Today I want to offer you an excellent lesson in work with search queries. It is remarkable in that it not only reveals several secrets of beautiful search, but also provides a comparative analysis of the output of Google and Yandex, the two most popular search engines among users.
This lesson will be useful not only ordinary users, but also to webmasters, as these secrets are also used by professionals when using search engines. You will learn how to quickly find everything you need.
So, let's begin.
1. Exclusion from the search.
In order to avoid extras in search results, you can exclude a word or phrase from the query. To do this, put in front of this word (phrase or even symbol) sign " - "(Minus) and from the issuance will remove everything where this word occurs. For example:
Dishes with milk - recipes
2. Search by synonyms.
To search for words that are similar to the key in your search, use the “ ~ ". For example, as a result of the expression:
~ The best cars are the best
3. Undefined search.
In case you are undecided on a specific search keyword, the operator will help. ” * ". For example:
Best antivirus * of the year
4. Search for a selection of options.
Using the operator "|" you can search Google for several combinations of phrases, replacing a few words in various places. For example, enter the phrase:
Fishing river | lake
5. The meaning of the word.
To find out the meaning of a word, just enter in search string “define: ”And after the colon the required phrase. For example:
Define: optimizer
6. Exact match.
To find the exact match search results with the request, it is enough to enclose the search phrase in quotation marks "". For example:
"Download programs for VKontakte, browsers"
7. Search for a specific site.
To search for keywords only in one site, it is enough to add the following syntax to the search phrase - “ site: ”. For example:
Site: why I love opera
8. Backlinks.
To find out the location of links to a site of interest, just enter the following syntax: “ links:"or " link: ”And further the address of the site of interest. For example:
1) links: website 2) link: website
9. Value Converter.
The Google search engine is also able to convert values by user request. For example, we need to know how much
1 meter in inches
10. Currency Converter.
Learn the exchange rate at the official rate is very simple
1 ruble in euros
11. Time around the city.
If you want to know the time for any city, use the syntax: “ time”Or Russian analogue“ timeAnd the name of the city. Example:
Minsk time
12. Google calculator.
We drive an example into the search bar and it will give the result of the answer. Example:
Sin (60) * (62-4 / 5) +35
13. Search by file type.
If you need to find something for a specific file type, then Google has a “filetype:” operator that searches for a given file extension. For example:
Filetype: .mp3 Star
14. Search in cached pages.
Google has its own server where it stores cached pages. If you need just such, then use the operator: cached: For example:
Cached: Atlantis
15. Weather forecast for the city.
Another search operator at Google is the weather operator. Enough to drive “ weather" (or simply weather) and the city, as you will see whether it will rain or not. For example:
Weather Minsk
16. Translator.
You can translate words immediately without departing from a search engine. The following syntax is responsible for the translation: “translate [word] into [language]”. For example:
Translate Internet into english
Well that's all. Perhaps you already knew something, it is possible that you don’t remember everything new right away, but you probably liked and remembered something. Write in the comments what struck you most.
And as a bonus, take note of the hotkeys that work in all browsers.
Good luck to you!
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Unusual search engines and secrets of searching on the InternetHow accurate the results you get, first of all, depends on how skillfully you have formed a search query. For example, if you are looking for information to write course workit is not necessary to introduce its theme literally, especially if the work has a narrow specialization. You will find much more valuable information if you try to find keywords, that is, those words that are sure to appear in your work.
If you are looking for a lost instruction for the car, then by entering the model number, you will certainly get a huge number of sites offering to buy it. To filter out unnecessary links, you can use the search function in the found or exclude some words from the search. In almost every search engine you will find an advanced search function. This is another good way weed out unnecessary results. Among such functions, it may be useful to search for pages that have recently been updated, to search for pages only in a specific language or on sites located in the domain zone you specified.
The time spent on the search can be significantly saved if you know and use the syntax of the query language. Each search engine has its own characteristics here. For example, when you are looking for something on Yandex, you should use the following techniques:
To search for words that should appear on the page in one sentence, put the & character between them
To exclude a specific word from the search results, add it to your search by placing ~~ characters in front of it.
To find pages that contain at least one of the words specified in the search query, separate them with |
To search for a word in this form, put an exclamation mark in front of it
Google search engine has its own secrets. Here are just some of them:
To search for information on a specific site (and only on it), enter its address in the query field, preceded by the word site and a colon (for example, site: http: //www.3dnews.ru)
To search for a phrase that should appear on the page completely, put it in quotes.
To exclude from the search results pages where a certain word occurs, add it to your query, placing a minus sign in front of it
These are just a few touches that can help make Internet search more efficient. If you want to achieve an optimal result, we advise you to learn more about the syntax of the query language, which is described in detail in the help system of your favorite search engine.
There is no doubt that Google and Yandex are indispensable tools for searching in the network - the search in these systems is convenient, flexible and very accurate. But, nevertheless, this does not mean that alternative search engines have no right to exist. Yes - they index fewer pages, yes - their resource selection methods are largely controversial. But such search engines There is one indisputable advantage - they offer something new, different from accepted standards. Since alternative search engines use a different approach to the selection of resources matching the query, the search result will be completely different than in the case of the usual search engines. So, if long searches on known services did not lead to anything, it means one thing - you need to change tactics and try other methods of searching for information, using alternative search engines. Often, alternative search engines use one or more lists with resources that were found by Google, Yahoo, and other large systems to collect results. These results are filtered, the best ones are selected and often for better perception they are visualized using charts, site maps, tag clouds, etc.
Developers of alternative search engines sometimes go so far in their search for a new universal interface that it is sometimes difficult to recognize a search engine in a web page. And yet, these are search engines. Unusual and strange, at first glance ...
FindSounds.com - looking for sounds
This resource is intended for those users who are in creative search. Resource allows you to search for sound files different formats - wav, mp3, aiff, au. The database of the resource has a variety of sounds - animal cries, the rattle of cars, the ringing, knocking, sirens, the buzzing of insects, the roar of explosions and firing, the splash of water, etc. Sound files can be searched by different criteria, for example, by size, the presence of two or one channels of sound (stereo / mono), the sampling rate and the bit depth of sound. In the search results, the resource shows not only links to the found files, but also their main characteristics, and also shows a graph of the amplitude of the sound, by which one can judge the nature of the sound of this sample.
The sound effects database FindSounds can be used in various fields - from the development of computer games and other applications to the creation of presentations and various clips. The search engine can be useful, for example, those who create an interactive web-graphics and wants to add variety to the site, accompanied by pressing the page navigation elements with different sounds.
Gnod.net - selects music, books and movies to taste
When a person has a desire to read a new book, listen to some new music or watch a movie, he, as a rule, turns for advice to his friend or acquaintance who has authority in his eyes. However, finding someone who would agree to express their opinion on this issue is not so easy. First, not everyone likes to give advice, because, recommending something to another, a person takes on a share of responsibility, and many stop the question "What if the film, which I advise, does not like it?" Secondly, the person who gives advice should understand what the other person will like and what will be completely uninteresting. After all, the taste and color, as they say ...
But there is an easier way to get good advice - use a special search engine, which is made specifically for this purpose. So, you wanted to listen to a new group, but there is no time and desire to look for good music. Resource gnod.net will ask you for several names of musical performers that you like, analyze the results and offer their version of the singer or group, which should also please you.
The service has several databases - by musical performers, by films, books and people. Thus, the resource has incorporated four services: Gnod Music, Gnod Books, Gnod Movies and Flork. The latest service, Flork, is a social experiment to discover people who are interested in communicating with each other.
We gladly tested the music section of this service and introduced three performers - Gerry and the Pacemakers, The Beatles and Hollies. Our selection was not accidental - these three groups belong to the era of the sixties, to an interesting phenomenon that is called the British Invasion (British Invasion). All of these bands played the beat, and the search engine had to offer the band or artist in the same style. So it happened. The result proposed to us is the band Archies, which in the late sixties was on the lips of all Americans with their funny song Sugar Sugar.
After playing with the search engine for a while, we came to the conclusion that gnod.net often gives the right advice, and it’s not very often wrong. For clarity, the results of its "board" the search engine can provide in the form of an animated cloud with the names of groups, authors or films. The database can be replenished independently by conducting "conversations" with a search engine and answering its questions in the style of "I like it" or "I do not like it."
Alldll.net - will find library files
We recommend that you immediately bookmark this search engine, because sooner or later it will definitely come in handy. Probably everyone had at least once faced with the problem of the absence in the system of some dll library. Usually this leads to the fact that programs or games refuse to start, and the message “Couldn" t find *****. Dll "appears on the screen. There can be many reasons for this, for example, the lack of a file may be caused by an incorrect deletion earlier installed application, accidental file corruption, etc. In addition, the developer could simply not include this library in the distribution kit of his product.
It is very simple to correct the situation - just find the missing file on the Internet, download it and copy it to the directory of the program that refuses to start, or to the folder ..WINDOWSsystem32 ... You can find and download the missing file easily and quickly using this service. Resource www.alldll.net is a searchable database for the most popular dll libraries. Files are sorted alphabetically, there is a search function. You can search for the file you are looking for, even if you only know the approximate name of the library. It is enough to start entering text in the request field, and at the bottom of the page there will be a huge list of files that start with the letters that were typed.
Medpoisk.ru - search for medical information
Despite the fact that this search engine uses the search engine from Google, this in no way reduces its value. Medpoisk.ru - is a universal search engine that is designed to search exclusively on medical sites. This site is a great tool for every medic and anyone who wants to get an answer to any question from the medical field. How to treat this or that disease, what contraindications for this or that medicine, to which doctor to turn to - all this and much more can be learned by “asking” from a search engine. The search engine includes a labor exchange and can be used to search for a job among medical professionals. The resource also contains a catalog of medical institutions, sorted by region. Among these institutions are addresses of clinics, medical centers of different directions, maternity homes, diagnostic centers, beauty salons, etc. We sincerely wish you to use this search service out of curiosity, and not out of necessity.
Taggalaxy.de - search for pictures and photos
You may have heard about the popular exchange service. image files Flickr.com? This is the service that was blocked in 2007 by the Chinese authorities after pictures of the sad events of 1989 in Tiananmen Square, located in China’s capital, Beijing, appeared on its pages. Flickr.com is one of the first Web 2.0 services, and the number of images uploaded to it by users is estimated at billions.
The number of pictures uploaded to the servers of this service is so large that in order to find a specific image in this ocean of pictures and pictures, a separate search engine is needed. The service offers a search service for images, but there is a more interesting way to search for images - using an unusual search engine taggalaxy.de.
This search service is a means to search for images on Flickr.com, with a preview. And its unusual makes the search interface, which is completely made three-dimensional. The search process for a keyword resembles some kind of computer game - different celestial bodies fly in outer space between which you can move in a virtual world.
After the request for a keyword is executed, a system of the sun and the planets that rotate around the star will appear on the screen. Each celestial body has its own purpose and is "signed" by the word. In the center of the galaxy is the sun, the key request, all other bodies are auxiliary words, clarifications. If you click the mouse on the sun, this object will come closer, and from all sides photos, the content of which is determined by a search query, will fly into it and surround it. This three-dimensional model with photos can be rotated in the virtual space, examining in detail and looking for the image of interest. After that, just click on the picture so that it will increase in size, and then it can be better seen and read the description.
In the process of working with this search engine, you can use the scrolling function - it allows you to zoom in or out of three-dimensional planets. The rest of the planets that are visible in the search engine interface after a query are auxiliary words that allow you to refine the query. For example, if you enter "Sky" in the search field, then among the clarifying words-planets there will be the words "clouds", "sunset", "blue" and other tags that are similar in meaning, which users specified when using the Flickr.com service. The disadvantage of the search engine is that taggalaxy.de does not support the Russian language, so you can only enter queries in Latin.
Nigma.ru - filters the results of other search engines
Among all the search engines that can be found on the Internet, there is a special group of search engines. It differs from all the others in that they have a multi-search function, that is, a simultaneous search on several search engines. One of such multi-search systems is the Russian service Nigma.ru.
Nigma contains its own resource base, but in addition it allows you to search immediately for all the most popular search engines, including Google, MSN, Yandex, Rambler, AltaVista, Yahoo and Aport. The mechanism for selecting results in this search engine is different from most of the accepted methods for finding sites. The fact is that the engine of this service uses results clustering. What does this mean? Imagine that you decide for yourself to figure out what "rendering" is. Comparing the results in different search engines, the Nigma.ru engine selected the most likely results and at the same time in the left part of the window, next to the list of search results, displayed the so-called clusters - "visualization", "creation", "system", "rendering", "process", "studio max", "computer graphics" and other words and phrases. These clusters are a thematic group of found documents. In this way, you can quickly narrow the search or refine your search query.
In Nigma.ru, you can also use rubrics to limit the area from which results will be selected - for example, to search only for music resources or to display results for images only. Another possibility of this service may be of interest to schoolchildren and students. Nigma.ru offers Nigma-mathematics and Nigma-chemistry services. The first is designed to quickly solve simple equations and various arithmetic operations, the second allows you to work with formulas of chemical reactions. The search service recognizes more than a thousand physical, mathematical constants and units of measurement, allowing you to quickly perform a conversion from one dimension to another.
Searchme.com - search engine with a preview
Everyone knows that in order to find specific information on the network, you need to spend a lot of time. Looking through the search results, the user basically opens resources at random, not knowing for sure whether he will find new page what interests him, or it will be a waste of time. The creators of the searchme.com search service thought about this problem and came up with its original solution. The essence of this solution was to create a search engine in which the user could look at an approximate thumbnail of the page before loading it. This would allow to formulate an additional opinion on the seriousness of the resource and its content.
The implementation of this idea was simply magnificent - the created search engine has a beautiful animated three-dimensional interface and displays search results in the form of animated thumbnails, reduced screenshots of web pages that include the search keyword. The tape with the results, like a film with old negatives, can be scrolled in the browser window using a special slider located under the string of images. Sketches are instantly loaded, so no “brakes” with the drawing of the results are observed. It is especially convenient to work with the search results in full screen mode - then it is quite possible to parse even the text of the articles on the thumbnails of the results. To appreciate the convenience of this system, just try to browse the news resources. Photos to the main news on the front page of the web-edition will immediately make it clear what news is considered the most important on this resource.
Torrent-finder.com - search torrents
Exit - specialized search engine torrents. Sites that are looking for torrent resources on the network a lot. However, torrent-finder.com has a distinct advantage over other search engines - this service allows you to search for files on a huge number of trackers at the same time.
Astronet.ru - astronomical search service
This resource provides a search for information on sites whose topics, one way or another, are related to astronomy. In total, the database of the search engine contains about four hundred sites on astronomical topics - sites of observatories, amateur pages, libraries of scientific literature, etc.
Those whose profession is connected with astronomy can only be envied - there is some romance in the study of cosmic events. Nothing seems to a person as interesting as the field of the unknown. Maybe that's why he so often turns his attention to the cosmos and tries to find the answer to the eternal question "Is there life in the universe?" We also did not differ originality and tried to ask the search engine the legendary question "Is there life on Mars?" There were so many answers, and all of them were so interesting that, having forgotten about everything, we plunged into reading hypotheses and looking at photos and mock-ups of the Martian surface.
In addition to the search function, there are a lot of other useful services on the site, among which, for example, there is the English-Russian-English Astronomical Dictionary, a biographical directory with detailed information about all scientists who contributed to the development of astronomy, a glossary of astronomical terms. There is also a convenient map of the sky, which generates the position of the constellations, depending on the latitude and longitude of the observation point, as well as the time of day.
Friv.com - free games for every taste!
Search services are needed by everyone - those who use them to write a dissertation, and those who want to know the weather forecast or train schedule, and even those who have carved out five minutes of free time and just want to play the fool, play what anyone simple computer game. For the latter category of users, this resource will be a real source of games.
This is not quite a search engine, although this is what the Western search engines (Game search engine) call it. The website friv.com is, rather, a directory, a collection of 264 Flash games, collected on one page. Click any of the colorful icons and play on health. On friv.com you will find any “office fun” - from tetris and chess to a quest-adventure and shooter. The plot of many games is made with great humor and, no doubt, will appeal to not only you, but also your friends.
VisualWorld.ru - search with associative links
The method of selecting the correct results for each search engine is different and unique. For example, this search engine works on the principle of associativity. This search engine tries not only to correctly select web-resources corresponding to a specific query, but also to prompt with associative words the direction of the search. So, if you enter a keyword or phrase into the query field, the result shown by the search engine will look like a set of associative words, a semantic cloud, and, of course, a normal list of sites selected by the search engine as a result of the search.
A distinctive feature of VisualWorld.ru is the visualization of associative links, i.e. making a chart showing connections between words that relate to similar topics. At first this graph may seem something incomprehensible and unusual, but after several attempts at searching you get used to it and use it to narrow the search area.
The search service VisualWorld.ru can work not only in the mode of associative search, but also the usual one. For faster work with the system, there is a "lite" version of the site - viwo.ru.
Briefly.ru - a summary of any book.
One can argue for a long time about whether the book will die or not, but the fact remains that the current reader is not the one who scrolls through the volume of Lermontov or Tolstoy, but rather the one who still knows how to read. Soon, anyone who knows that Bender is a figment of Ilf and Petrov’s fantasy, and not the hero of “Futurama”, will be able to consider himself a bibliophile, and Homer is not a Simpsons character, but a quite adequate Greek who lived a couple of thousand years ago.
You do not need to be particularly far-sighted to guess who this resource is intended for - of course, for schoolchildren and students. Why read a whole book if you can learn in a few words what the old Meterlink wrote about.
The site briefly.ru collected a large number short contents to various books - from the Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri to Hamlet by Shakespeare and The Quiet Don by Sholokhov.
The content of the works is sorted on the site by the authors, there is a search function. We must pay tribute to the creators of this resource - they very carefully approached the selection of text for retelling, so most of the works are retold in literary language, everything is clear and ... interesting. Well, perhaps, among those who get acquainted with the content of these books, there is one who wants to know the book by reading it in the original. And not from the screen of a PDA or laptop, but from the white sheets of a regular book, while there is still such an opportunity.
Videoinet.ru - search by video
This service searches for videos from various online video repositories, both domestically, for example RuTube.ru, and abroad.
Everyone knows that the largest video archive is a service. YouTube . However, in practice it turns out that our domestic services for the storage of videos are not much inferior, and in some ways better serviceowned by google. Firstly, domestic services are more democratic with the laid out video - fortunately, in our country, it never occurs to anyone to sue for the fact that a music video or a fragment of a new blockbuster is uploaded to the network for everyone to see. Secondly, the content of the clips that our users upload to the server is closer and more understandable to us. Here, for example, a report from one of the TV channels, which has already become documentary, about the events that preceded Sir Paul McCartney's visit to Ukraine - it turns out there is a village Beatlya in Transcarpathia, in which local Hutsuls are preparing a “garris pisni” for one of the Beatles. And here is another video, where a drunk teacher of one of the capital's universities tries to conduct a lecture. The chance to see this on YouTube is much lower - this is something that is close to our viewers, this is our mentality.
You can search on videoinet.ru by tags, by rating and keywords that are related to the content of the clip. The service allows you to bookmark and make playlists from video clips.
Kartoo.com - search results map
In a situation where a long search on the Internet did not bring any positive result, it is logical to assume that the search query was not entirely successful and should be formulated somehow differently. But the longer a user goes through the pages, the harder it is for him to turn on his imagination and figure out how to describe his problem in one or two words otherwise. In this case, you just need to switch and try some completely different search service, for example, kartoo.com.
The mere presence of an unusual search resource interface can push the user to the idea of formulating his query in a new way. And if we take into account that the results will be completely different from what the previous search engine gave out, we can assume that the chances of finding an answer in this case will be higher.
The search service is completely different from ordinary search engines - its appearance is more like a window of some application. After entering the query word, an animated character appears in the "applications" window, which entertains the user while the results are being prepared for display. This is followed by the construction of a map of the Internet that defines the links between the semantic content of various resources. This map clearly shows which area is closest to the subject of the selected resource and where to look for information. Interestingly, the communications shown on the map can be edited, thereby determining the scope of the search. On the map of Internet resources sites are marked with different icons - those that have a larger icon size, rather correspond to a search query. Using the search engine kartoo.com is very unusual, especially at the beginning. But, nevertheless, you get used to some search options instantly - for example, very convenient site icons that make it possible to judge whether you are viewing this page or not. Also, the search engine stores the history of queries, which is very convenient if you need to return to some kind of result. To do this, you can view a list of words requested in the search engine, and remember which one led to a particular resource. The search engine, unfortunately, does not work well with the Russian text. The search can be performed in one of three modes - all over the Internet, only on English-language pages and using the "parent" filter. When the pages that match the query, the search engine detects a lot, the search results are divided into pages (as in any search engine) and each of them has its own map of the Internet. Any scorecard can be saved and then reused for searching.
Webbrain.com - specification of the search area
Visual presentation of search results is a frequent occurrence among alternative search engines. The closest and most understandable way of demonstrating the search area is a diagram that, one way or another, is beaten up in unusual interfaces by the creators of alternative search engines. The webbrain.com service is an attempt to make a search engine in which the user could not only search results in a row, but also choose the direction of the search. The search service is very simple. The user enters a query, after which a diagram of words defining the search area is plotted at the top of the page, and a standard list of sites that meet the request is shown at the bottom of the browser window. In the center of the diagram is the keyword that most closely matches the subject of the request. Sometimes the central word can be judged by how “correctly” the search engine identified the meaning of the request. For example, if you enter "3dnews.ru", the system puts games in the center of the diagram. Well, this is true, although, to tell the truth, it seems to us that it would be more logical to see another word in the center of the diagram, for example, “fresh IT news” or “computer”.
The inaccuracy of the results of this search engine is explained by the poor base of indexed sites, however, the idea itself is interesting and, perhaps, someday will be continued. In order to work with webbrain.com, you need to have the Java Virtual System component installed, Internet Explorer, Firefox or Netscape.
Agakids.ru - children's search engine
When a child seeks to study a computer, it should be encouraged in every possible way. But letting him search for answers to his questions on Google or a similar “adult” search engine is not worth it. After all, even if the search engine has the function of restricting search results based on undesirable content, it only means that when the filter is turned on, pornography and violence will not disappear completely, but will appear less frequently on the results pages. No search service can guarantee a completely "clean" list of results. Do not solve this problem and the program for parental control.
But there is one very good way out - to offer the child to work with the special children's search engine agakids.ru. This service is designed in such a way that it searches exclusively for those resources that have been added to the agakids.ru database and have been approved by the creators of the service. Search service can find useful information and for parents, he will tell you how to raise children properly, how to take care of their health, etc. The site also has children's internet radio, which broadcasts various fairy tales, children's songs, stories and much more.
To make it interesting for a child to use this search engine, work with the results can occur in the mode of visual search, when the pages found are shown as a beautiful animated series of screenshots of the main pages of sites. Adults will probably be more comfortable working in text mode.
Eyeplorer.com - Search the online encyclopedia
Creating this unusual search engine, the creators sought to make it as “smart” as possible, able to fine-tune to the search question. Having decided that there is no more universal base than the one contained in encyclopedic articles, the creators of the service came to the conclusion that a new search engine should be created on the basis of Wikipedia, the popular online encyclopedia. Created by German programmers, eyeplorer.com visualizes search results and gives you the opportunity to refine your search. Eyeplorer.com is a very handy tool to quickly find brief information in a specific area.
The search engine looks like a pie chart. In the center of this chart is the search box. After the query is executed, the results of the search begin to be marked on this diagram, and these results look like tags links that help the user to reveal the essence of the issue. The links in this diagram lead to the pages of the online encyclopedia. For more convenience, the scale of the chart can be changed using a special slider. Any tag moved to the query field automatically starts a new search, and the chart re-arranges the scorecard. Search query You can refine by adding additional words that clarify the essence of the question. To the right of this diagram there is a notepad to which you can drag comments-links to chart tags, a kind of bookmarks online.
Picollator.ru - search by content of pictures
When you enter a query on most popular search engines that search for graphic files, you get results based on what text is found on the page, as well as on file names. But the less well-known search engine Picollator works completely differently. This system identifies what is shown in the pictures. Naturally, with this approach, the search query should be formulated not as a word or phrase, but as a picture.
This is exactly the case: upload a photo to the server or point to a site where it has already been uploaded, and after a few seconds you will see thumbnails of images similar to the uploaded photo. The service has some limitations: it only works with photos of people. In addition, to get an acceptable result, the original photo must be good quality - the face of the person on it should be clearly visible, it is also desirable that he was not turned.
Kwmap.net - offers search directions
The slogan of this site under the search form "Keymap of whole Internet" fully corresponds to the essence of this search engine. The kwmap.net service visualizes the results found in the simplest and most visual way that you can think of - in the form of a road map resembling a metro map. The nodal points of this map are the keywords found by the search engine. The point at the intersection of the paths is the central word, the one that was entered in the search engine's query field.
The search engine partly performs the user's work - in the case of an unsatisfactory result, you can not worry about which question to ask more precisely - just look at the visual presentation of the search results and choose one of the keywords. In other words, using these key expressions, you can control the direction of the search.
On this list of "strange" search services, of course, does not end there. The best minds are trying to develop an increasingly sophisticated algorithm for selecting search results on the Internet. But, despite all their efforts, no solution has so far been proposed that would be able to arouse great interest among users. This can be explained not only by the power of habit, but also by the fact that over the years of the existence of Google, Yandex, Yahoo! and other search engines, many users have learned to "filter" the results, skillfully operating with the syntax of the search query, no worse than alternative search engines do. We believe that the situation can change radically only when a search service appears on the horizon that uses its own, not the engine of older systems, and which at the same time will be able to index the same huge number of pages as Google.
Most of the time spent by the user on the Internet is spent on finding information of interest to him. There are plenty of ways to get this data - you can look at the online encyclopedia and try to find an answer there, you can subscribe to a newsletter on a topic of interest and carefully study incoming correspondence, or you can consult with competent people on the forum by asking them a question.
But the most universal way to find something on the Internet is to use one of the many search engines. Services to search on millions and millions of web sites are perhaps the fundamental link in the world wide web. Without Google, Yahoo, Yandex and many other usual search engines today, a user’s being on the Web would rather be like walking a blind man through a forest. The importance of search engines for working on the Internet is difficult to overestimate - for many users, starting pages addresses of search engines are indicated, and it is from them that the endless journey through various network resources begins for many.
However, the effectiveness of Internet excavations is different for everyone - one person finds information instantly, another one takes a lot of time, and the third one may not find anything useful at all. What is the reason? The answer is simple: searching the Internet is like fishing - you need to know where to catch and what to catch, i.e. where to look and how to look. In today's article we will talk about how best to conduct a search on the Internet, and tell you what search engines exist for this, except for those that are "on everyone's lips."
However, we begin with the very systems that you know. If the user knows the address of the search engine, this does not mean that he knows how to use it. Let's check how well you understand the technology of search queries.
How accurate the results you get, first of all, depends on how skillfully you have formed a search query. For example, if you are looking for information to write a term paper, you do not need to enter its topic verbatim, especially if the work has a narrow specialization. You will find much more valuable information if you try to find keywords, that is, those words that are sure to appear in your work.
If you are looking for a lost instruction for the car, then by entering the model number, you will certainly get a huge number of sites offering to buy it. To filter out unnecessary links, you can use the search function in the found or exclude some words from the search. In almost every search engine you will find an advanced search function. This is another good way to weed out unnecessary results. Among such functions, it may be useful to search for pages that have recently been updated, to search for pages only in a specific language or on sites located in the domain zone you specified.
The time spent on the search can be significantly saved if you know and use the syntax of the query language. Each search engine has its own characteristics here. For example, when you are looking for something on Yandex, you should use the following techniques:
- To search for words that should appear on the page in one sentence, put the & character between them
- To exclude a specific word from the search results, add it to your search by placing ~~ characters in front of it.
- To find pages that contain at least one of the words specified in the search query, separate them with |
- To search for a word in this form, put an exclamation mark in front of it
Google search engine has its own secrets. Here are just some of them:
- To search for information on a specific site (and only on it), enter its address in the query field, preceded by the word site and a colon (for example, site: http: //www.3dnews.ru)
- To search for a phrase that should appear on the page completely, put it in quotes.
- To exclude from the search results pages where a certain word occurs, add it to your query, placing a minus sign in front of it
These are just a few touches that can help make Internet search more efficient. If you want to achieve an optimal result, we advise you to learn more about the syntax of the query language, which is described in detail in the help system of your favorite search engine.
There is no doubt that Google and Yandex are indispensable tools for searching in the network - the search in these systems is convenient, flexible and very accurate. But, nevertheless, this does not mean that alternative search engines have no right to exist. Yes - they index fewer pages, yes - their resource selection methods are largely controversial. But such search engines have one indisputable advantage - they offer something new, different from accepted standards. Since alternative search engines use a different approach to the selection of resources matching the query, the search result will be completely different than in the case of the usual search engines. So, if long searches on known services did not lead to anything, it means one thing - you need to change tactics and try other methods of searching for information, using alternative search engines. Often, alternative search engines use one or more lists with resources that were found by Google, Yahoo, and other large systems to collect results. These results are filtered, the best ones are selected and often for better perception they are visualized using charts, site maps, tag clouds, etc.
Developers of alternative search engines sometimes go so far in their search for a new universal interface that it is sometimes difficult to recognize a search engine in a web page. And yet, these are search engines. Unusual and strange, at first glance ...
FindSounds.com - looking for sounds
This resource is intended for those users who are in creative search. The resource allows you to search for sound files of different formats - wav, mp3, aiff, au. The database of the resource has a variety of sounds - animal cries, the rattle of cars, the ringing, knocking, sirens, the buzzing of insects, the roar of explosions and firing, the splash of water, etc. Sound files can be searched by different criteria, for example, by size, the presence of two or one channels of sound (stereo / mono), the sampling rate and the bit depth of sound. In the search results, the resource shows not only links to the found files, but also their main characteristics, and also shows a graph of the amplitude of the sound, by which one can judge the nature of the sound of this sample.
The sound effects database FindSounds can be used in various fields - from the development of computer games and other applications to the creation of presentations and various clips. The search engine can be useful, for example, those who create an interactive web-graphics and wants to add variety to the site, accompanied by pressing the page navigation elements with different sounds.
Gnod.net - selects music, books and movies to taste
When a person has a desire to read a new book, listen to some new music or watch a movie, he, as a rule, turns for advice to his friend or acquaintance who has authority in his eyes. However, finding someone who would agree to express their opinion on this issue is not so easy. First, not everyone likes to give advice, because, recommending something to another, a person takes on a share of responsibility, and many stop the question "What if the film, which I advise, does not like it?" Secondly, the person who gives advice should understand what the other person will like and what will be completely uninteresting. After all, the taste and color, as they say ...
But there is an easier way to get good advice - use a special search engine, which is made specifically for this purpose. So, you wanted to listen to a new group, but there is no time and desire to look for good music. Resource gnod.net will ask you for several names of musical performers that you like, analyze the results and offer their version of the singer or group, which should also please you.
The service has several databases - by musical performers, by films, books and people. Thus, the resource has incorporated four services: Gnod Music, Gnod Books, Gnod Movies and Flork. The latest service, Flork, is a social experiment to discover people who are interested in communicating with each other.
We gladly tested the music section of this service and introduced three performers - Gerry and the Pacemakers, The Beatles and Hollies. Our selection was not accidental - these three groups belong to the era of the sixties, to an interesting phenomenon that is called the British Invasion (British Invasion). All of these bands played the beat, and the search engine had to offer the band or artist in the same style. So it happened. The result proposed to us is the band Archies, which in the late sixties was on the lips of all Americans with their funny song Sugar Sugar.
After playing with the search engine for a while, we came to the conclusion that gnod.net often gives the right advice, and it’s not very often wrong. For clarity, the results of its "board" the search engine can provide in the form of an animated cloud with the names of groups, authors or films. The database can be replenished independently by conducting "conversations" with a search engine and answering its questions in the style of "I like it" or "I do not like it."
Alldll.net - will find library files
We recommend that you immediately bookmark this search engine, because sooner or later it will definitely come in handy. Probably everyone had at least once faced with the problem of the absence in the system of some dll library. Usually this leads to the fact that programs or games refuse to start, and the message “Couldn" t find *****. Dll "appears on the screen. There can be a lot of reasons for this, for example, the lack of a file may be caused by incorrect removal of a previously installed application , accidental damage to the file, etc. In addition, the developer could simply not include this library in the distribution kit of his product.
It is very simple to correct the situation - it is enough to find the missing file on the Internet, download it and copy it to the directory of the program that refuses to start, or to the folder ..WINDOWSsystem32 ... You can easily find and download the missing file using this service. Resource www.alldll.net is a searchable database for the most popular dll libraries. Files are sorted alphabetically, there is a search function. You can search for the file you are looking for, even if you only know the approximate name of the library. It is enough to start entering text in the request field, and at the bottom of the page there will be a huge list of files that start with the letters that were typed.
Medpoisk.ru - search for medical information
Despite the fact that this search engine uses the search engine from Google, this in no way reduces its value. Medpoisk.ru - is a universal search engine that is designed to search exclusively on medical sites. This site is a great tool for every medic and anyone who wants to get an answer to any question from the medical field. How to treat this or that disease, what contraindications for this or that medicine, to which doctor to turn to - all this and much more can be learned by “asking” from a search engine. The search engine includes a labor exchange and can be used to search for a job among medical professionals. The resource also contains a catalog of medical institutions, sorted by region. Among these institutions are addresses of clinics, medical centers of different directions, maternity homes, diagnostic centers, beauty salons, etc. We sincerely wish you to use this search service out of curiosity, and not out of necessity.
Taggalaxy.de - search for pictures and photos
Perhaps you heard about the popular service for the exchange of graphic files Flickr.com? This is the service that was blocked in 2007 by the Chinese authorities after pictures of the sad events of 1989 in Tiananmen Square, located in China’s capital, Beijing, appeared on its pages. Flickr.com is one of the first Web 2.0 services, and the number of images uploaded to it by users is estimated at billions.
The number of pictures uploaded to the servers of this service is so large that in order to find a specific image in this ocean of pictures and pictures, a separate search engine is needed. The service offers a search service for images, but there is a more interesting way to search for images - using an unusual search engine taggalaxy.de.
This search service is a means to search for images on Flickr.com, with a preview. And its unusual makes the search interface, which is completely made three-dimensional. The search process for a keyword resembles some kind of computer game - different celestial bodies fly in outer space between which you can move in a virtual world.
After the request for a keyword is executed, a system of the sun and the planets that rotate around the star will appear on the screen. Each celestial body has its own purpose and is "signed" by the word. In the center of the galaxy is the sun, the key request, all other bodies are auxiliary words, clarifications. If you click the mouse on the sun, this object will come closer, and from all sides photos, the content of which is determined by a search query, will fly into it and surround it. This three-dimensional model with photos can be rotated in the virtual space, examining in detail and looking for the image of interest. After that, just click on the picture so that it will increase in size, and then it can be better seen and read the description.
In the process of working with this search engine, you can use the scrolling function - it allows you to zoom in or out of three-dimensional planets. The rest of the planets that are visible in the search engine interface after a query are auxiliary words that allow you to refine the query. For example, if you enter "Sky" in the search field, then among the clarifying words-planets there will be the words "clouds", "sunset", "blue" and other tags that are similar in meaning, which users specified when using the Flickr.com service. The disadvantage of the search engine is that taggalaxy.de does not support the Russian language, so you can only enter queries in Latin.
Nigma.ru - filters the results of other search engines
Among all the search engines that can be found on the Internet, there is a special group of search engines. It differs from all the others in that they have a multi-search function, that is, a simultaneous search on several search engines. One of such multi-search systems is the Russian service Nigma.ru.
Nigma contains its own resource base, but in addition it allows you to search immediately for all the most popular search engines, including Google, MSN, Yandex, Rambler, AltaVista, Yahoo and Aport. The mechanism for selecting results in this search engine is different from most of the accepted methods for finding sites. The fact is that the engine of this service uses results clustering. What does this mean? Imagine that you decide for yourself to figure out what "rendering" is. Comparing the results in different search engines, the Nigma.ru engine selected the most likely results and at the same time in the left part of the window, next to the list of search results, displayed the so-called clusters - "visualization", "creation", "system", "rendering", "process", "studio max", "computer graphics" and other words and phrases. These clusters are a thematic group of found documents. In this way, you can quickly narrow the search or refine your search query.
In Nigma.ru, you can also use rubrics to limit the area from which results will be selected - for example, to search only for music resources or to display results for images only. Another possibility of this service may be of interest to schoolchildren and students. Nigma.ru offers Nigma-mathematics and Nigma-chemistry services. The first is designed to quickly solve simple equations and various arithmetic operations, the second allows you to work with formulas of chemical reactions. The search service recognizes more than a thousand physical, mathematical constants and units of measurement, allowing you to quickly perform a conversion from one dimension to another.
Searchme.com - search engine with a preview
Everyone knows that in order to find specific information on the network, you need to spend a lot of time. Looking through the search results, the user basically opens resources at random, not knowing for sure whether he will find on the new page what interests him or whether it will be a waste of time. The creators of the searchme.com search service thought about this problem and came up with its original solution. The essence of this solution was to create a search engine in which the user could look at an approximate thumbnail of the page before loading it. This would allow to formulate an additional opinion on the seriousness of the resource and its content.
The implementation of this idea was simply magnificent - the created search engine has a beautiful animated three-dimensional interface and displays search results in the form of animated thumbnails, reduced screenshots of web pages that include the search keyword. The tape with the results, like a film with old negatives, can be scrolled in the browser window using a special slider located under the string of images. Sketches are instantly loaded, so no “brakes” with the drawing of the results are observed. It is especially convenient to work with the search results in full screen mode - then it is quite possible to parse even the text of the articles on the thumbnails of the results. To appreciate the convenience of this system, just try to browse the news resources. Photos to the main news on the front page of the web-edition will immediately make it clear what news is considered the most important on this resource.
Torrent-finder.com - search torrents
Exit - specialized search engine torrents. Sites that are looking for torrent resources on the network a lot. However, torrent-finder.com has a distinct advantage over other search engines - this service allows you to search for files on a huge number of trackers at the same time.
Astronet.ru - astronomical search service
This resource provides a search for information on sites whose topics, one way or another, are related to astronomy. In total, the database of the search engine contains about four hundred sites on astronomical topics - sites of observatories, amateur pages, libraries of scientific literature, etc.
Those whose profession is connected with astronomy can only be envied - there is some romance in the study of cosmic events. Nothing seems to a person as interesting as the field of the unknown. Maybe that's why he so often turns his attention to the cosmos and tries to find the answer to the eternal question "Is there life in the universe?" We also did not differ originality and tried to ask the search engine the legendary question "Is there life on Mars?" There were so many answers, and all of them were so interesting that, having forgotten about everything, we plunged into reading hypotheses and looking at photos and mock-ups of the Martian surface.
In addition to the search function, there are a lot of other useful services on the site, among which, for example, there is the English-Russian-English Astronomical Dictionary, a biographical directory with detailed information about all scientists who contributed to the development of astronomy, a glossary of astronomical terms. There is also a convenient map of the sky, which generates the position of the constellations, depending on the latitude and longitude of the observation point, as well as the time of day.
Friv.com - free games for every taste!
Search services are needed by everyone - those who use them to write a dissertation, and those who want to know the weather forecast or train schedule, and even those who have carved out five minutes of free time and just want to play the fool, play what anyone simple computer game. For the latter category of users, this resource will be a real source of games.
This is not quite a search engine, although this is what the Western search engines (Game search engine) call it. The website friv.com is, rather, a directory, a collection of 264 Flash games, collected on one page. Click any of the colorful icons and play on health. On friv.com you will find any “office fun” - from tetris and chess to a quest-adventure and shooter. The plot of many games is made with great humor and, no doubt, will appeal to not only you, but also your friends.
VisualWorld.ru - search with associative links
The method of selecting the correct results for each search engine is different and unique. For example, this search engine works on the principle of associativity. This search engine tries not only to correctly select web-resources corresponding to a specific query, but also to prompt with associative words the direction of the search. So, if you enter a keyword or phrase into the query field, the result shown by the search engine will look like a set of associative words, a semantic cloud, and, of course, a normal list of sites selected by the search engine as a result of the search.
A distinctive feature of VisualWorld.ru is the visualization of associative links, i.e. making a chart showing connections between words that relate to similar topics. At first this graph may seem something incomprehensible and unusual, but after several attempts at searching you get used to it and use it to narrow the search area.
The search service VisualWorld.ru can work not only in the mode of associative search, but also the usual one. For faster work with the system, there is a "lite" version of the site - viwo.ru.
Briefly.ru - a summary of any book.
One can argue for a long time about whether the book will die or not, but the fact remains that the current reader is not the one who scrolls through the volume of Lermontov or Tolstoy, but rather the one who still knows how to read. Soon, anyone who knows that Bender is a figment of Ilf and Petrov’s fantasy, and not the hero of “Futurama”, will be able to consider himself a bibliophile, and Homer is not a Simpsons character, but a quite adequate Greek who lived a couple of thousand years ago.
We think that a missing interest in literature is a temporary phenomenon, and there will be times when people will return to books. In the meantime, time dictates its own laws, and resources such as briefly.ru appear. You do not need to be particularly far-sighted to guess who this resource is intended for - of course, for schoolchildren and students. Why read a whole book if you can learn in a few words what the old Meterlink wrote about.
The site briefly.ru contains a large number of short contents for various books - from the “Divine Comedy” by Dante Alighieri to “Hamlet” by Shakespeare and “The Quiet Don” by Sholokhov.
The content of the works is sorted on the site by the authors, there is a search function. We must pay tribute to the creators of this resource - they very carefully approached the selection of text for retelling, so most of the works are retold in literary language, everything is clear and ... interesting. Well, perhaps, among those who get acquainted with the content of these books, there is one who wants to know the book by reading it in the original. And not from the screen of a PDA or laptop, but from the white sheets of a regular book, while there is still such an opportunity.
Videoinet.ru - search by video
This service searches for videos from various online video repositories, both domestically, for example RuTube.ru, and abroad.
Everyone knows that the largest video archive is a service. YouTube . However, in practice it turns out that our domestic services for storing videos are not much inferior, and in some ways are better than those of Google. Firstly, domestic services are more democratic with the laid out video - fortunately, in our country, it never occurs to anyone to sue for the fact that a music video or a fragment of a new blockbuster is uploaded to the network for everyone to see. Secondly, the content of the clips that our users upload to the server is closer and more understandable to us. Here, for example, a report from one of the TV channels, which has already become documentary, about the events that preceded Sir Paul McCartney's visit to Ukraine - it turns out there is a village Beatlya in Transcarpathia, in which local Hutsuls are preparing a “garris pisni” for one of the Beatles. And here is another video, where a drunk teacher of one of the capital's universities tries to conduct a lecture. The chance to see this on YouTube is much lower - this is something that is close to our viewers, this is our mentality.
You can search on videoinet.ru by tags, by rating and keywords that are related to the content of the clip. The service allows you to bookmark and make playlists from video clips.
Kartoo.com - search results map
In a situation where a long search on the Internet did not bring any positive result, it is logical to assume that the search query was not entirely successful and should be formulated somehow differently. But the longer a user goes through the pages, the harder it is for him to turn on his imagination and figure out how to describe his problem in one or two words otherwise. In this case, you just need to switch and try some completely different search service, for example, kartoo.com.
The mere presence of an unusual search resource interface can push the user to the idea of formulating his query in a new way. And if we take into account that the results will be completely different from what the previous search engine gave out, we can assume that the chances of finding an answer in this case will be higher.
The search service is completely different from ordinary search engines - its appearance is more like a window of some application. After entering the query word, an animated character appears in the "applications" window, which entertains the user while the results are being prepared for display. This is followed by the construction of a map of the Internet that defines the links between the semantic content of various resources. This map clearly shows which area is closest to the subject of the selected resource and where to look for information. Interestingly, the communications shown on the map can be edited, thereby determining the scope of the search. On the map of Internet resources sites are marked with different icons - those that have a larger icon size, rather correspond to a search query. Using the search engine kartoo.com is very unusual, especially at the beginning. But, nevertheless, you get used to some search options instantly - for example, very convenient site icons that make it possible to judge whether you are viewing this page or not. Also, the search engine stores the history of queries, which is very convenient if you need to return to some kind of result. To do this, you can view a list of words requested in the search engine, and remember which one led to a particular resource. The search engine, unfortunately, does not work well with the Russian text. The search can be performed in one of three modes - all over the Internet, only on English-language pages and using the "parent" filter. When the pages that match the query, the search engine detects a lot, the search results are divided into pages (as in any search engine) and each of them has its own map of the Internet. Any scorecard can be saved and then reused for searching.
Webbrain.com - specification of the search area
Visual presentation of search results is a frequent occurrence among alternative search engines. The closest and most understandable way of demonstrating the search area is a diagram that, one way or another, is beaten up in unusual interfaces by the creators of alternative search engines. The webbrain.com service is an attempt to make a search engine in which the user could not only search results in a row, but also choose the direction of the search. The search service is very simple. The user enters a query, after which a diagram of words defining the search area is plotted at the top of the page, and a standard list of sites that meet the request is shown at the bottom of the browser window. In the center of the diagram is the keyword that most closely matches the subject of the request. Sometimes the central word can be judged by how “correctly” the search engine identified the meaning of the request. For example, if you enter "3dnews.ru", the system puts games in the center of the diagram. Well, this is true, although, to tell the truth, it seems to us that it would be more logical to see another word in the center of the diagram, for example, “fresh IT news” or “computer”.
The inaccuracy of the results of this search engine is explained by the poor base of indexed sites, however, the idea itself is interesting and, perhaps, someday will be continued. In order to work with webbrain.com, you must have the Java Virtual Component installed, Internet Explorer, Firefox or Netscape.
Agakids.ru - children's search engine
When a child seeks to study a computer, it should be encouraged in every possible way. But letting him search for answers to his questions on Google or a similar “adult” search engine is not worth it. After all, even if the search engine has the function of restricting search results based on undesirable content, it only means that when the filter is turned on, pornography and violence will not disappear completely, but will appear less frequently on the results pages. No search service can guarantee a completely "clean" list of results. Do not solve this problem and the program for parental control.
But there is one very good way out - to offer the child to work with the special children's search engine agakids.ru. This service is designed in such a way that it searches exclusively for those resources that have been added to the agakids.ru database and have been approved by the creators of the service. The search service can also find useful information for parents - it will tell you how to raise children properly, how to take care of their health, etc. The site also has children's internet radio, which broadcasts various fairy tales, children's songs, stories and much more.
To make it interesting for a child to use this search engine, work with the results can occur in the mode of visual search, when the pages found are shown as a beautiful animated series of screenshots of the main pages of sites. Adults will probably be more comfortable working in text mode.
Eyeplorer.com - Search the online encyclopedia
Creating this unusual search engine, the creators sought to make it as “smart” as possible, able to fine-tune to the search question. Having decided that there is no more universal base than the one contained in encyclopedic articles, the creators of the service came to the conclusion that a new search engine should be created on the basis of Wikipedia, the popular online encyclopedia. Created by German programmers, eyeplorer.com visualizes search results and gives you the opportunity to refine your search. Eyeplorer.com is a very handy tool to quickly find brief information in a specific area.
The search engine looks like a pie chart. In the center of this chart is the search box. After the query is executed, the results of the search begin to be marked on this diagram, and these results look like tags links that help the user to reveal the essence of the issue. The links in this diagram lead to the pages of the online encyclopedia. For more convenience, the scale of the chart can be changed using a special slider. Any tag moved to the query field automatically starts a new search, and the chart re-arranges the scorecard. The search query can be refined by adding additional words that clarify the essence of the question. To the right of this diagram there is a notepad to which you can drag comments-links to chart tags, a kind of bookmarks online.
Picollator.ru - search by content of pictures
When you enter a query on most popular search engines
