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Search Engine Reviews: Researchville and Google Groups - Page 2

© Paula Dragutsky

Results

Results from each engine appear in a separate window, however only one window at a time is displayed on the screen. If you're not interested in the results in the window that appears, close it and another window will open with results from a different search engine.

GOOGLE GROUPS - A NEW NEWSGROUP SEARCH ENGINE

Google has recently introduced a newsgroup search service - Google Groups - which is now in beta. Google has recently taken over the newsgroup archives of one of the earliest search engines Deja.com (which used to be called Deja News) and eventually its archive will be available for searching from 1995 on. (At present Google Groups is searchable from August of 2000.)

At this time, you cannot post to a newsgroup using Google Groups, but Google plans to enable posting soon in addition to other features.

For some reason there is no link on Google that allows you to get to Google Groups, but if you go to Deja.com, you will be transported to Google Groups.

Search Tips

You can search for your topic by doing a keyword search or by following the links in the newsgroup directory (which is organized by newsgroup category, for example rec, biz, alt, etc.).

If you want results from a particular group, you can type the name of that group in the search box (e.g. rec.food.chocolate).

Thr default of Google Groups is the AND operator. In other words every word you enter is required to be in every document. If you don't want every word you enter to be required, you can use the OR operator (e.g. sofa OR couch)

You can also use the minus sign to forbid a word and quotation marks to designate a phrase.

There's a menu-based Advanced Search Mode that lets you specify the newsgroups you want to search and the location of your search word in the message (e.g. subject, author, message ID). You can also specify a date or a range of dates that should be searched.

Results

Results in Google Groups are clear and informative. The results of a keyword search appear in a form similar to web page results. Each result includes the subject, relevant text from the message, newsgroup, date, author, and a link, which enables you to view the conversational thread.

When you click on the link to view the thread, each message appears in its entirety, in chronological order.

If you specify the newsgroup in your search, results include date, thread, subject and most recent poster.

The copyright of the article Search Engine Reviews: Researchville and Google Groups - Page 2 in Search Engines is owned by Paula Dragutsky. Permission to republish Search Engine Reviews: Researchville and Google Groups - Page 2 in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.