Search Me! Searching
Sites Without a Search
Facility
by Mike Banks Valentine
Are there search options for sites without them other
than the
"Find on Page" option in your browser? This
browser utility
allows you to look for specific text strings on each page
you
visit, but not an entire site unless you visit every page
of
that site and use your "find" command. In both
netscape and
explorer that is "command F" or choose from
your menu bar
first "Edit" then "Find".
That option is not effective, especially on large sites
with
hundreds of pages of information. If a site is well placed
in
the search engine you are using, you can sometimes limit
your
search to a particular site within the results list. Google.com
allows you to choose a link below each match that says
"similar
pages".
At the Open Directory Project http://dmoz.org you have
the option
to "Search Within Results". At Open Directory
there is also a
very handy list of links at the bottom of each results
page that
will allow you to search at EIGHT other search engines
plus Yahoo
with a single click per search engine, maintaining your
query
for you!
At InfoSeek/Go network http://infoseek.go.com you choose
first
"Find Similar Pages" link below each result.
When those results
return, you can choose the link that says "More Results
from..."
the same domain. The InfoSeek function will obviously
only work
for sites indexed by InfoSeek. This option is most effective.
NorthernLight.com offers that option in some search results
which
show a blue folder for "More results from this site"
but those
handy little folders don't show up on every result.
Finally at Yahoo and Open Directory, you can search within
categories. If you're searching for "JetSki"
Search the category
"Home > Recreation > Outdoors > Boating
> personal watercraft >"
and search only in related categories that show up in
the search
results. Yahoo provides suggested categories that are
within the
same areas of interest.
Software that you host on your own computer cannot do
this without
going to the search engines first to gather the information
and
then offering you choices from among the results it has
gathered.
Although there are some software programs like this, they
are
varied and differ dramatically in effectiveness depending
on
your needs for precision of results.
Ultimately, it would be easiest for everyone if all site
owners
offered a search function from their own site, but until
they do
the best thing to do is make certain that YOUR site provides
a search option by checking with your host to see what
they offer
for searching within your site. If your ISP doesn't have
a hosted
search facility, you can always go to third party providers
like
WhatUseek.com at http://intra.whatUseek.com/
. This allows you
to set up a private site search that returns results only
from
you own pages. Then nobody will be able to complain that
you
don't offer your own site search facility!
Happy Hunting!
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