Yet Another Hierarchically Organized Oracle
YAHOO! is a hierarchical subject-organized catalog of documents on the
World Wide Web and the Internet. It is a very powerful public service
for locating information on the Web quickly and reliably, and probably
the best resource of its kind.
Key Links
URL for Front Page:
http://www.yahoo.com/
URL for Top-Level Page:
http://www.yahoo.com/
URL for Forms Search Page:
http://www.yahoo.com/search.html
URL for FAQ Page:
http://www.yahoo.com/faq.html
URL for Help Page:
http://www.yahoo.com/docs/info/help.html
URLs for Creators' Pages
URL for Sponsors
Page: http://www.yahoo.com/docs/pr/credits.html
Home Organization:
YAHOO! is now a self-sufficient
commercial organization.
Organization
-
YAHOO! is primarily set up as a subject catalogue with ample
cross-references pages. The root level of the hierarchy is divided
into 14 major headings, and each subject may contain subheadings
over 4 levels deep (more specific). Additional pages are added to
the hierarchy as necessary to ease navigation.
- YAHOO! also provides basic search capabilities,
using custom database and management software.
- Features
- Multiple Keyword support
- Primitive Boolean and Proximity Searching
- Keys can specify complete words or substrings
- Limitations
- No True Boolean Support
- No Proximity Searching
- No Hyphenation or Punctuation Contral
- No Controlled Vocabulary established
- It offers an option to limit matching entries (10, 25, 50, or
100 maximum)
- The engine searches across document titles, URLs, and/or comments.
Most features are available to non-forms users, but searching requires a
browser with forms support.
The content has no particular focus, but spans numerous fields of
interest.
Administration
- Documents are gathered for inclusion by user submission as well as
automated searches across various "What's New" pages and related
newsgroups. Selected links are then evaluated by index administrators
and placed into the subject hierarchy as appropriate.
- Both the hierarchy of the subject index and the layout of the
search page are very simple.
- Yahoo! runs from several SGI Indy's and Pentium-based PCs running UNIX.
- Navigation across the hierarchy is very fast, with a peppy
response time. Even the search engine responds in about
10 seconds, but may refuse a search when the load is high
(primarily during the day).
- Quality of Index
- The collection boasts 370,000 entries, and new links are being added
at the rate of almost 2,000 a day!
- There are very few dead links on the server, and the administrators
regularly remove links to outdated pages.
- Despite the overwhelming size of the collection, the organization
and the layout of the page make for easy navigation.
- Additional Services and Features:
- Both a Help
and a FAQ page help
users learn navigation and answer their questions.
- Each index page provides useful cues to help orientation and
navigation.
- The YAHOO! menubar provides constant access to useful pages,
up a level, the top-level, search form, add URL form, and
feedback form.
- The hierarchy indicator shows where you are located in the
subject tree (each step is separated by a colon, e.g.,
Art:Literature:Classics:Shakespeare).
Its also a link to step up a level in the tree.
- Additional levels in the index are indicated by bold
entries, with a number indicating how many entries exist
on that page or below.
- The '@' mark indicates a cross-referenced entry leading to
another part of the hierarchy.
- The authors compile one of the Internet's best
What's New? lists
daily, organized by subject with a brief description of the new
service. To encourage netsurfing, there are also resources that
list What's
Popular on YAHOO! and
What's
cool on the Web?.
- Users are encouraged to recommend pages for addition to the
catalog through the Add to
YAHOO! form.
- Each list of documents provides a short sentence or paragraph that
describes the indicated link, as well as a tag indicating a new or
valuable resource.
This collection is Copyright © 1995-6 by Matt Slot, but has been designed
for public use. Permission is hereby granted for unlimited print and electronic
redistribution. Your feedback is
appreciated.
Matt Slot *
fprefect@ambrosiasw.com *
1/27/96