eNew Egypt
Searching is easy as 1.23 Million?

Last week we touched on some of the issues around developing more effective Internet searches. As in last week's column, we saw an unusual bird flying above Main Street and wondered what kind it was. From that we were able to formulate the following questions and answers: Who/What -- gray and white bird, about the size of a crow, yellow and black beak. Where? Flying above Main Street, New Egypt NJ. When, in the daytime. How? Flying fast, chasing a pigeon. Why, bird of prey?

You may be thinking gee, now I've got lots of keywords to help me in my Internet search. Let's try a search for say yellow and black beak bird.

Alta Vista returned 6,621,341 pages

Go.com returned 56,694,068 pages

After seeing over 63 million page results, you may be thinking that searching the Internet is for the birds. By now you're probably getting more frustrated. After all, last week we claimed that using many keywords was the essential building block to effectively searching the Internet. While it may be true that we used more words in our search, our query was nonetheless ineffective. So then what's wrong with this picture?

While creating search queries with more keywords, we need to be very selective in our choices. It's a good idea to remove all the search engine "stoplist" words from our queries. All search engines are designed to ignore stoplist words, which are prepositions, conjunctions and common verbs. In all there are 600 stoplist words and they typically include and, about, the, of, a, in, as, if, not, why, never, before, is and it.

Additionally, we also need to remove verbs and modifiers/qualifiers (adjectives, adverbs and predicate subjects) from our keywords. Essentially, verbs and modifiers are very subjective and can have many other words that have the same and similar meanings. For example, the word fast could be replaced by quick, like lighting, soared, and so on. As a general rule, try to avoid using action terms and mostly try to avoid using modifiers in your queries. Exceptions to these guidelines may make sense only when a modifier helps to precisely define your object, such as "Swiss cheese." Once we do that we see that black and yellow beak bird reverts back to just bird.

So now that we've come full circle, what is the answer? The answer is to keep thinking about what information you seek. And in our example we want to identify a particular bird we saw flaying over Main Street. How about listing various birds of prey? Eagles, owls, hawks falcons, vultures.

Alta Vista returned 710,104 pages

Go.com returned 523,614 pages

Effectively, we reduced the search results by 98%. More importantly, in the first 10 results, one site had pictures of these birds. So that's what a Peregrine Falcon look like. Another good tip is to try using the right tool to do the job. I know that I wouldn't want to dig a garden with a spoon, would you? So then why not use a specialized search engine for the task at hand.

Quick Clicks

www.iwon.com - this web site gives away $10,000 daily, $1 Million monthly, and $10 Million annually. Visit daily for news stories, weather information, shopping and a search engine. Click on links and accumulate points, the only way to win the drawings

www.zdtv.com - this site expands on the 25-hour cable television network that provides viewers information to improve their knowledge about computing, technology and the Internet. The TV show and integrated website introduces new users to ways that computer can help them at work and home.

www.rebeccasgarden.com - has garden tips, garden tours, garden planning suggestions, "how-to" for garden ideas and craft ideas. It also has recipes and many more interesting things for the garden enthusiast.

Vince Lotito is President & Founder of Internet eBusiness Solutions Center, a business and technology firm based in New Egypt. Have any questions you want answered but were afraid to ask? Drop me an email at eNewEgypt@mainstreetsusa.com or call 758-8858