A great deal of the really good content on the www is contained in
databases, so what, you say. Well, most search engines are unable to
access these databases in their search process. In other words, this
is data you'll never locate unless you know it's out there and you
know exactly how to access it.
As I said in the above paragraph search e-sources for the most part
are unable to access information contained in these Web-accessible
databases. They are however able to access the search e-source or
interface associated with these databases, if you know how to search
for them that is.
Here is an example (a picture is worth a thousand words they say, or
should that be changed in this new millennium to "a screen shot is
worth a thousand bits of data")
The trick is to search for the specific topic you're interested in
with the Boolean "and" together with the word "database" in your
query.
Searched the web for
medicine.
Have a look at the results produced using only the word medicine for
our search. Results 17,900,000 documents found, but no databases.
Now perform that same search using
medicine and database.
Now we look at the search string "medicine and database. First
you'll notice that the search e-source tells us that our "and" is
not necessary (see article "Search with the power of Boolean
operators" in the OU Interactive Library)
We have returned 1,390,000 results. (More than 16 million less than
the above search) Not only have we eliminated many millions of
useless data references, but we have produced a much narrower search
field with highly pertinent information to be found in the hundreds
of databases we are now able to peruse.
This type of searching will produce highly targeted results without
having to dig through millions of rag tag commercial sites, message
boards and discussion lists. You'll generally find that these
results come without all of heavy graphics and hype you'll fine with
a wider search method.
"Your Success Is Our Success"
jbp
About the Author
[ jim Peters is Manager of HREF"http://NetServeInt.com">NSI "SOLUTIONS". NSI
specializes in custom website design,promotion, maintenance, HREF"http://registeryourdomainforless.com">domain
registration ,site
hosting ,site and graphic design, as well as e-commerce
packages for small to medium sized companies. In other words
"SOLUTIONS".]