Figure 4 searching the Web

FINER POINTS OF SEARCHING

We trust that you completed the hands-on exercise without difficulty and that you have a better appreciation for the research potential of the Web. Searching for information is a trial-and-error process in that there is no guaranteed method for success. The Web may or may not contain the documents you need, and even if it does, there is no assurance that you will be able to find them. Nevertheless, we have been successful more often than not, and patience and common sense will usually prevail.

As we have already indicated, there is no single best search engine. Each engine uses its own database and its own search algorithm, so that the same query will return different results with different engines. Yahoo, for example, may pro­vide the best results with one type of query, whereas a different search engine, such as Excite or Infoseek, will provide better results on a different query. Hence, it is good practice to use at least two different engines on the same query in order to obtain a sufficient number of relevant documents.

Note, too, that any given query can return hundreds (even thousands) of doc­uments, so it is essential to structure queries in such a way as to return only the most relevant hits. In general, the more specific your query, the better. A search on "movies," for example, would be unnecessarily broad if your real interest was "science fiction movies." Conversely, a query that is too specific may not return any documents at all. Thus, as we have said throughout, searching is an iterative process during which you continually refine your search criteria.