AltaVista Search Rules 

By Julian Sher

Few tools are used more often by journalists on the web than search engines. And yet few of us bother to read the fine print – the instruction manuals – to find out how to make these cyber-sleuths work for us, not against us.

So for those of you who never read the "Help" files, here’s a simple guide to some of the best shortcuts and tips. We’ll focus on AltaVista, because it is one of the most popular and best search engines and many of its tricks apply to other engines.

BASIC ALTA VISTA TIPS

 * Quotes for the exact phrase: This is the most common trick that many people know -- use quotes to get the exact phrase. Putting in the keywords:

                                breast cancer

will get you all the articles on chicken breast recipes and prostate cancer. But putting those keywords in quotes

                            "breast cancer"

forces Alta Vista to look only for whatever words you put in quotes in that exact order. You will find the number of hits you get and your results will be much more relevant. But be careful about putting too many words in quotes. If you write

                            "breast cancer in Canada"

you will only find web pages with those four words in sequence, and not any pages that talk about "breast cancer strikes one in nine women in Canada."

*Plus signs for obligatory words: Add a plus sign directly before any word or phrase that must appear in your search (no space). For example,

                        +"breast cancer" +implants

will ensure that you get stories on silicon breast implants and cancer above everything else. It is usually a good idea to put a plus sign in front of every keyword you want.

 
*Minus signs to get rid of pollution: A minus sign tells Alta Vista the pages you want must NOT have the keyword. This can be used to eliminate "pollution" if your search term is commonly confused with another topic. For example,

                    whitewater +rafting -Hillary

is a good way to plan an exciting vacation without getting Washington scandal stories.

You can also use the minus sign to get rid of a lot of hits from the same site. Let’s say your search on breast cancer turns up many sites from the Canadian Breast Cancer Network, a group you have already contacted and you don’t need their web pages. You’ll notice their web address in the AltaVista list is www.cbcn.ca. Redo your search with

"breast cancer" -cbcn

and you will eliminate all their sites from your results.

*Combine various tricks:       You can easily combine these tricks. For example:

                                        "contaminated blood" +hepatitis -HIV

will get you stories on contaminated blood (and not on contaminated rivers, lakes or air) but not with any reference to AIDS.

MORE ADVANCED ALTA VISTA TRICKS

* Title:            Search engines look for your keywords anywhere on the web page, though obviously they will favour pages where your words are prominently featured. Still, you might get a "breast cancer" hit where those words are mentioned in an irrelevant passage at the very bottom of a long page. So try this code, with title followed by a colon:

                                    title: "breast cancer"

This is an excellent way to weed out irrelevant hit results. Obviously, if your keywords are in the title of a web page, you be can sure the entire web page will deal with your subject. You can also tweak this command by using the other tricks:

                            title: "breast cancer" +implants -dow

Be careful though. There might be some excellent breast cancer pages where those words do not appear at all in the page title. My advice: use the "title" trick often, but don’t only use it without trying other means.

*Link: *Link:    This is one of the best ways to find other people who are interested in the same topic you are tracking. Let’s say you have found a personal web page set up by Mary Smith, a woman who heads a local breast cancer support group. If you type in her web address:

link: www.marysmith.com

you will find all the other pages that have linked to her page. The logic is that other women who have similar views and interests have connected to Mary and this is a great way to track down other interview subjects.

*Image:     Looking for a picture instead of a lot of text. Put in the code

image: ebola

and you’ll find web pages where photos of the virus appear.  (For other visual searches, see J'Net's Visual search page

All of these AltaVista tips are not state secrets. They are all available online simply by clicking on the Help button in Alta Vista for Simple Searches or Advanced Searches .

OTHER SEARCH ENGINES

Some of these tricks and tips work with other search engines. Northern Light accepts most of the AltaVista customs, including quotes, plus and minus.

Hotbot accepts quotes, plus, minus and title. Hotbot also allows many advanced features with its own pull down buttons. For example, it offers you the choice of searching for "the exact phrase" (which is the same as quotes in AltaVista), for "the page title" (which is the same as title:) and "links to this url" (which is the same as links:).

Use these tips and tricks and get comfortable with the rules of your favourite search engine. And read those instruction manuals – the Help files!

A version of this article first appeared in "Media" magazine.  All rights reserved by Julian Sher.    In any reprints, please credit Julian Sher at jsher@journalism.com.    For more articles, see JournalismNet's Internet Tips page at www.journalismnet.com/tips: