We define intelligent searches as those with a level of human selection on editing.
Most of the largest Web indexes mentioned in section 2, are created by computers, not humans. Software programs called "robots" or "spiders" roam the Web, capturing pages to include in these tools. When you search in these Web indexes, your search words are compared to the words on the pages in that Web index and matched.
Often, because search words can be ambiguous or we don't supply enough terms to weed out the irrelevant pages, our search doesn't produce the results we want.
In contrast, intelligent searchers use human editors to affect the automated search process in a variety of ways:| Ask.com
provides search tools to help target the types of results you are
looking for (definitions, news, encyclopedia entries, maps, products,
etc.). Ask will suggest narrower and broader redefinitions of the
search in case you are not happy with what you find. Additionally, you
can type in natural language questions, like "Who is against using stem
cells for research?" or "Convert miles to kilometers".)
Yahoo! is an old generation directory (launched in 1994) which uses human editors to place Web sites into humanly created categories. A search at Yahoo! presents you with categories that match your topic as well as a list of Web sites using your search term(s).
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In addition to the growing involvement of human editors to improve searching of large Web indexes, Web users are also involved in various ways in the creation of smaller, directory-type search tools that only search content deemed to be of good quality by "Super-users" or volunteer experts.
Smaller Web search tools can often produce better results (pointers to Web sites that humans have determined provide more content and depth) for many topics, especially those that are more general. These are also good places to start when you want to identify important Web sites in a subject area. Review each of the Web directories listed below:
Open Directory Project (ODP) describes itself as a "a self-regulating republic where experts can collect their recommendations, without including noise and misinformation." ODP is also used by many of the large Web indexes to provide some targeted results for searchers. It is the largest human-edited directory on the Web.
WWW Virtual Library "is the oldest catalog of the Web, started by Tim Berners-Lee, the creator of html and the Web itself, in 1991 at CERN in Geneva. Unlike commercial catalogs, it is run by a loose confederation of volunteers, who compile pages of key links for particular areas in which they are expert." While smaller than many directories, it is known for pointing to sites of the highest quality.
Librarians' Internet Index is a searchable, annotated subject directory of more than 20,000 entries selected and evaluated by librarians for their usefulness to users and "organized into 14 main topics and nearly 300 related topics." It has an advisory board of librarians.
Try a search for ALL of the following terms in a few of the Web search tools listed above.
censorship AND artWhich produces the most useful results on the topic of government censorship of the arts?
Which offers alternate searches to try? Are these suggestions useful?