NIU Department of Mathematical SciencesSearching the Web
NIU Department of Mathematical Sciences
Locating information in the Web ocean is a black art. Here are a few starting points. DEC's AltaVista is one of the most comprehensive indexes of Web material. It is also usually quite fast. Its "Advanced Search" version allows the use of logical connectives to narrow down the query. Don't forget to try searching news articles as well (press the button labeled "the Web" and select "Usenet" before submitting the query. Since AltaVista indexes only the newer Usenet news, you may also want to use DejaNews.
DejaNews lets you search Usenet news articles that appeared in the past few years. Its "Power Search" mode is particularly useful.
Yahoo! is one of the places where you can browse the information grouped by subject. It's a great starting point for any surfing expedition.
Switchboard is your best bet if you are looking for an old friend or a specialty store. It's an on-line equivalent of White and Yellow Pages for the entire country.
If you are looking for mathematics-related information, try the huge list of Mathematics Information Servers maintained at Penn State. To quickly access some of the Math Departments in our area, use our own MidWest Math collection.