Give them wings   and they shall fly!

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    There are many kinds of search engines. Some search engines search a broad topic and then you narrow down, others allow you to begin with a narrow search. As you begin using various search engines you will find one with which you are most comfortable.

    Whichever search engine you decide to go with, check out their:

• help pages
• tips
• advanced features.

1. Use Exact phrases. If you know an exact phrase, put the phrase in quotes, for example: "golden gate bridge".

 
2. Use lowercase text in your searches. When you use lowercase text, the search service finds both uppercase and lowercase results.

 
3. Try natural language queries. Type a phrase or a question such as "Where can I find a schedule for women's basketball?"

         Alta Vista: www.altavista.com

• help page
• advanced features

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• If you would like to see a more indepth description in how to search using the altavista search engine check out:
• Seven Steps Toward Better Searching 

    Other search engines you could use are:

        Excite: www.excite.com

Provides a more limited number of items containing very descriptive summaries of the information at each location.

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HotBot: www.hotbot.com

Provides narrow searches if using the advanced search feature to refine your search.

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These search engines review sites and ranks them in terms of quality.

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InfoSeek: www.infoseek.com
Yahoo!: www.yahoo.com
FastSearch: www.alltheweb.com
Google: google.com
Northern Lights: www.northernlight.com

Of course you could also try these search engines and decide for yourself which you find most useful for the type of search you are making.

For a more indepth description of types of search engines check out:

http://www.nueva.pvt.k12.ca.us/~debbie/library/research/research.html

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Content by Mrs. A. M. Levesque
Copyright 1999. All Rights Reserved
Made Mon. Dec. 13, 1999
Revised: Aug. 2001