Methods for finding info on the Internet Methods for finding information on the Internet To find information in the vast amounts of data that are available through various Internet services, there must be powerful search and navigation tools available. Some of the information services come with their own search methods, but they are not very sophisticated. This chapter deals with various types of search methods. The easiest to find is textual information. Search methods range from simple keyword matching to complex boolean queries to various kinds of fuzzy algorithms.
People look for information in different ways, depending on the precision of their questions.
When a sufficiently detailed reference is available, such as a book title or even a URL , the computer can do most of the searching. Typically, this type of search is used in library catalogues or databases of addresses. Even if the references are much less precise, the computer can still help with keyword indexing, approximate searches, etc. A system like WAIS is designed to find documents that contain as many words as possible from a particular set. All kinds of variations of keyword searches exist.