Re: Search Engines

[Rahel Bailie <rbailie -at- CASTLETON -dot- COM>]

In a message dated 98-07-06 13:18:22 EDT, lystad -at- LYNDEN -dot- COM writes:

<< You could always try www.dogpile.com. It uses all the major search
engines simultaneously: Lycos, yahoo, altavista, etc. It sorts
the matches by search engine, giving you the option of pursuing
the thread in one search engine or another, or all of them if you
prefer. >>

<<<As a librarian, I was taught never to use Meta engines for searches
because
the formulas that the individual search engines use are so different
that
you will hardly ever get what you want to get.  (Then again I was
trained to
get the most specific information possible, and to avoid the
general.)>>>

Also be aware that search engines continually change their gathering
criteria. The tricks that webmasters use to get their site into the top
10 hits of a particular search engine may work one month but not the
next. (There is an e-zine that lists the trick-of-the-month for those
who care about such things.)

The other factor is how search engines use cookies to tailor information
they deliver. Alta Vista, for example, uses cookies to tailors banner
ads, etc. according to the sites you've requested and/or visited. One
could view this as a user aide to get hooked up with appropriate sites
or as an invasion of privacy. The technical communication hook to this
is that users aren't notified that cookies are being delivered. Your
choices are to disable cookies completely, thereby rendering some sites
unusable, or have the system ask you repeatedly about receiving cookies.
I'll spare everyone the lecture about customer satisfaction [sic] around
this issue.

-------------------------------------------------
Rahel A. Bailie, Senior Technical Writer
Castleton Network Systems Corporation
Burnaby, BC, Canada
Tel 604-293-0039 (5432) / Fax 604-293-0047
http://www.castleton.com