Performing Searches

Making a Query

Searching with AvatarSearch is easy! Just type the words you want to search for in the long editable box above, then select the blue button labeled "AvatarSearch." That's it! See "Search Output" for more information on what AvatarSearch will show you in response to your query.

When you enter your search words, enter only the words for which you would like to search. Entering symbols or operators found in a few other search engines (AND, OR, NOT, +, -, etc.) will only confuse AvatarSearch. Also, if you are typing a lowercase L, make sure not to type the number one or a capital i by accident; they may look the same to you, but not to the search engine.

There are also three options you can set before entering your query: Type, Words, and Case. You can change these via the three boxes that appear directly above the editable box that you enter your search words.

Type
The two search Types are: AND and OR. AND is the default, i.e. the Type that is initially selected when you enter AvatarSearch. If AND is selected, AvatarSearch will list websites for you that pertain to each of those words you enter. If OR is selected, AvatarSearch will list websites that pertain to any of the words you enter.

Words
Two possible settings are available for the Words option: Partial (the default) and Whole. Let's say there is a website that pertains to Witchcraft. If you enter the word "Witch" and your Words option is set to Partial, then the site pertaining to Witchcraft will pop up. However, if you enter the word "Witch" and your Words option is set to Whole, then the Witchcraft site will not pop up.

FACTOID:

URL searches are not supported -  Internet address searches (URL search) is not supported because of the unlimited potential variations which can occur entering the request (especially from people who are new to the internet). Statements like:  "http://www.AvatarSearch.com" "http://www.AvatarSearch.com/index.html" "http://AvatarSearch.com/", etc.,  generally all mean the same thing on the internet but in performing a data catalog search handling such variations (trying the reasonable as well as the unreasonable ones: "htttp://.www.AvatarSearch.cim") requires far too much activity in terms of system resources. As a result, URL searches have not been implemented on AvatarSearch.

Case
The third option is called Case. Case means capitalization. This option determines if you want the words you enter to be case Sensative or Insensative (the default). If you enter the word "TaCo" while the Case option is set to Insensative, AvatarSearch will also display websites refering to "Taco" or "taco." But if the Case option is set to Sensative, AvatarSearch will only list those sites refering to "TaCo."

Search Output

Now that you've entered your query, set your search options, and hit the big blue button, what appears on the screen?

AvatarSearch will output the first ten websites (in order from oldest to newest) that match your query. If there are more than ten, there will be a button at the bottom of the screen labeled "Next Documents." Selecting this button will display the next batch of websites that match your query.

How does AvatarSearch know what websites are pertinent to your query? Every AvatarSearch listing has a TITLE (page title) and Site DESCRIPTION (written by the the site's Webmaster - or - text taken from the web site's page by the AvatarSearch Spider). It is the TITLE and DESCRIPTION which AvatarSearch scans to find words matching your keyword query.

Next to some websites there are blue and yellow spheres. A blue sphere () denotes an AvatarSearch recommended website. A yellow sphere () denotes a website which has received the "Mystic Site of the Web Award."