Reformatted Lycos Query Submission Form

Speech- and Text-Friendly Lycos Query Submission Form

Set the following five options to increase the strength of your search. (For more information on tailoring your search, consult the detailed descriptions of the 5 options and the Lycos search tips which follow this form.)

OPTION 1. Catalogs to Search:
          The Web (default)
          Sounds
          Pictures
          Sites by Subject

OPTION 2. Search Options (choose one of the following eight):
          match ALL search terms (default)
          match ANY term
          match 2 terms
          match 3 terms
          match 4 terms
          match 5 terms
          match 6 terms
       or match 7 terms

OPTION 3. Match Strength (choose one of the following five):
          loose (10 percent)
          fair (30 percent)
          good (50 percent) (default)
          close (70 percent)
       or strong (90 percent)

OPTION 4. Number of Results Per Page (choose one of five):
          10 results per page
          20 results per page
          30 results per page
          40 results per page
       or 50 results per page (default)

OPTION 5. Display Style (choose one of the following three):
          Summary (Terse) Results
          Standard Results (default)
       or Detailed (Verbose) Results

For:

The Five Options: A Detailed Description

OPTION 1: Catalog to Search.
The four choices are:
1. "The Web"
2. "Sounds"
3. "Pictures" or
4. "Sites by Subject"
  - Note: you can search more than one catalog at a time.
OPTION 2: Search Options.
Choose one of the following three:
- match ALL terms (boolean AND)
- match ANY terms (boolean OR)
- match a specific number of terms
OPTION 3: Match Strength.
Choose one of the following five:
1. loose (10 percent)
2. fair (30 percent)
3. good (50 percent) NOTE: this is the default setting
4. close (70 percent)
5. strong (90 percent)
OPTION 4: Number of Results to Display Per Page.
Choices are: ten, twenty, thirty, forty, or fifty. The default is fifty.
OPTION 5: Display Style.
Choose one of the following three:
1. "terse" (title only),
2. "standard" (the default setting), or
3. "verbose"

Lycos Search Tips

If you enter search terms with symbols or numbers (such as c++, 7-11, 100 B.C.), your search will be less successful than if you use words (such as, programming languages, convenience stores, ancient history).
Use the minus (-) symbol to create a "not" search. For example, you would type "bank -river" (without the quotation marks), in order to find the word "bank" where it appears without the word "river".
Use a period (.) after a keyword to force an exact match. For example, typing "blind." will search for the word "bank", but not "blinds", "blindness", etc.
Use a dollar sign ($) to search for a word fragment. For example, the term "gard$" would match "garden", "gardenias", etc. The dollar sign is particularly useful if you are not sure how the term for which you are searching is spelled.
Lycos' rating numbers signify the strength of the match between the keyword for which you searched and not Lycos' staff's opinion of the site. (Note that the first site on list is 1.000, and that the rating of subsequent sites will have a value of less than 1.000). Lycos, does, however, keep a list of what their staff considers the web's Top 5% Sites.
If you can't find your site, you might consider Adding Your Site to Lycos

return to Camera Obscura, the womb without a view
- Blindness-Related Resources on the Web and Beyond
- Caveat Lector
- Civitas: link locally, act globally
- Etext Archives, Scholarly and Academic Resources
- Hystery, Mistory, Prophecy: proof that truth is stranger than fiction...
- Mea Maxima Culpa: guilty leisures and other inanities...
- Newspapers, News Services, and 'Zines of Every Ilk
- The Virtual Museum: text-only excursions to online exhibits...

last modified March 1, 1997