Here you may formulate your Advanced Query. A Boolean search expression is a list of words or phrases separated by words such as "and", "or", and "not". See the screenshot above for an example.
The expression may contain, separated by spaces, the following:
AND/and
OR/or
NOT/not
double quotes "
plain brackets ()
Where ANDs and ORs are mixed at the same level without brackets evaluation is left-to-right.
Phrases containing spaces should be placed within double quotes. The search parameters are not case-sensitive.
Setting up the correct search expression is essential for a successful search.
The Seed URLs are the web pages used as a start for the search. Each Advanced Query must have at least one. Typically you would enter URLs that you would consider good starting points for your search - pages that are relevant and up-to-date.
It is often the case that in a field of interest there are 5-10 main pages that are the reference sites for the topic. These make the best Seed URLs.
Type a URL in the Seed URL field and press the Add button. Repeat to add more Seed URLs if desired. Highlight a URL in the list and press Delete to remove it. Clear clears the whole list. You may doubleclick a URL in the list to place it in the input field for modification.
Here you may enter text strings which, if found in a URL, will cause that URL not to be added to the result list. Note that this is text in the URL itself, not the page pointed to by the URL. Use it where you know a certain site will appear in the list, but you know that site and don't want it to clutter up your list. The text string may, of course, be a complete URL.
Type a text snippet or URL in the Exclude Text field and press the Add button. Repeat if necessary. Highlight one in the list and press Delete to remove it. Clear clears the whole list. You may doubleclick one in the list to place it in the input field for modification.
Queries may be saved for repeat runs at a later stage, and these buttons allow you to open and save your Queries.
This loads your Advanced Query into the search engine. You must load the query before pressing Go! in the main screen.
Use this to reset the Query window to blanks and defaults.
This hides the Advanced Query screen to provide you with a bit more monitor space. The Query is not cleared. To redisplay the Advanced Query screen press the Query button on the main screen.
There are several ways of adjusting the processing of your query.
You may choose to:
Ignore Seed Domains in Links - if links are found back to the seed sites do not show them ( assumes you know all about those sites ).
Always Test All Seed Links - the seed sites themselves might not match your query, but their links might, so check them!
Limit Domain+one - limit the number of URLs shown for one level down in a site
You may set limits in the following fields:
Limit Age in Days and Days Limit - when checking URLs attempt to find the age of the URL ( days since last update ), and ( if available ) only return URLs younger than this limit
Queue Limit - the maximum number of URLs in the search queue
Process Limit - the maximum number of URLs to be searched
Good Limit - stop the search after this number of good links have been found
Domain Limit - only include this many from any site in the good list
Last updated on 12-03-2000