Internet Search Engines-
Go to the Homepage for the search engine you generally use. Look for a link to Search tips, Help,
Directions, or something that will lead you to a page describing how the search engine works. Try to find answers to the following questions. Any surprises?
1.
How does it add sites to its database? How big is the database?
(do sites have to register or does the search engine use a “robot” to search them out?)
Google is continually traversing the web with software programs called crawlers or “Googlebots”. The crawlers visits a web pace and copies it contents then uses the web links to visit more sites. Google processes these pages, creating an index.
Database has about 736,000,000 results on 2/6/2011
2.
What kind of searches does it do? (keyword, subject) Does it support all Boolean syntax? (AND,
OR, NOT)
“type whatever comes to mind” (keyword, subject, idea, etc), phrase search(“”), search within a web site (site:), terms you want to exclude (-), fill in the blank (*), search exactly as is (+), OR operator,
YES.
3. Does it give you any general tips for searching.
Yes- keep it simple, think about words that will be used on the page you are looking for since it searches by word, describe what you want in as few terms as possible, and use descriptive words.
4.
What special punctuation is necessary or helpful?
Only necessary for advanced searches- listed in answer one.
5.
How does it order/rank responses?
Results are listed by most relevant match to your search.
6.
Any special features? (customizing, etc.)
Translated search, language, file type, page date, usage rights, where keyword show up on page, region, numeric range, safe search, find pages similar to a page or find pages that link to a page.
7.
Overall, how would you rate this search engine? Any special comments?
Great, I usually use Google! Search engines are like a lot of things we use what we know. I was impressed with some of the other search engines I saw and will give them a try.

Internet Search Engines-
Go to the Homepage for the search engine you generally use. Look for a link to Search tips, Help,
Directions, or something that will lead you to a page describing how the search engine works. Try to find answers to the following questions. Any surprises?
1.
How does it add sites to its database? How big is the database?
(do sites have to register or does the search engine use a “robot” to search them out?)
Web pages are crawled and indexed by the web crawler.
2,812,840
2.
What kind of searches does it do? (keyword, subject) Does it support all Boolean syntax? (AND,
OR, NOT)
Able to specify if you want your search to result in web, images, videos, news, local, shopping, etc can specify when site was last updated, restrict to specific domain type, creative commons search, file format, safe search, country, languages, number of results.
YES.
3. Does it give you any general tips for searching.
Chose specific words, know when to require or exclude words (+ to require, - to exclude), search for exact phrases “ “, to search multiple searches at once use OR, focus the types of results to return, take advantage of search assist suggestions, save time with Yahoo shortcuts, narrow your search using Yahoo site explorer, search meta words (site:, URL:, intitle

4.
What special punctuation is necessary or helpful?
+ or AND for all the words, OR for at least one of words, “ “ exact phrase, Not or – to exclude words
5.
How does it order/rank responses?
Sponsors are listed first then web results by relevance.
6.
Any special features? (customizing, etc.)
Search assist gives you examples of similar searches.
7.
Overall, how would you rate this search engine? Any special comments?
I don’t like the ads at the top of search results because they look almost like regular results, I guess you would get used to that.

Internet Search Engines-
Go to the Homepage for the search engine you generally use. Look for a link to Search tips, Help,
Directions, or something that will lead you to a page describing how the search engine works. Try to find answers to the following questions. Any surprises?
1.
How does it add sites to its database? How big is the database?
(do sites have to register or does the search engine use a “robot” to search them out?)
Web crawler, bingbot finds pages.
2.
What kind of searches does it do? (keyword, subject) Does it support all Boolean syntax? (AND,
OR, NOT)
Keywords to find anything you want
YES
3. Does it give you any general tips for searching.
Spell correctly, use words you expect on websites you want, use OR and NOT to combine or exclude words, vary your search terms, use quotes for exact phases, put most important words first on search, tabs at the top to organize results into relevant categories, try related search if don’t get what you want, use instant answers for definitions, etc.
4.
What special punctuation is necessary or helpful?
+, “”, (), &, -
5.
How does it order/rank responses?
6.
Any special features? (customizing, etc.) search language, search suggestions, local results, safe search, display language, instant answers to get some info,
7.
Overall, how would you rate this search engine? Any special comments?
Their help did not seem to have as much information. Seems to work comparable to other search engines.

Internet Search Engines-
Go to the Homepage for the search engine you generally use. Look for a link to Search tips, Help,
Directions, or something that will lead you to a page describing how the search engine works. Try to find answers to the following questions. Any surprises?
1.
How does it add sites to its database? How big is the database?
(do sites have to register or does the search engine use a “robot” to search them out?)
Web indexing robot.
Analyzes the web as it actually exists- in subject-specific communities for most up to date search results.
2.
What kind of searches does it do? (keyword, subject) Does it support all Boolean syntax? (AND,
OR, NOT)
Keyword and also has Ask Answers to ask a question and get an answer.
Search types: questions, web, images, news, Q&A, local, maps, videos, shopping
AND. OR, NOT in cap letters (and is optional because that is implied)
3. Does it give you any general tips for searching.
Search with keywords or questions, spelling counts, use related search, word order matters, category inclusion, the more specific the better, try searching with synonyms to improve results, one search or question at a time, spaces between words, and learn more about our site features.
4.
What special punctuation is necessary or helpful?
Same as most- +, -, “”,
5.
How does it order/rank responses?
Uses semantic and extraction capabilities. presents the actual answer to the users question without additional click through.
6.
Any special features? (customizing, etc.) find results with all words, exact phrases, at least one word, or none of words, location of words, domain, language, country, when page modified,
OR, intitle:, inurl:, site:, Last: time period, afterdate, beforedate, betweendate, inlink
7.
Overall, how would you rate this search engine? Any special comments?
I had not explored Ask.com before, I was impressed. I like the ask a question. I will have to try it!