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Second Generation Searching on the Web

This tutorial covers some of the more innovative search engine services on the Web. It includes a group of search services that make use of technology that organizes search results by peer ranking, clustered results by concept, and user behavior or rankings. This is in contrast to the more long-standing method of term relevancy ranking. To remain competitive, most search engines today are second generation tools. The newer type of results ranking usually works in addition to term ranking and looks at "off the page" information to determine the retrieval and order of your search results. Search engines that employ this alternative may be thought of as second generation search services. For example:

Here are a few of the trends to watch with second-generation services:

For a tutorial covering the more basic aspects of Web search engines, see Searching the Internet: Recommended Sites and Search Techniques.

Search engines covered in this tutorial

Ask.com

Exercise: Expanding your search options with Ask.com

Ask.com - http://ask.com/

Online help

Ask.com represents a merging of the former search tools Ask Jeeves and Teoma, and it has retained the user friendliness of both tools. Ask.com uses Teoma's successful link ranking scheme to list results. Called ExpertRank, this scheme ranks results based on links from pages on the same topic as your search. The idea is that people who maintain Web pages on particular topics are experts in these areas. This is a more refined link ranking scheme than the one offered by Google. In the case of Google, any link from any page is taken into account when ranking results.

Ask.com also offers a simple (but often effective) conceptual layout accompanying your search results. In this case, it offers a few options for additional searches that relate to your initial query:

As you can see, these additional options demonstrate a conceptual "understanding" of your search and can help you to conduct additional research beyond your initial results list. Note that not all of these options appear with every search. They will appear if Ask.com has something to offer in these areas.

Use Ask.com when...
  • you are doing in-depth research
  • you want the option to expand on your search with alternative topics
  • you want to investigate a link ranking engine that does its ranking a little differently than Google

Special Features:

Drawbacks:

Query: I'm interested in the theory of evolution. I know this has become controversial lately and I'm not exactly sure what this is all about.

Search:

  1. Type:     "theory of evolution"
  2. Note the right side of the screen with "Narrow Your Search," "Expand Your Search" and "Related Names."
  3. Select the options that interest you. For example, Creationism is listed under the heading "Expand Your Search." This thread will generate a new list of search results that will help introduce you to the current debate.

 

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Clusty

Exercise: Grouping of results into concept folders with Clusty

Concept grouping engines offer results in a horizontal layout. This means that you can first review concept categories retrieved by your search before examining the results within a particular category. This is in contrast to the more common vertical layout of results, in which you are presented with one long list. In this case, you need to examine each site one by one to determine if it relates to the aspects of the topic that interest you.

There are a growing number of search tools that offer the clustering of results. In this tutorial, we will discuss Clusty.

Clusty - http://www.clusty.com/

Online help

Clusty is a meta engine that searches multiple engines and directories and organizes results into concept clusters. Clusty uses a Clustering Engine, which automatically organizes search results into hierarchical folders "on the fly" based on words and phrases contained in your results. Rather than retrieving only one long vertical list of results, with Clusty you will also retrieve a "horizontal" layout of concept clusters. Each cluster contains a conceptually-related portion of your search results. This may be more convenient than working through one master list of results. In a variation on this theme, Clusty allows you to create a custom Clusty Cloud, a tag cloud with terms derived from a search that you can paste onto any Web page.

Use Clusty when...
  • you are doing in-depth research
  • you are just getting started with your topic and don't know much about it
  • you don't want to retrieve results in just one long list
  • you want to organize your thoughts about your topic by seeing relevant subtopics
  • you want to see resources on your topic organized into subtopics
  • your topic is somewhat obscure so a search across multiple sources might help

Special Features:

Drawbacks:

Query: The Civil War in the United States is such a complex subject. I'd like to see a list of results organized by individual topics.

Search:

  1. Type:     +"civil war" +"united states"
  2. Note the clustered topics on the left side of the screen. Select "more" or "all clusters" at the bottom of the list to see more clusters.
  3. Select the categories that interest you. Note that categories preceded by a plus sign (+) open up to additional subcategories.

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SurfWax

Exercise: Concept searching with SurfWax

SurfWax - http://www.surfwax.com/

Online help

SurfWax is a meta engine that offers options to see a quick view of the content of sites in your search results list, along with search terms to broaden or narrow a subsequent search. It has a somewhat busy interface, but it offers much to the user that is worth exploring.

Use SurfWax when...
  • you are looking for a specific fact/person/event/narrow topic
  • your topic is made up of multiple ideas
  • you are doing in-depth research
  • you want help choosing search terms
  • you want to see a content summary of sites retrieved in your search before visiting them
  • your topic is somewhat obscure so a search across multiple sources might help

Special Features:

Drawbacks:

Query: I'm interested in learning about discrimination.

Search:

  1. Type:      discrimination
  2. Choose a site from your results list by clicking on the magnifying glass icon
  3. Explore the information on the right side of the screen. Note the list of Focus Words.
  4. Choose a Focus Word that you would like added to your search. Click on the word. Notice that it has been added to your search box.
  5. Click on the Search button to run a new search

There is another way to get additional terms into your search box:

  1. "Focus" your original search term. Click on the small arrow icon next to "Focus: discrimination" located underneath the search window. A list of related terms will appear. Clicking on subsequent arrow icons will focus the chosen term.
  2. Explore a term that interests you. Click on a term to add it to your search statement.
  3. Click on the Search button to run a new search

Go to SurfWax to try this search.

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Ixquick

Exercise: Tapping into the ranking schemes of several engines with Ixquick

Ixquick - http://ixquick.com/

Online help

Ixquick is a meta engine that searches multiple engines and directories and returns only those documents that appear in the top 10 of any search results.

Use Ixquick when...
  • your topic made up of multiple concepts
  • You want a limited number of the top ten results from a variety of search tools on the Web
  • You want the convenience of a meta search engine that searches multiple sources simultaneously
  • your topic is somewhat obscure so a search across multiple sources might help

Special Features:

Drawbacks:

Query: I'm looking for good Web sites about Mozart.

Search:

  1. Type:     Mozart
  2. Examine results for relevancy
  3. Note how, without concept processing, different meanings of the term "Mozart" have been returned. Of course, many results relate to the composer.

  

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URL.com

Exercise: Influencing results ranking based on your votes

URL.com - http://www.url.com/

URL.com retrieves the top ten results from the combination of Google, ahoo! and MSN, and allows searchers to rank and comment on the results.

Use URL.com when...
  • you are researching just about any topic that can retrieve results from search engines on the Web
  • you want to contribute your opinions about the quality of your search results and the quality of individual sites encountered in your results
  • you want relatively few results from three major search engines

Special Features

Exercise: URL.com

Go to URL.com and sign up for an account. Then proceed with your search.

Query: Enter any query that interests you!

Search:

  1. Examine results for relevancy and quality.
  2. Vote for and comment on items in your search results to contribute to the conversation about the topic of your search.

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Updated: 5 December 2007

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