Navigating the Internet
Searching
Search engines
Content in the Internet can be located through the so-called search engines. Each has built a catalogue of Universal Resource Locators (URLs) that can be retrieved through queries. Whatever the engine being used, one has to bear in mind that the results of a search will depend both on minor details of search strategy and, most important, on the engine's own database; this means that the "best" one is a nonsense, and not finding something with one particular engine should encourage switching to another, or using one of the resourceful meta-searchers (see below). If you visit Search Engine Watch you might be able to learn which one suits best for your momentary purpose, as does ZDNet and especially the very thoughtful Sherlock. My own version of a guide such as the one by SEW comes below.
Do not expect all search results to be accessible: many links (older and not-so-old either) are dead but were not erased from the catalogues!
On this and many other aspects the World Wide Web FAQ's should not be missed.
- I like Google, and who would not? The search results are always rewarding and how fast they come, wow! And the "I'm feeling lucky" button is provocatively effective!
- Yahoo was the one to launch the idea of categorizing the web. It is very popular, loads each page very fast and will be the most likely first try for anybody who wants to search step by step without a keyword previously in mind.
- Altavista features a very large database. So does FAST search, which features multimedia and wireless search facilities that excel.
- Infoseek (now wrapped in Go.com), Lycos and Excite are very commendable, too. At Northern Light there are additional resources (scientific, for example) and alternatives to searching that are worth trying.
A few others that do not have the same power but have an edge of their own that you might enjoy: About might look as familiar as the city-hall library and it relates to the all-in-one
SearchBug page, while
Disinfo is definitely non-mainstream (in case you look for stuff that might be banned from regular search engines).
Langenberg provides for the alternating use of different search engines, dictionaries, references, yellow pages, products, etc., all from one page. To search by countries,
EmulateMe is designed for that. The countries flags, good quality maps, detailed informations, and a search engine all included.
Meta-searchers (metacrawlers)
These manage to do the search combining several (or many!) different engines, so that the weaknesses are cancelled and the strengths reinforced. But the duplicates come frequently as well, therefore an optimization of the results is vital. At Snooz one can find 6 rules about the performance of meta-searchers.
- Chubba is the best to my taste (though not to reviewers, who knows why!). Nice interface, compact results, high relevance. They claim it is addictive and they might be right!
- 37.com is titled for the number of search engines it covers (well, try All-in-One to get 800!) and it does a fine job.
- From good ratings in reviews, one should count on
SherlockHound (no relation with the
Sherlock guide, see above), Vivíssimo,
Queryserver,
Ixquick,
Snooz,
Metor, and
C|NET Search (the followup to savvysearch).
WebRings
A Webring is a different way of searching the Internet and getting great downloads. Each ring organizes and gives quick access to web pages that are related with each other under a given theme, for example wallpapers. Once a visitor gets into any page of a ring, the opportunity is set for connecting to dozens, sometimes thousands of other pages of the same ring, to which the jump can be either sequential or random. The visitor can go on for hours (notwithstanding the swiftness of all jumps) delighted with the contents displayed by each member of the ring. Myself, I was amazed with the very few visits I could make, and I can do little better than recommend the webring way of life.
This section is just beginning to be filled with nice suggestions. Here goes the first bunch:
Have fun!
Software
There are programmes that do metasearching without the resource cost of opening browser windows. Some will even package the results into HTML pages that can be stored for later use.
- Intelliseek's Bull's Eye is my favourite, and it claims to have access to content (databases etc.) that is not available to search engines (check out their web site, the invisible web). It has an automatic update feature for, as they call it, general engine maintenance.
- ZDNet's WebFerret has its
renown, and together with the wonderfully designed
Bingooo and the lightweight (but effective!)
FirstStop WebSearch are not only very good
but the results somehow can complement those of Bull's Eye.
- Copernic have among others the very good
Copernic 2001,
with a "shopper" version
that is very popular.
Bull's Eye and Bingooo can be used as freeware. WebFerret, WebSearch and Copernic come as a free limited (or "standard") edition and a licenseable full (or "deluxe") edition. All free editions are fine for most purposes, see
for example the case with Copernic.
Of course, one must not ommit the powerful Peer-to-peer strategy. There is the centralised searching pioneered by Napster and now expanded by WinMX and others to allow searching for executables, video, images, etc., versus the decentralised
Gnutella network that has done this from the start and can be quite effective.
Portugal Wide Web
Please note that, except where indicated, these sites are in
Portuguese only.
- The National Foundation for Scientific
Computing (FCCN) is the basal structure for managing the Internet in Portugal
and the connections with Europe, Angola and the rest of the world. The Internet
Service Providers (ISP) in Portugal, in their turn, are networks that, through the
Portugal Internet eXchange (PIX), relay
to FCCN.
- The classic for searching in Portugal: SAPO.
NetBI is its side-dish, a searchable directory of
Portuguese e-mail addresses organised according to the information supplied by the
users. It is an associate with Telepac
network, host to a large share of "home" e-mail users in the country.
- CUSCO is another important search engine for
Portuguese content, and initially my favourite.
- The once Government-maintained webspace
Terravista is strictly in Portuguese, and
hosts thousands of Portuguese, Brazilian, etc., homepages.
- Atlantis GEASI calls itself Portugal
FreeNet home. This site hosts a few important mirrors and is the gateway to many
free resources, most of them open to the anonymous visitor.
- Other relevant hosts, featuring "armies" of e-mail users:
IP Global, a large (claimed largest)
private ISP network in Portugal; Via
Net-Works (ex-Esoterica) has a great variety of services online, like
Teleweb and
Clix, the latter very successful among individual
users and also noted for its travel channel, CanalViajar (by the same authors
of SemantiX, see below); finally, HLC
Multimédia, OberonSis,
MicroEuropa,
PGSite (English version of the site)
and KBit, are mainly devoted to hosting
e-commerce.
- Portugalmail,
Mail.pt and
SimplesNet are further examples of popular
e-mail hosts in Portugal.
- Some local affiliates to larger data networks:
Comnexo (with British Telecom);
KPNQuest (ex-EUNet).
- The ICEP (a bureau for the international
promotion of Portuguese business) has a fine page in English. Check also the
MadeiraIsland site (also in English).
Specifically for accomodation in Portugal, try the
Portugal Travel Guide maintained by SemantiX
(optionally in English, but not maintained). Oh, and by the way, do not forget my
little page
(Visiting
Portugal), as well as another
links
page (in Portuguese but covering major search engines to Portugal)!
- Links to the University of Évora
and the Biology Department, where I work.