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Searching Using HotBot HotBot
contains features such as searching by phrases, people and terms as well as
other things which can help tremendously in a Web search. HotBot displays hits in amounts of 10,
25, 50 and 100. The selected number of desired pages listed is a matter of
preference. The default is 10 hits displayed per page. Several languages can be selected from and
the pages found will be limited to those written in the selected language.
HotBot offers the following languages:
HotBot offers the time periods the page was
created within to choose from which helps eliminate old or outdated
information and Web pages:
HotBot offers the following options to
determine how your search terms are to be used:
HotBot can be told to find pages that must
contain the following types of files:
HotBot has a directory
of preselected categorized sites. If you know your subject area see
what's included in the subject category. It may save the trouble of doing a
Web search. Simple
Searching With HotBot Input all the terms you are interested in
using to find your topic. This keeps things to the simplest level of searching
and requires nothing more than typing your terms into HotBot and clicking "Search". Say you were interested in doing a Web search
on classical music and the composer Claude Debussy. Simply enter the words
classical, music and Debussy into the search bar on the browser and click on the "Search" icon. Notice
you can refine the search by clicking any of the drop down box arrows and choosing an option. Try one of these
options to see what search results you obtain. Boolean
Searching Boolean
searching is a means by which a Web
search can be further refined and can eliminate a lot of false hits. Boolean
searching uses the operators "AND",
"OR", or "NOT" to
include or exclude desired terms. Parentheses
can be used to "nest" search terms. Nesting groups the words you want
searched together in tandem. If you put a set of words in quotes HotBot will
look for that exact phrase when using a Boolean search. Using the preceding example try the search
using the "AND" Boolean
operator. Here are examples of Boolean strategies you can use with this
search. Make certain you select the Boolean
option in HotBot.
Now try
the search using the Boolean search strategy marked in bold. Let's refine the search further and add one
more term to the previous search strategy. We know Claude Debussy was an
Impressionistic composer so we will add the term Impressionism to our search. Try this
search: ("Classical Music") AND Debussy AND
Impressionism The point of Boolean searching is to eliminate
"false hits" or weed out unwanted results. Keep in mind some searches, no matter how well
crafted, cannot reduce the number of hits yielded. When this happens you will
have to wade through the results or try your luck using a different search
engine. Other
Types Of Searching Using HotBot As previously mentioned the following types of
searching exist under HotBot. Here's how they would be used: All
the words - Simply input the terms you want
searched and it will look for all of
them. Any
of the words - This will search for any
of the terms you input. Exact
phrase - Will look for the exact
phrase you typed. The
page title - Looks for the title
of the Web page. Use when you know the page name but have forgotten or lost
the address. The
person - Used to find Web pages dealing with
famous people. Links
to this URL - Looks for pages linked to a Web
page you are familiar with. Boolean
phrase - Uses operators such as "AND",
"OR", "NOT", "NEAR" Experiment with HotBot and look for subjects of interest. Use any of the search methods HotBot offers. |
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