Search engines, which are each unique web sites that contain a searchable database of web pages, are another way to locate information. You are not searching the entire web when you search a search engine. Instead, you are searching that search engine's database of web sites. All search engines are not created equal, they operate differently, and they contain unique databases of unequal size and currency. The best strategy is to get familiar with a few, and try your searches with more than one.

Most search engines have both basic and advanced search modes. You will probably be able to further refine and qualify your search request if you use the advanced mode. To help you get the most out of a particular search engine, you should check out the Help link that is usually available from the search engine home page. Try some searches in a couple different search engines, using both the basic and advanced search modes.

Patient Care

A physician remembers "herald patch" but cannot remember what disease causes it.

1. Connect to the AltaVista search engine by clicking on the web address: http://www.altavista.com.
2. You are now in the Basic Search Option. Click in the white rectangular next to Find this:.
3. Type: herald patch
4. Click on Search
5. Scroll down and look at some of the hits you retrieved. Record the number of hits here __________.
6. Now conduct the same search, but this time add quote marks (" ") around the phrase "herald patch" to search for the exact phrase.
7. Note the number of hits here _________.
8. Now lets try and narrow the search by looking only for information from non-profit sites. To do that, type the following inth the Find this box: "herald patch" AND domain:org.
9. Record the number of your hits here __________.
10. Note the differences in retrieval when you further qualified your request.

Nothern Light: Basic search Engine

1. Connect to the Northern Light search engine:

2. Repeat the above search and note your results
   herald patch _________.
   "herald patch": _________
   "herald patch" and url:org: ________
3. Note the differences in retrieval between the AltaVista and Northern Light search engines.

Savvysearch: Metasearch engine

There are a number of websites that alow you to search on several different web sites at the same time.  One of them is http://www.savvysearch.com.  It is known as a metasearch engine because it searches multiple search engines simultaneously. The search engines it currently searches are Lycos, WebCrawler, All The Web, Thunderstone, Infoseek, Direct Hit, HotBot, Excite, Galaxy, AltaVista, NationalDirector.

The choices for searching include phrase or keyword, without using Boolean operators or quotation marks. : Metasearch engines can be helpful, but are at times restricted by the variances among all search engines. : All search engines search differently, and so a metasearch engine may not always be able to search effectively every time. : Try the above searches with this meta-tool and see shat resulte you get.

Practice Management

You want to find out some general information about the new HCFA documentation guidelines.

1. Connect to AltaVista. (http://www.altavista.com)
2. Conduct a Basic Search. Click in the Search Form. Type (including quotations marks) "HCFA documentation guidelines"
3. Review some of your hits.

Continuing Medical Education

For additional practice, try some searches in these search engines and/or directories: