Search Engines

User Search

• Engines search for boolean combinations of keywords
• Some engines will include "near matches" to keywords
• Some engines will include synonyms for keywords
• Some engines use other engines, and then sort the results
• Some engines used to publish their algorithms
• Companies specialise in tunig your site to search engines

Search criteria

• Meaningful title
• Metadata such as keywords, author
• First few hundred words contain meaningful content
• Explicit registration with search engines
• Avoidance of spam e.g.
  • keywords include hundreds of words (usually rude)
  • Repeated words in small font, with the same colour as the background

Dublin Core

• Title
• Creator
• Subject (includes keywords)
• Description (e.g. abstract)
• Publisher
• Contributors
• Date (use YYYYMMDD form)
• Type (e.g. novel, poem)
• Format (e.g. text/html)
• Identifier (unique identifier such as URL, ISBN)
• Source (originating media)
• Language (preferred: Z39.53 three character code)
• Relation (meaning under development!)
• Coverage (meaning under development!)
• Rights (e.g. to a copyright notice)
• Coverage (meaning under development!)
• Rights (e.g. to a copyright notice)

Including a search engine

• Many search engines can be run from your web site
• Some are free
• Some are free, but will display an ad
• Some cost
• Require indexing on a regular basis