Hotbot Search: Incredible Flexibility and Increased Results
Written: Aug 29, 2000
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| Full Review |
The Hotbot Search has been a favorite of mine for many years for many reasons. The main reason is that the Hotbot Search Engine has always been able to provide a more diverse supply of results than other search engines which I have used. In my personal opinion, Hotbot has a far greater capacity to do web searches for the following reasons.
First, their basic search capabilities are far better at restricting search hits and results than most of the other search engines that I have used before.
Hotbot’s Basic Search Capabilities include the following:
Word Search Options of All the Words, Any of the Words, Exact Phrase, Page Title, The Person, Links to this URL, and Boolean Phrase.
Time Frame Searches such as researching periods of web site submission within Anytime, the Last Week, Last Two Weeks, Last Month, Last Three Months, Last Six Months, Last Year, and the Last two Years.
Multiple Language Searches such as Any Language, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, and Swedish.
Inclusion of Specific Web Site Elements including Images, Video, MP3, and Javascript.
Control of the Number and Type of Results Per Page from 10 to 100 hits per search, including full, brief, or URL only feedback.
Most of the time in my searches, the Basic capability of HotBot meets my needs. However, there is an extensive advanced search engine which adds numerous other criteria in addition to those that were already mentioned.
Hotbot’s Advanced Search Capabilities include the following:
Advanced Word Filters where you can designate whether a returned web site must or must not contain certain words and phrases. For example, you may want to know more about rockets, but not about Johnny Rockets. So, you would enter criteria into this section where the hits must have rockets, but must not have Johnny.
Date Specific Criteria where you can specify the exact date which a web site was submitted to the Hotbot Search Engine. This is very beneficial in returning current information on a subject.
Additional Media and Script Criteria which will give you a greater chance to find pages with the types of media information which you are trying to obtain. You may check off any combination of the following for your advanced search: Image, Audio, Shockwave, VRML, Real Audio/Video, Java, Acrobat, MP3, Javascript, VB Script, Active X, Video, Win Media, And specific extensions *.gif, *.jpg, *.mid, etc. I find this search very helpful when I am trying to find midi files for my web site and graphics.
Domain Search Capabilities allow you to search within a particular type of domain such as: Anywhere, North America (.com), North America (.net), North America (.gov), North America (.mil), North America (.edu), North America (all), Europe, Southeast Asia, India and Asia, South America, Oceania, Africa, Middle East, Central America , Or you can specify the exact domain name such as prodigy.com. By using this criteria, I have been able to find government agencies in specific without having my search results clutter up with other types of hits.
Selected Page Result Criteria Include results of: Best Page Only Option,Page Depth – Designates how deep into the site you want to find results: Any page, top page, Personal page, page depth. (designate how deep), and Word Stemming – Using versions of the words to find results : If you type think the computer will look for sites with versions of that word and display results.
However, the Hotbot Search Engine does have flaws which have caused it to be filtered out for use by some government agencies’ firewalls. The main reason for this is because the HotBot Search allows for a lot of pornographic hits to be returned by the site. Because of this, this one search engine has been banned. Another flaw unrelated to the porn issue is that the Hotbot Search will return at times many dead links or seemingly irrelevant information.
It is for this reason why I believe that it is more beneficial to include the advanced search criteria for use of this engine.
However, I am overall pleased with the quality of information that is returned by my searches on Hotbot. In my research, this one tool has never failed to provide me with whatever information that I needed immediately with links that other search engines seem to miss. It is one of many search engines which I use almost daily in my work and because it is very fast and reliable, I give this search engine a highly recommended rating.
Recommended:
Yes
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About the Author
Location: Georgia
Reviews written: 1228
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