Using a search engine is like finding information using the card catalog at your local library. If you are looking for information on whales, you would look under the "W" section of the card catalog and find a selection of books or periodicals on whales. Search engines on the WWW are very similar in concept, except everything is produced electronically.
The key to finding information on the Web is to make sure that your request is a specific as possible. For example, do not search for "whales" if you are specifically looking for sites related to "blue whales." Try to be as specific as possible.
AltaVista is a popular search engine to use when you need to do a pinpoint search. It is a comprehensive and fast indexer of "full text" that is updated every six to eight weeks. The following procedures are basic steps to searching with AltaVista.
Before beginning your first search, you should print the information from AltaVista's "Help" section which provides approximately five pages of useful search tips.
When you get to AltaVista's main page, go directly to the Advanced search. This section provides more options to narrow your search. The image below is a sample of the Advanced search page.
Select where you want to search and in what language. For this module we will use the AltaVista default settings you see above. However, if you would like to see the different options, click and hold on the buttons below.
Single-click in the "Selection Criteria" box below and type in your search word. From your help pages, check to see which is the best syntax to use for your search terms.
Single-click in the "Results Ranking Criteria" box below and type in the words you want listed first in your search results.
If you are looking specifically for information within a certain time period, type in the starting date and ending date. Note the format from the example.
Click on the "Submit Advanced Query" button.
Depending on your topic request and the traffic on the WWW at the time, your results will take anywhere from 20 seconds to a minute to display the results on the screen.
To search for images from AltaVista's Advanced query page, type image:"name of image" in the "Selection Criteria" box.