| Search Engine | Connector Terms (Boolean) | Phrase Searching | Search Modifiers | Proximity Searching | Truncation or Wildcards |
| AltaVista | Yes. Can use AND, OR, AND NOT, and (...) in Advanced Search. Default connector is AND. | Yes. Put phrase in quotation marks. | Can use + and - in the Simple Search. Not available in Advanced Search. | Yes. Use NEAR to specify that terms be within 10 words of each other. | Yes. Use the * for truncation or as a wildcard. |
| Excite | Yes. Can use AND, OR, AND NOT, and (...). Must be in ALL CAPS. Default connector is OR. | Yes. Put phrase in quotation marks. | Can use + and - to require or exclude terms. | Proximity searching not available. | Truncation not available. |
| Google | Yes. Can use AND. Default connector is AND. | Yes. Put phrase in quotation marks. | Can use + and - to require or exclude terms. | Proximity searching not available. | Truncation not available. |
| HotBot | Yes. Specify Boolean Phrase in the drop-down box. Can use AND, OR, NOT, and (...). Default connector is AND. | Yes. Put phrase in quotation marks or specify in the drop-down box. | Can use + and - to require or exclude terms. | Proximity searching not available. | Yes. Use the * for truncation or as a wildcard. |
| InfoSeek | Use of connector terms not available. Default connector is OR. | Yes. Put phrase in quotation marks. | Can use + and - to require or exclude terms. | Proximity searching not available. | Truncation not available. |
| Lycos Pro | Yes. Can use AND, OR, NOT, and (...). Can specify AND, OR in the drop-down box. Default connector is AND. | Yes. Put phrase in quotation marks or specify in the drop-down box. | Can use + and - to require or exclude terms. | Proximity searching available in the drop-down box. | Truncation not available. |
| Magellan | Yes. Can use AND, OR, AND NOT, and (...). Must be in ALL CAPS. Default connector is OR. | Yes. Put phrase in quotation marks. | Can use + and - to require or exclude terms. | Proximity searching not available. | Truncation not available. |
| Northern Light Power Search | Yes. Can use AND, OR, NOT, and (...). Default connector is AND. | Yes. Put phrase in quotation marks. | Can use + and - to require or exclude terms. | Proximity searching not available. | Yes. Use the * to replace multiple characters. Use the % to replace only one character. |
| WebCrawler | Yes. Can use AND, OR, NOT, and (...). Default connector is OR. | Yes. Put phrase in quotation marks. | Can use + and - to require or exclude terms. | Proximity searching not available. | Truncation not available. |
| Yahoo! | Limited. Default connector is AND. Can specify AND, OR in Advanced Search. | Yes. Put phrase in quotation marks. | Can use + and - to require or exclude terms. | Proximity searching not available. | Truncation not available. |
For more information, see
How to Choose a Search Engine or Research Database at the University of Albany Libraries.
Additional Comments and Information
AltaVista Search
Directory Search and Advanced Search available. Can search Web or Usenet.
Enter keywords, phrases, or natural language queries in the Simple Search box. Relevancy ranking is automatic in the simple search.
In the Advanced Search, enter terms in order of importance in the top box to set relevancy ranking. Enter search with Boolean operators in the lower box.
Use the plus (+) symbol in the Simple Search box to require a word. Use a minus (-) sign to exclude a word from your search.
Can use field limiting to limit search to anchor:, applet:, domain:, host:, image:, link:, text:, title:, or URL:.
Can limit by language of web site.
Excite
Directory Search and Advanced Search available.
Searches the concepts, not the actual words. Use of Boolean operators turns off the concept-based search mechanism.
Offers a Search for More Documents Like This One feature.
Option to sort search results by web site.
Google
Using the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button takes users directly to the website of the first returned result.
Offers a Find Similar Pages feature called GoogleScout.
HotBot
Directory Search and Advanced Search available.
To refine search results use the Search Only Within These Results option.
Can limit to language, date, media type, and location of site in the Advanced Search.
Can use the drop-down search box to search for a person, a page title, or links to a URL.
Can use field limiting to limit search to acrobat:, applet:, audio:, depth:, domain:, frame:, image:, table:, title:, vrml:, or newsgroups:.
InfoSeek
Directory Search and Advanced Search available.
Can search newsgroups, news, companies, and the web through a drop-down box.
Keyword searching defaults to Boolean OR.
To refine search results use the Search Only Within These Results option.
If you capitalize adjacent names, Infoseek treats the words as a single name. Useful when searching for people.
Can enter a search expression in your own words, also called a natural language query.
Can use field limiting to limit search to link:, site:, title:, or URL: . Or can limit to document, title, URL, or hyperlink in the box provided in the Advanced Search.
Offers a Find Similar Pages feature.
Option to groups results of search from same web site.
Lycos Pro
Directory Search available on the Simple Search page.
Can limit to sounds, pictures, recipes, personal web pages, and and other content of web pages.
Can limit search to entire document, titles only, URLs only, or a selected web site.
Can limit by language of web site.
Can enter a search expression in your own words, also called a natural language query.
Offers a Similar Pages feature.
To refine search results use the Search Only Within These Results option.
Allows you to specify the relevancy and ranking of search results.
Magellan
Directory Search available.
Searches the concepts, not the actual words.
Offers a Find Similar feature.
Northern Light
Power Search, Business Search, Investext Search, and Current News Search available.
When you perform a search, Northern Light categorizes all relevant hits into Custom Search Folders on the left with the most relevant documents on the right.
Materials in the Special Collection category are available for purchase. These typically are magazine and journal articles, newswire and newspaper stories, pamphlets, and book excerpts.
Can use field limiting to limit search to company:, pub:, text:, ticker:, title:, and URL:.
Can limit by language, type of publication, and date in the Power Search.
WebCrawler
Directory Search available.
Can enter a search expression in your own words, also called a natural language query.
Offers a find Similar Pages option.
Yahoo!
Directory Search and Advanced Search available.
Searches through the five areas for keyword matches. The five areas are: Yahoo! Categories; Yahoo! Web Sites; Web Pages; News Stories; and Yahoo! Net Events.
Select Advanced Search to search by various methods (intelligent default; exact phrase; AND, OR.)
Can use field limiting to limit searches to title: and URL:.
Search is automatically sent to Inktomi if there are no hits in Yahoo!
