Search engines
Selection of search engines, their advantages and disadvantages; special features; and search tips.
05 Nov 04
Google has a large database, which is frequently refreshed. They claim to index 4 billion web pages (6). It is user friendly with its simple and easy to use interface. It is fast and delivers relevant results: generally you get what you are searching for. Moreover, the most relevant results appear first, thanks to their fine ranking technology.
Search tips
Overview of all search tips mentioned in the IRC article "How to find water and sanitation information on the Internet?"
Special features search engines
Overview of special features, e.g. searching within a certain domain or website; searching for a specific file type; the use of diacritics.(5)
Teoma
09 Nov 04
Teoma is a good search engine for identifying metasites and communities, for research in new areas, and for topics you don’t know yet who’s involved. It helps you discover new sites. Quality, however, is mixed: sometimes very good, sometimes results of more than a year old.(8)
It indexes less web sites than Google or Yahoo! (about 2 billion English-only web documents (9). The additional value can be found in the special way the search results are displayed.
Teoma’s results page shows a:
- list with regular results;
- section on "Related Pages", which Teoma finds by analysing link patterns;
- "Refine" section with suggestions how to narrow your search. For example: searching for “sanitation” leads to suggestions like “environmental sanitation”; “ecological sanitation”; and “food safety”.
- "Resources” section with link collections from experts and enthusiasts.
WATSAN Search Engines by Google
11 Sep 07
Making use of Google Custom Search Engine, two customised search engines have been created by IRC:
- WATSAN Search Engine - searches all sites in the WATSAN Portal (www.watsan.info)
- WASH Search Engine - searches all sites in the WATSAN Portal + a selection of WASH web sites
Yahoo!
09 Nov 04
Yahoo! is one of the best known and most popular Internet portals. Originally just a subject directory, it now is a search engine, directory, and portal (7). Since February 2004 Yahoo! has its own, very large, search engine database. To use Yahoo! Search (and not the directory or the portal), use the url: search.yahoo.com
