WWW Search Engines by e

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IDEAL Group, Inc.

1995-2007

12 Years

Excellence

WWW Search Engines by E-Mail

The Internet has millions of web sites with an exponential growth rate. To find the proverbial "needle in a haystack" Internet search engines were developed.

All search engines do keyword searches against a database of web sites, but various factors influence the results from each. Size of the database, frequency of update, search capability and design, and speed lead to a different results.

Currently, the majority of searches are done on the Internet using a browser program and one of the major search engines. As an e-mail only user, the question arises "How can I search the Internet Using e-mail?"

To answer the question, in late 1995 I started spending an enormous amount of time trying to do exactly this. I started looking at the HTML source code of the search engine, at RFC 1866 which specified HTML 2.0 standards and how the HTML coding is supposed to be interpreted by the browser and the server, and also the results returned from the search.

In early 1996 I began posting a series of e-mail only search engine FAQs on how to use e-mail to access the web-based search engines via an Agora server. I also showed in a FAQ (wscrack.faq) how other users could do the same and the methods I used.

However, with the introduction of Getweb servers in late 1997, I have spent less and less time revising and working on these documents. The Getweb servers make it extremely easy to use a form-based search engine.

Here are some sample queries that you can send to an Agora or other type server. Replace the "SPAM" with your search phrase. Separate words with a plus sign ("+") instead of blanks. For details and other options be sure read the help files.

AltaVista
SEND http://www.altavista.com/cgi-bin/query?q=SPAM

AskJeeves
SEND http://www.askjeeves.com/main/askjeeves.asp?ask=SPAM

CNET Search (was SavvySearch)
SEND http://www.search.com/search?q=SPAM

DogPile
SEND http://search.dogpile.com/texis/search?q=SPAM

Excite (also includes old Magellan search)
SEND http://search.excite.com/search.gw?search=SPAM

Fast Search
SEND http://www.alltheweb.com/search?cat=web&lang=any&query=SPAM

GOTO
SEND http://www.goto.com/d/search/?type=topbar&Keywords=SPAM

Google
SEND http://www.google.com/search?q=SPAM

Google Groups (includes old DejaNews)
SEND http://groups.google.com/groups?q=SPAM

HotBot (now part of Lycos)
SEND http://hotbot.lycos.com/?MT=SPAM

Lycos
SEND http://www.lycos.com/cgi-bin/pursuit?query=SPAM

MetaCrawler
SEND http://search.metacrawler.com/crawler?general=SPAM

WebCrawler
SEND http://www.webcrawler.com/cgi-bin/WebQuery?searchText=SPAM

Yahoo
SEND http://search.yahoo.com/bin/search?p=SPAM

NOTE: The "\" at the end of a line is used as a continuation character to show that the line continues on the next line. Not all Agora or other servers accept this. See the help files for further information.

Search request
=======================================================================
To: agora@dna.affrc.go.jp (OR other Agora server)
Subject: [leave blank]
Body:
  SEND http://search.yahoo.com/bin/search?p=SPAM
  SEND http://www.google.com/search?q=SPAM&num=100
=======================================================================

=======================================================================
To: getweb@usa.healthnet.org (OR other Getweb server)
Subject: request
Body:
  GET http://search.yahoo.com/bin/search?p=SPAM
  GET http://www.google.com/search?q=SPAM&num=100
=======================================================================

=======================================================================
To: page@grabpage.org
Subject: [leave blank]
Body:
  URL: http://www.liszt.com/cgi-bin/liszt.cgi?word=canada&junk=s&an=all
  URL: http://www.google.com/search?q=win+98+shutdown+problems
  URL: http://www.mit.edu:8001/finger?gboyd@netcom.com
  URL: http://search.yahoo.com/bin/search?p=SPAM
  URL: http://www.google.com/search?q=SPAM&num=100
=======================================================================

=======================================================================
To: webgate@vancouver-webpages.com
Subject: [leave blank]
Body:
  DUMP http://www.lsoft.com/scripts/wl.exe?qL=philately%2C+diving&F=L&F=T
  DUMP http://www.liszt.com/cgi-bin/liszt.cgi?word=canada&junk=s&an=all
  DUMP http://search.yahoo.com/bin/search?p=SPAM
  DUMP http://www.google.com/search?q=SPAM&num=100
=======================================================================

=======================================================================
To: webmail@www.ucc.ie
Subject: [leave blank]
Body:
  SEND http://search.yahoo.com/bin/search?p=SPAM
  SEND http://www.google.com/search?q=SPAM&num=100
=======================================================================

=======================================================================
To: www4mail@ftp.uni-stuttgart.de (OR other www4mail server)
Subject: [leave blank]
Body:
  GET http://www.google.com/search?q=SPAM&num=100
  SEND http://search.yahoo.com/bin/search?p=SPAM
=======================================================================

=======================================================================
To: text@pagegetter.com
Subject: [leave blank]
Body:
  http://www.google.com/search?q=SPAM
  http://search.yahoo.com/bin/search?p=SPAM
  http://www.google.com/search?q=SPAM&num=100
  etc.
=======================================================================

References: