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Help & FAQ <updated 06/2005!>
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Help & FAQ <updated 06/2005!>
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Introduction. What makes Ithaki's search so powerful & innovative.
>> Ithaki is a metasearch engine, which means it searches in real time other search tools and databases to find the results for your query. Then it ranks the best results extracted according to an internal ranking syst. Ithaki allows you to use a variety of search commands (Boolean operators/Natural language, etc)
> To find the most accurate web pages and search results for your keywords, an special selection of tested hand-picked list of search tools are queried in real time (in each search channel).
> >The search channels (The web, web sites, news, MP3s, etc) allows you to find exactly what you're looking for. Each channel was designed to enhance and give precision to your search, allowing you to find things that in other way would take you more time and knowledge. Ithaki searches approximately the impressive amount of 500 web search engines, internet directories and guides.
> > Ithaki was the first meta search engine to put a clean and simple interface to present the search results, this model has now became an standard and has been copied everywhere thanks to Google popularity (but that wasn't common in the 2000 when search engines & metasearch engines thought about everything except the quality of the search results).
> Ithaki's also the first meta search engine worldwide to have a WAP and Imode version (2001)
> > >The goal of Ithaki is to offer your a powerful search experience with a simple, colorful (but elegant) interface.
Quickly!! >
Important details about Ithaki > >
Ithaki is an independent project entirely created by the molecular biologist Carla Tironi Farinati. Carla & all the people that have collaborated in one way to another collaborated would like to thank you for supporting Ithaki. Ithaki's idea and concept was born in 1997 and it was first online in the 2000. Read more about Ithaki's history. This is a little Comparison chart between Ithaki and other meta search tools.
> Metasearch, why is convenient?
Traditional search engines index just a little amount of the real pages of the web. Even the most biggest crawlers like Fast, Wisenut or Google index just a little part of the web. If you need a precise & powerful search, then Ithaki is a great option. Ithaki covers the biggest Internet databases.
> > Find exactly what you want: 35 different search channels
Ithaki has many different topics, each one groups the best search engines of Internet in that specific topic, in that way you can get quickly the most accurate results. This also helps to override any defect that a particular search engine could have.
If you select the option "MP3s" you'll be searching all the best mp3 search engines, which will allow you to find easily any MP3 file.
> > > Search Methods:
You can use Boolean operators ( "", -, etc) & natural language queries.
The default operator of Ithaki is "+", this means that all the keywords entered in your search query must be in the document by default. There's no need to add the plus sign before each word.
Ithaki doesn't recognize A from a, there's not difference between Bjork and bjork.
Also note that the search words may not appear in the description that's shown, that's because Ithaki shows only few lines of the description.
Boolean operators examples:
ithaki metasearch : search for documents containing the words ithaki and metasearch anywhere on the page.
ithaki -metasearch : search for documents containing the word ithaki but not the word metasearch.
"ithaki metasearch": search for documents containing only the phrase "ithaki metasearch"
Natural Language examples:
what is a midi keyboard? (you can exclude the ? sign): returns documents about midi keyboards
what is XXX?
who is merril nisker?: returns information about merril nisker
who is/are XXX?
More examples about natural language & boolean operators will be added soon.
> Ithaki is available French, Spanish, German, Portuguese, Italian, Japanese, Russian, Norwegian, Dutch, Polish, Swedish, Chinese, Greek & English
> > Ithaki's
quality: the most accurate search results.
Only the best engines are chosen
Almost every search tool around is tested to found the best ones. I keep informed
about what happen in the search engine world (news, sizes, changes, algorithms,
etc). Then I try to select what is in my our humble opinion the best search tools
available, because that is what rates the quality of a meta search engine.
You'll not see only results from the popular search engines, new and independent tools are also added because that improves the range
and quality of the search results. For example, Ithaki's news
meta search uses the most reliable sources like the BBC, CNN, Associated
Press, Reuters but also queries reliable and independent news sources like
Indymedia.
> Fast Response time
No matter is a tool is new, if it's a good tool you'll find it in our search results
If a new tool appears it can be in Ithaki in hours. (Wisenut, Gigablast & Teoma were included in our results just days after they we're launched).
> Internet search: the web, web sites, web pages
Ithaki's unique search channels lets you define WHAT kind of results you want. Click here to read more
> > Ithaki gets the best results & removes the duplicates etc. Ranking Method.
Ithaki order the results by relevance of keywords, removes the duplicates & shows you the results. The results that appear more frequently in search engines will be at the top, along with the name of each engine. A result is considered a double if the URL, description and title are exactly the same. The position of each search results is not shown because in our test was considered irrelevant and it tends to confuse and distract the user, that's why we also deleted the result number.You can group the results by search engine, this allows you to see the results as you were searching in each engine. You can hide the name of the search engine as well. In the mp3 ftp search, results with no ratio are showed first.
> A simple but elegant interface
Ithaki eliminate everything that may lead to distract you from the results. The presentation is plain simple but elegant.
Each search channel has a different color (Just like Rimbaud's poem Voyelles).
The interface you're seeing now was first online in the 2001.
The top search box is very simple and the one at the bottom allows more customization.
> > Amount
of results
The amount of results that Ithaki extract from a search engine
is critical. You'll rarely see this item quoted as a factor of quality
when people analyze certain meta search engine, but this is a critical factor
for almost all meta search engines. Why? If you extract 50 result of each
engine, probably the last results won't be relevant or at least, they'll
less relevant than the first 10, but if the robot finds 5 sites listed in
2 search engines in the positions 45, 46, 47, 48, 49 it won't make a difference
and it will list if first. We solve that problem fetching a different amount
of results according to the search engine relevance. It doesn't matter the amount of results you get, the only thing that matters is the quality of the web pages.
> No paid results
Ithaki do not add sponsored results inside the results, because I believe it distort the search.
> > No
False Duplicates
I do not add engines with the same databases (to avoid having false duplicate
results) and we prefer the source of the results. (For example the Open
Directory is the base of many search results you see around).
> > > All
the search engines used for our GEO "aka country search" are local
search engines.
Ithaki doesn't consult the same 5 engines & changes the languages. We
explore all the engines available and we choose the most complete &
independent engines we found worldwide. Although we use some
global engines (ie Google) in those searches we also consult independent
directories & local search engines.
> Ithaki is the first wireless meta search engine (WAP/Imode)
Read
more about Ithaki's search for wap sites..
http://wap.ithaki.net (Ithaki WAP site)
http://i.ithaki.net (Ithaki Imode site)
> The listed search engines are effectively the consulted ones.
This might appear overkill but most of metacrawlers list engines that they never query. There are a lot of examples of this, if you have time just try it, there are metacrawlers that list more than 15 engines and they ask you to choose, but if you look carefully the results just 4 or 5 search engines give you the results.
> > More info
If more info about a certain site is available -size, date- Ithaki shows it (next to the URL). Also shows passwords or the URL to them.> Ithaki is the first metacrawler fully dedicated to GNU/Linux!
> >Ithaki
can be in your site, with the categories/language/results your with just 26
clicks!
(just checking if you wasn't sleeping)
> > You
can send the results by email.
This is thought for people that moves a lot, people in cyber cafes or simple
because you discovered something and you don't want to forget it, or you
want to send the results to a friend.
>Ithaki
gives you the amount of results you want.
You can set the amount
or results by page. The default is 30 results per page.+
> > > Your privacy
Your search results are not saved in you history or cache. Your keywords are not presented in the title. We don't use cookies. Your privacy matters, investigate what the sites you normally use do with your information.
Read Ithaki's privacy policy.
>Ithaki "theme-meta search".
Metasearch just about specific theme. You type "best web sites" and you get the best websites about that topic. It started as an inner joke, but then people start to ask us more so now there's like 25 theme engines. We are not adding any more sorry. STOP asking! ;-)
More questions.
A web directory (aka
web guides, dirs) is a catalog of web sites reviewed by people. Each site
was visited & "reviewed" by a person. Those guides are
small (compared with a search engine) and contain just web sites.
The biggest and greatest directory is the Open
Directory Project (also known as Dmoz). It contains around 2.6 million
of sites (May 2001) and it's build thanks to the editors that help with their
time and experience to build one of the greatest ideas of the internet. The
Open Dir provides the data you see in many popular search engines (Google's
web sites for example)
| >>>
Selecting the option Web
Sites you will find web sites only in : Yahoo web sites, Open Directory (web sites & categories),
Looksmart, Galaxy, Zeal & AskJeeves. This option will let you find
the best web sites of the internet. To take advantage of this option you should enter general terms about a particular subject. Then you can browse those sites and find anything more particular. Pro's: Let's you search for sites of quality or at least you know the web site was reviewed at least for one person. You can filter spammers (sites that spam search engines to get the top positions, this is useful for the most popular searches like mp3 or sex). Really useful to search for general topics. Categories that have a list of reviewed web sites are also listed. |
A search engine (aka web spiders, crawlers, bots, engines, SEs) is
a robot that automatically indexes web pages, those sites are not reviewed
by people. The engine will rank -automatically, via an algorithm- those sites.
One of the biggest and most exact engine we have found is
Google. It has an index of 705 million of pages, and its results are highly
relevant to your search.(Note the huge size difference with
Dmoz). Anyway against to the common belief, there's many search engines as good as Google like Wisenut or Teoma.
|
>>>
If you select Web
Pages you'll find web page searching in parallel: Wisenut, Google, Altavista, Alltheweb, Teoma, Gigablast,
Hotbot, Voila, Entireweb & Fybersearch.
Note that Ithaki is the first meta search engine to distinguish between
results (sites/pages). At the beginning of this sites this option was
called Wed directories and web search engines but it was changed to
help the common user (I've found
that not many people know the difference between them) |
For more information on sizes, who feeds who, SEs strategies, algorithms,
quality check out
www.at-web.de "Orientierung
im Internet" by Klaus Patzwaldt.
If you speak German this site is a must!
enfin.com, search-engine-index.co.uk,
searchengineworld.com,
searchengineguide.com,
searchenginewatch.com.
kids.ithaki.net,
this site allows to search the web for kids. We search the best kids search
engines and educational/art resources available. the interface has been optimized
for children (big letters, easy to read results, etc)
Now your children can have their own version of Ithaki. The first metacrawler
for kids.
They can search Mp3s and images too!.
Soon Ithaki 4 Kids will have a new look full of old Czech cartoon images.
:)
| |
October,
2000: Ithaki released the first WAP and Imode meta search engine. To enter to our imode version type i.ithaki.net |
WAP stands for Wireless Application Protocol and allows
your mobile to browse special pages (.wml). A lot of the disappointment with
WAP is because the high expectations that marketing created around it (and
that's still expensive).
We hope to surprise you. From
our WAP /Imode version you can search for wap/imode sites.
You can also search and read the news from thousands of sources for free (Updated minute to minute).
You can search for web pages and convert them to WAP or Imode "on the fly".
You can also search for Music (MP3s/Midis)!
“No matter what you're searching for, Ithaki can help
you find it.
Named after a Greek island, this metasearch engine allows you to search
the entire
WAP universe or narrow it down to individual sites. You can even search
the wired Web, if you feel so inclined.
The site boasts easy navigation and impressive search power, so you won't
be disappointed with the results.
The service is available in French, English, German, Italian, Spanish and
Portuguese. (Worldwide)"
Motorola/Cellmania *****
Ithaki was named in honor
of the Greek poet Constantin
Cavafy and his beautiful poem Ithaki:
“When you set out on your journey to Ithaca,
pray that the road is long,
full of adventure, full of knowledge.
The Lestrygonians and the Cyclops,
the angry Poseidon -- do not fear them....”
Read the
entire poem Itháki
to find out what Ithaki really means.
Itháki (Ithaca) (pronounce
as thäk or Ithaca ithk) is one of the Ionian islands, one was the home of
Ulysses...
find out by yourself.
The history of this
site.
When did it start?
This project started in 1995/96. Ithaki was "officially" first online
in the 2000. You can read more about it here.
Who are you?
Ithaki was created entirely by the molecular biologist (Fac. of Natural and Exact Sciences, University of Buenos Aies) Carla Tironi Farinati (email).
Ithaki.net Search Engine: News & Development Blog
Ithaki
solutions for portals
Integrate Ithaki to your portal is really easy. Just send
us a description of your site, your URL and what you need. click
here. Detailed Info
more
questions.
I would like to
receive your Press Releases.
Just send us your address with subscribe in your message:
click
here
Press Releases are very short and often contains a summary of the real Press
Release.
I'm very lazy writing press releases so unfortunately most of Ithaki's new features are never anounced to the press and that really hurts Ithaki because the innovative features are not announced.
If you're interested in search engines and you'd like to collabore with me writing about Ithaki's features to the press, contact me
Can
I search in just one engine?: grouping results.
Grouping results (an option that you will see in the results
page) allows you to see the results as you were in the search engine. It presents
the results BY each engine.
Why a search engine isn't showing results?
This could be for several
/but strange!/ reasons: Your query didn't produce results for the terms used,
the time-out wasn't enough (Ithaki has a BIG time-out), the search engine
is down at the moment (frequent with MP3 engines), it disappeared of the net
and we didn't remove it yet. (Also frequent with mp3s, see Filequest. for
example). If you see that a listed engine is not retrieving
results, please send us an email!. thanks.
Why don't you show the number of each result or the rank of each result in the source?
Time taught us that the
number in each result can confuse users, in any engine there's not much difference
between the 4th or the 6th result.
There's a difference if the result appears in more SE and that's why ithaki
show them first.
We want to give you the simple and exact results. We want zero confusion.
That's why we have eliminated the number label. We want all you attention
in the tittle, description, source and url.
If we put the rank number in each SE next to the name of each source it will
cause lots of confusion, too many information that's not leading not to better
understanding of the results. The number of the results in our rank, then
the rank in the SE, the name of the source, and more info it would be a hell.
Ithaki ranks sites how many times a site (with the same description) appear
in SEs, sites that appears more times are listed first and then the sites
are listed in the order they appear in search engines.
Copyrights: Image & MP3 search
In general:
Ithaki does not own, partially
own, or intend to supply as ownership any material that is not rightfully
our own. All graphics, art work, audio, and news stories displayed in the
searches hold their own copyrights from the initial sources of where they
came.
Images:
The images displayed by the Ithaki Image Search service may be protected by copyrights. Although you can locate and access the images through our search, we cannot grant you any rights to use them for any purpose other than viewing them on the web. Accordingly, if you would like to use any images you have found through our service, we advise you to contact the site owner to obtain the requisite permissions.
MP3s:
Before you start downloading audio files you must know the following: There might be copyrights on the songs you want to download. If so, you're not allowed to download the song if you don't own the original record.
Links to Ithaki.
Yes, links are welcomed. :)
ithaki.net, powerful
meta search engine that finds web sites and pages searching in multiple search engines ta the same time
How
to put Ithaki on my site
To add Ithaki to your site click
here.
More questions
Other
questions.
Do you have any question (philosophical or not) that's not included here?
Please write me and
it has not been answered yet I'll include it here.
If you have any comment, idea, critic, search engine etc..just
mail me. :-)
