functionalities such as the possibility to save search results by the item, suggestions
for broader or narrower terms, factual information and much more.
o - Exalead -- Although its database seems to be a bit smaller then the ones of the Big Four, Exalead's search language has much more functionalities
which enables the searcher to create more complex searches: near, truncation, and analyses of search results with suggestions
for narrower, broader and alternate terms, references to encyclopedic information etc. My personal favorite. Beautifull advanced
searching functionalities.
o - Google -- The operators (some of them) are listed in the Help file
(http://wwww.google.com/help/operators.html)
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o - Microsoft Live
o - Yahoo
Introduction: Some major search engines that because of functionality may be considered 'important', but for one reason or another have
not made it to the Big Four.
o - Direct Hit
o - FASTSearch
o - GigaBlast
o - Oingo
o - WebBrain
o - Wisenut
o - gigablast
o - All the web
o - Alta Vista
o - Excite
o - HotBot -- Once number one, now owned by Lycos, and uses results from Ask.
o - Infoseek -- Powered by Yahoo!
o - Northern Light
o - Teoma -- Sold to Ask Jeeves to form the search engine Ask.com
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The category of Serial Meta searchers is used to search more Single Search Engines in 'serial mode' without having to retype the query, in order to follow "Reusers
Law of 3".
o - QuerySter SearchX -- Site does not exist anymore. Serial metasearcher, uses about 10 SEs by printing a floating bar on top of the original SE search
screen. Works great, except for Google when the floating bar suddenly disappers.
o - Sputtr -- When setting 'Open results in new window', Sputtr can be used as a alternative to SearchX.
o - Zuula -- Serial metasearcher using 5 SSE's in tabs, but the tabs can be configured. Very handy: saves recent searches. Supports OR,
-, phrase, site:
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o - Clusty -- succesor of Vivisimo. CLustering engine with surprisingly few results but the clustering may be helpfull to find new terms
and keywords.
o - vivisimo
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Internet tools are some clever instruments or techniques that can be used to assist (!) the searcher in validating informatin
found on the Net.
o - Best Search Tools Chart
o - FAGAN finder
o - Google features
o - Google operators
o - pandia search central
o - Goshme -- For searching search engines. Registration required.
Introduction: These tools are specifically designed to check for the overlap between SEs, if there is any...
o - Missing pieces -- From DogPile meta search engine.
o - Thumbshots ranking -- Gives a ranking comparison between results from two search engines of your choice.
o - GMacker.com -- Support for using Google's search field ''daterange:'' which requires Julian date values. This util will calculate the correct
Julian date values for any daterange and execute the search.
o - Twingine -- enter one search to get results in two separate windows: one for Google and one for Yahoo.
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Some of the more usefull Dutch search engines, Dutch origine, mainly Dutch language, aimed at the Dutch market.
o - Ilse
o - Search.nl
o - Track.nl
o - Vindex.nl
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2jul07 AR
Search engines to find files in the FTP domain.
o - FTP site list -- Monthly updated listing of anonymuos FTP sites. International.
o - FTPsearchengines.com -- Listing of FTP search engines, FTP-clients, file searchers and an introduction to FTP.
o - Filewatcher -- Searching on (parts of) filenames
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13dec07 ar
A well prepared free text search strategy starts with finding the terminology. What terms best describe the concept at hand.
This category lists some tools that may coome in handy.Dictionaries can be very helpfull in preparation of a search. They should be used in accordance to the Semantic Table to create
proper keywords and paying attention to such things as synonyms, homonyms, spelling variations, translations, history, etc.
o - Dictionaries
o - IATE -- Interactive Terminology for Europe. Succesor to Eurodicotom. European Terminology database. Very usefull for bureaucratic
terminology in all languages of the EU.
o - Roget's Internet Thesaurus
o - The Free Dictionary -- "...English, Medical, Legal, Financial, and Computer Dictionaries, Thesaurus, Acronyms, Idioms, Encyclopedia, a Literature
Reference Library."
o - WWWebster Dictionary
o - YourDictionary.com
o - Acronyms Finder -- to look up all meanings of a certain abbreviation.
o - Altavista Babelfish
o - Google Translate
o - SysTran translations -- Same system as Babelfish.
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12maa08 ar
For prospective searching, to find information that cites the information in the search argument, to find information that
is newer then what we have. Also consider the vertical citation indexes like CLAIMS and Derwernt Patents Citations Index (both
Dialog) for patent citations.
Also try the link: operator available in Exalead. Used to be available in Google and Yahoo but has since some time now been turned off.
o - CiteSeer.IST -- "Citations made by indexed documents". Searches about 767.000 docs. Emphasis on mathematics and computer sciences.
o - Google Scholar -- Limited, simple, but useable.
o - Live Search Academic -- Which is Microsoft's answer to Google's attempt. This one has remarkable poor results with hardly any citations at all.
o - Arts & Humanities Citation Index -- ISI Institute of Scientific Information. Dialog file 439.
o - ISI Web of Knowledge
o - Science Citation Index -- ISI Institute of Scientific Information. Dialog file 34, 434.
o - Scopus -- Elsevier B.V. Much larger then the ISI producsts.
o - Social Science Citation Index -- ISI Institute of Scientific Information. Dialog file 7.
o - Web of Science -- Thomson.
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Also called hidden web, or dark web, which is all the same thing.
o - Complete Planet -- Bright Planet Corp. Listing of about 70.000 searchable databases and specialty search engines, not found by 'normal' search
engines.
o - IncyWincy -- 'The invisble web search engine'.
o - Invisible Web -- (ooo, is being refurbished).
o - Goshme -- To find search engines with exclusive content and features. Needs (free) registration, which can be slow.
o - Turbo 10 -- "Search the deep net".
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Here is a modest attempt to give no more than 10 search tips that in general should help any searcher improve search results.
The term 'recall' is the total number of hits retrieved, the term 'relevance' is the number of hits considered relevant by
the searcher. Best tip of all: ask your local librarian!
1 --
Use more than one search engine
-- Use at least three single search engines to get a reasonable coverage of whats out there. Search engines typically only
cover a small part of the Net.
2 --
Use AND to increase relevance
-- Use an AND operator to significantly reduce recall and at the same time increase relevance. Be carefull how to write AND in different search engines. (Type a space in most search engines).
3 --
Use OR to include synonyms
-- Use the OR operator in the search and to significantly increase recall at the expense of relevance. (Type OR in capitals
in most search engines).
4 --
Use semantics
-- When looking for keywords to search with, use different spellings, abbreviations, translations, synonyms, plural, singular,
truncation (Exalead!) etc. Use professional terms when looking for 'professional' information, use popular terms vv.
5 --
Use NOT to exlude unwanted terms
-- Use the NOT operator to exclude unwanted terms from the results. (Type a dash "-" in most search engines.
6 --
Consider web directories
-- Consider using some of the larger web directories if you are unsure about search terms, want tips about experts, or
an introduction to a certain subject.
7 --
Consider meta search engines
-- Use meta search engines as a last resort if none of the major search engines do not produce the results you want.
8 --
Use field names to restrict your search
-- Use field names to significantly increase relevance and lower recall. Use intitle: to search for titlewords only, use site: to search in a particular domain, use filetype: to search for particular document formats.
9 --
Consider using Serial search engines
-- Use one of the Serial Search Engines to quickly search more than one single search engine in succession without having
to retype the query.
10 --
Use library catalogs
-- When searching for validated, high quality information with good coverage, use one or more online library catalogues.
Use a library loan system to have your librarian borrow the books for you.
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o - Ethnologue -- International. Describes for each country in the world the languages spoken.
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10oct07 AR
o - Armed Forces of the World
o - Federation of American Scientists -- Very good. Also consider Global Security
o - Global Security -- 'Sucessor' to FAS, also by John Pike.
o - Intelligence Network
o - Kim Spy
o - Military Data Resource
o - Open Directory Military by country
o - Open Directory Military directories
o - Order of Battle -- Fee-based, by Ravi Rikhye.
o - SearchMIL
o - Sipri -- The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute is the most important institute in the world on arms transfer and production,
with all significat databases online to generate reports that are for free to download.
o - Startpunt Defensie
o - Uniform insignia
o - infowar
o - Jane's Information Group -- The best there is, not only defence, but mainly international security with reports, news, reference and consultancy.
o - Periscope Arms database -- Order of battle, news, reports. Much smaller and less reliable then Jane's, but also much easier to use then Jane's.
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16jun07 AR
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23may06AR
o - Financial Times
o - Frankfurter Allgemeine
o - Washington Post
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23may06AR
o - Christian Science Monitor
o - International Herald Tribune
o - Le Monde
o - New York Times
o - Pakistan Tribune
o - Suddeutsche Zeitung
o - The Times
o - Washington Times
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23may06AR
o - Algemeen Dagblad
o - NRC Handelsblad
o - Telegraaf
o - Volkskrant
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23may06AR
Introduction: use one of the following links to find all (?) newspapers. Favourites are Web Wombat and secondly IPL Online Newspapers.
o - All the world's newspapers -- Web Wombat Pty, Australia. International in scope, covers thousands digital newspapers. Browsing by country, region. Coverage
looks good.
o - NewsCentral -- USA. Links to more than 3500 online newspapers. Arranged by region, with separate link to college newspapers. Very small coverage,
much less then Wombat and Newslink.. For Africa, only three countries are listed.
o - Newslink newspapers -- International, arranged by region or state. Also by category. Coverage is less than Wombat, but reasonable.
o - Online newspapers -- Part of the Internet Public Library (IPL), lists titles per region and country. Pretty extensive, second to Wombat.
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16jun07 AR
Most of these also publish full text reports on all kinds of subjects in the field of international relations. The 'R' links
to full text reports, the 'J' links to journa | |