142 lines
5.6 KiB
HTML
142 lines
5.6 KiB
HTML
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2 Final//EN">
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<HTML>
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<HEAD>
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<META NAME="GENERATOR" CONTENT="SGML-Tools 1.0.9">
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<TITLE>HOWTO: How to stay updated: Searching</TITLE>
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<LINK HREF="Update-6.html" REL=next>
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<LINK HREF="Update-4.html" REL=previous>
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<LINK HREF="Update.html#toc5" REL=contents>
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</HEAD>
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<BODY>
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<A HREF="Update-6.html">Next</A>
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<A HREF="Update-4.html">Previous</A>
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<A HREF="Update.html#toc5">Contents</A>
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<HR>
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<H2><A NAME="s5">5. Searching</A></H2>
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<P>
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<!--
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up-to-date!information resources!search engines
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-->
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There are many avenues open when searching for something particular.
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Remember you can also use the web search engines and that some, like
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<UL>
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<LI>
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<A HREF="http://www.altavista.com/">Altavista</A>
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</LI>
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<LI>
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<A HREF="http://www.excite.com">Excite</A>
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</LI>
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<LI>
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<A HREF="http://hotbot.lycos.com/">Hotbot</A></LI>
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</UL>
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can also search Usenet news.
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<P>There are numerous search engines available but they are not all equal
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neither in method of rating relevance nor in size of database.
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For established, authoritative pages I recommend using
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<A HREF="http://www.google.com">Google</A>
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since it scores pages by the number of links pointing to them.
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People often link to pages they find important or useful and
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Google uses this.
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<P>Google takes time to score a page properly so it is not that useful
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for searching for the newest or more exotic topics. For that I
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normally recommend either the very fast and wide spanning
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<A HREF="http://www.alltheweb.com">AllTheWeb</A>
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or meta engines, web systems that forwards your request to
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a number of other search engines, receives the results,
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collates and scores before presenting you with the result.
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My favourite meta engine is
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<A HREF="http://www.go2net.com">Go2Net</A>
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formerly known as MetaCrawler.
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<P>Such preferences are all subjective and the systems improve
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continuously so you need to experiment yourself. There is
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no perfect search engine and as less than 10 percent of all pages
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are indexed you need to try several engines if you don't succeed
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at first.
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<P>
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<P>Also remember that
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<A HREF="http://www.deja.com">Deja</A>
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is a dedicated news searcher that keeps a news spool from early 1995 and onwards.
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<P>Even though more and more things take place of the web these days, do
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not forget that there is a lot of information available on the various
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ftp servers around the world. Some web search engines also index ftp
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servers but the tool of choice is still the Archie servers, systems
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that regularly scan major ftp servers around the world and keep lists
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of files. These can be accessed in many ways, either by Archie clients
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like <CODE>archie</CODE> or the X11 version <CODE>xarchie</CODE> which should be
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available on any well maintained linux system. Failing that you can
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access archie servers using telnet to any of the servers listed
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<P>
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<UL>
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<LI>
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<A HREF="telnet://archie.au">Australia</A></LI>
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<LI>
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<A HREF="telnet://archie.univie.ac.at">Austria</A></LI>
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<LI>
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<A HREF="telnet://archie.belnet.be">Belgium</A></LI>
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<LI>
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<A HREF="telnet://archie.funet.fi">Finland</A></LI>
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<LI>
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<A HREF="telnet://archie.th-darmstadt.de">Germany</A></LI>
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<LI>
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<A HREF="telnet://archie.kornet.nm.kr">Korea</A></LI>
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<LI>
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<A HREF="telnet://archie.unipi.it">Italy</A></LI>
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<LI>
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<A HREF="telnet://archie.kuis.kyoto-u.ac.jp">Japan</A></LI>
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<LI>
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<A HREF="telnet://archie.icm.edu.pl">Poland</A></LI>
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<LI>
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<A HREF="telnet://archie.luth.se">Sweden</A></LI>
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<LI>
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<A HREF="telnet://archie.rediris.es">Spain</A></LI>
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<LI>
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<A HREF="telnet://archie.doc.ic.ac.uk">United Kingdom</A></LI>
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<LI>
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<A HREF="telnet://archie.bunyip.com">United States</A></LI>
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<LI>
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<A HREF="telnet://archie.internic.net">United States</A></LI>
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</UL>
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<P>
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<P>Of course you should try to use the server closest to you, and to see
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the list of current server you can either start the Archie client with
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no arguments or, if telnetting, by querying the server. Online help is
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available. Unfortunately not all servers are synchronised, so you
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might have to search a few before finding what you are looking for.
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<P>Recently a more user friendly ftp index server entered the net, the
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<A HREF="http://ftpsearch.lycos.com/">ftpsearch</A>
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engine, featuring many options and with a rather stark interface,
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in the best Unix tradition.
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<P>Most of these offer help on efficient searching techniques, reading this
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can speed up your searches enormously. Investing a little time here will
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pay off in the long run.
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<P>If you have trouble getting onto the Internet but have mail then you
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should have a look at the <EM>access via mail</EM> FAQ. Naturally you can
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get it over e-mail using the
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<A HREF="mailto:mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu">US, Canada and South America server</A>
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entering only this line in the BODY of the note:
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<P><CODE>send usenet/news.answers/internet-services/access-via-email</CODE>
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<P>or
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<A HREF="mailto:mailbase@mailbase.ac.uk">Europe, Asia etc server</A>
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entering only this line in the BODY of the note:
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<P><CODE>send lis-iis e-access-inet.txt</CODE>
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<P>or look through your news spool if you have one locally in
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<A HREF="news:news.answers">news.answers newsgroup</A>.
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<P>Finally, you might wish to get more information from a person, say an
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author of a software package. usually you can find the e-mail address
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in the accompanying documentation which normally would be in the
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<A HREF="file:///usr/doc/">documentation subdirectory</A>
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but failing that and also if the given address is no longer valid you
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could find help in the FAQ for
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<A HREF="http://www.qucis.queensu.ca/FAQs/email/finding.html">finding e-mail addresses</A>.
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<P>
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<P>
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<HR>
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<A HREF="Update-6.html">Next</A>
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<A HREF="Update-4.html">Previous</A>
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<A HREF="Update.html#toc5">Contents</A>
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</BODY>
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</HTML>
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