Search Queries - Exercise

This exercise is not scored. It is an opportunity for you to check your understanding of the material covered in the preceding lesson. When you are finished, click the Submit button to view the suggested results.

You would expect, from our discussions, to find many more matches in the search engine sites' databases. But will these matches be as good as the hand-selected entries in the directories' databases? Let us find out by running the same search for French onion soup with several single search engines and a metasearch engine.

Type the words French onion soup into the search query input area of each of the search engines. Notice whether any of them display drop-down menus, checkboxes, or buttons that let you choose among combinations such as "all the words," "any of the words," or "exact phrase." The next module discusses the difference these make to your searches; for now, select "all the words" if you are given a choice.
Take note of the approximate number of matches that each search returns. Also look at the first dozen or so matches, which should be the best matches that the search service can return. Do you see repeaters in the top spots from search to search?
Because this exercise is not scored, you may, if you choose, substitute a search query on a topic that is related to your day-to-day work. Use the same topic that you used in the directory search by category.

Here are links to the search engines and metasearch engine you will use:

1. search.yahoo.com/
2. Google
3. HotBot.com
4. Start Page
   When you are finished, click the Submit button to view the suggested results.