Overview

On NBCi's home page you'll find:

Query box - You can enter single words, multiple words, phrases (in quotes), and use either simplified Boolean (+term, -term) or full Boolean (AND, OR, NOT, ( )  ).

Link to the advanced version (Power Search)

Link to a "local" page ("My Town", localized according to zip code) or "My NBCi" which allows extensive personalization of news features, stock portfolio, etc.)

Add-Ons - E-mail Look-up · Stock Quotes · Chat · Free E-mail Service Software Downloads · Picture Finder  · MP3
Search · Shopping · Classifieds · Maps & Directions  Message Boards · Horoscope ·
Yellow Pages · White Pages, etc.

Directory - NBCi has a reasonably sized, well-organized directory, located by going to the "Search & Find" tab

News Headlines - From a wide variety of news wires and newspapers
 
 

NBCi's Advanced Search Page (Power Search)

On NBCi's Advanced Search Page, you'll find:

Links to home page, a "local" page (localized according to zip code) or "My NBCi" which allows extensive personalization of news features, stock portfolio, etc.)

"Search for" window, allowing you to choose:

All the words
Any of the words
The exact phrase
The page title
The person
Links to this URL
The Boolean phrase
All forms of the words
Query box - You can enter single words, multiple words, phrases (in quotes), and use either simplified Boolean (+term, -term) or full Boolean (AND, OR, NOT, ( )  ).

Link to the advanced search tips

Secondary query boxes allowing choice of "must contain," should contain," or "must not contain" and a search by "words," "phrase," or "person."

Output choice of::

10, 20, 50, 75, or 100 results per page.
"full descriptions," "brief descriptions," or "URLs only."
Choice of searching "all pages" or just "top level pages."

Date range choices

Media type to be required in the page (image, Java, etc.)

File extension search (e.g., gif jpg)

Domain type search (e.g., edu, com, mil)

Country code search (e.g., uk, fr)

Choice of searching any one of nine languages (Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish)

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Search Features Provided by NBCi

In both the home page and advanced version, you can use either simple Boolean, or full Boolean
 

Simple Boolean:
+term
-term

Example - To require that all pages retrieved have both the words "Chesapeake" and "crabs," enter:
 

+Chesapeake +crabs
Example - To find items on muskrats, but exclude those mentioning recipes, enter:
+muskrats -recipes
Full Boolean

          The following operators are available in both the the home page and advanced

version of Snap:
 
AND, OR,  AND NOT, ( )


           Example:
              Chesapeake AND (muskrat OR muskrats) AND NOT (recipe OR recipes)

        NOTE - When using full Boolean statements in the advanced version, be sure to choose "the Boolean phrase" from the "Search for" window (found right in front of the query box)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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 Field Searching

Title - To search for only those pages containing a specific word or phrase in the title:
Choose "The page title" from the "Search for" window choices, then enter your term in the query window.
Links - To find pages which contain links to a particular page:
Choose "Links to this URL" from the "Search for" window choices

For example, if I wanted to find pages which have linked to my own page (www.onstrat.com), I'd choose "Links to this URL" in the "Search for" window, then in the query window, enter:

http://www.onstrat.com
 
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Truncation

This type of automatic truncation has its pitfalls, often returning a lot of non-related terms.
 
 
 

Output

In the advanced version, you can specify your choice of:
 
10, 20, 50, 75, or 100 results per page.

 You can also choose to see "full descriptions," "brief descriptions," or "URLs only."

If there are categories from NBCi's directory which contain the term you searched for, NBCi will display a list of those category headings, and matching sites from those categories. This is followed by matching sites from the Inktomi database.

If your term has a large number of entries in the directory, results from the Inktomi database are not shown automatically.  Instead,  you will see a  "Search Web Pages" option at the end of the directory listings.

At the bottom of results pages, you are given the option modifying your search or transferring your search to other search engines (AltaVista, FastSearch, Google)  Not all of the qualifications you searched for will necessarily carry over into the other service, of course.

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NBCI's Directory

A very positive aspect of searching in NBCi is that for all searches you are automatically shown matching hits (both categories and web pages) from the directory.

When using the directory, at any level you are given the option of searching -- either within all of NBCi, or just within the current category of subcategory. (Excellent feature!)
 

Summary

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