Yahoo!, like the Web itself, is too large to
be explored entirely link by link. However, with over half
a million sites divided into more than 25,000 categories,
Yahoo! is both browseable and searchable. Use these two features
and you will almost always find something to match your interests.
You can browse Yahoo! by simply clicking on the various
categories listed on each page. Search Yahoo! by entering
a word (or, a few words) into the search box that appears
on every page in the directory. Combine the two strategies
and you can "browse and then search" or "search and then browse."
Tip #1:
If you put quotation marks around
your search terms, you'll get search results that only contain
that exact phrasing. If you leave off the quotation marks,
you'll get results that contain any of the words that you
typed in. For more on this see Yahoo!'s search help
page.
Tip #2:
After you enter your search terms, the first results you
see are Yahoo! categories. If you click on one of these,
you'll be taken to that specific category. From there you
can browse on a list of related, individual sites and click
on one of your choosing.
Tip #3:
If Yahoo! doesn't find any matching entries in its main
database, your query will automatically be transferred to
the Inktomi database, a search engine that automatically
"crawls" the text of the entire Web. Inktomi's database
contains results for literally millions of individual Web
pages.
Tip #1
Including or excluding words:
To make sure that a specific word is always included in your search
topic, place the plus (+) symbol before the key word in the search
box. To make sure that a specific word is always excluded from
your search topic, place a minus (-) sign before the keyword in
the search box.
Example: To find recipes for cookies with oatmeal but without
raisins, try recipe cookie +oatmeal -raisin.
Tip #2
Expand your search using wildcards (*):
By typing an * at the end of a keyword, you can search
for the word with multiple endings.
Example: Try wish*, to find wish, wishes, wishful,
wishbone, and wishy-washy.
Tip #3
When in doubt, use lowercase text in your searches.
When you use lowercase text, the search service finds both upper
and lowercase results. When you use upper case text, the search
service finds only upper case.
Example: When you search for paris, you'll find Paris,
paris, and PARIS in your result pages. However, when
you search for Paris, you'll only see Paris in
the result pages.
Use more than one word
Search for ideas and concepts, in addition to keywords, and
enter more than one keyword in your search query. Excite uses
Intelligent Concept Extraction (ICE) to find relationships that
exist between words and ideas, so the results will contain words
related to the concepts for which you're searching.
Try "More Like This"
If you find that one of the Web results better describes what
you are searching for, click More Like This located next to
the site title. Excite Search will use that document as the
basis for a new search to find more sites similar to the result
you selected.
Be specific
Use specific words as opposed to general ones. For example,
a search for "Lamborghini" will return more targeted results
than a search for "sports cars."
Use "List by Web Site"
Excite's list of search results may present several pages
from the same site. When you click List by Web Site, your list
will compress to display Web site titles and relevant documents
contained within the sites.
Try an Advanced Search
Use the "+" (plus) sign to designate words that must be contained
in your search results. Enter the "-" (minus) sign to designate
words that must not be contained in your search results. When
using the plus or minus sign, do not leave any space between
the sign and the designated word (see Advanced Search
for more details)
