SEARCHING   THE   WWW   THROUGH META-SEARCH ENGINES

With a current estimated 6 billion web pages and a projected doubling in size within the next 2 years, the World Wide Web has evolved into a harried researcher's dream information source. However, the same phenomenal growth has created an equally disturbing nightmare: How does one access that information?

Since Google, billed as the largest single search engine, covers some 50% of the total web, the answer becomes obvious. In order to attempt a comprehensive search of the WWW, the researcher must query several different search engines. An economical method for using several search engines at once is to rely on a "meta-search" engine or index.

A "meta-search engine" allows the user to input a search term or phrase, and then it conducts a simultaneous search of multiple smaller search engines. It collates the "hits" for each indexing source, and posts a listing of the pertinent web sites. Regrettably, the time-saving advantages of using a meta-search engine are often canceled out by the time-consuming task of shifting through the large number of results. Despite this drawback, a meta-search remains, in many cases, the only viable method for finding a difficult search topic.

The table below shows various popular WWW meta-search engines

1. At your Internet browser, type the Vivisimo URL address (vivisimo.com) in the LOCATION or ADDRESS text box, and press < ENTER > to log into the Vivisimo web site.

   
   

2. At the blinking cursor, type in your search term (s), and use the mouse to specify the search parameters of your request.
   
   • place quotation marks "   " around the words that should appear together in a phrase such as "global warming".

   • place the word AND or a plus sign ( + ) in front of words that must be present in the document. The phrase cloning and ethics [ searched in this mode ] will yield information on the ethical aspects of cloning.
   • place a minus sign ( - ) in front of the word to de-emphasize it in the search. As an example, "san antonio missions" -baseball will provide better hit results on Spanish missions in San Antonio.

   
   

3. Use the Search the Web drop down menu to the right of the search box to narrow your search to a specific NEWS subject or search engine such as: eBay, FirstGov, Pub Med & USDA .

   
   

4. To process your Vivisimo search, click the Search button that appears at the right side of the LOCATION text box.

   
   

5. Vivisimo will then post a collated list of the search results. The listing will show the web site name, web address, and a brief description of the source.

   
   

6. The Power Search hyperlink can be used to further customize your search by selecting:
   
   • domain;

   • geographic area;

   • language;

   • number of hits; or

   • searching time limits
   
   

7. To access a specific web site, use the mouse to click on the "hyperlink" shown.
   

8. Conduct a sample Vivisimo web search.

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