A New Search Engine for the HKU WWW Server

We are pleased to announce that the Ultraseek version 3.1 web search engine is now used on the HKUWWW web server to replace the SWISH search engine. The latter had been used for a few years and could only provide the very basic web searching functions. Ultraseek version 3.1 is Year-2000 compliant. It's searching speed is much faster and it supports more advanced search features.

The search features supported include the following :

Finds all word variants, e.g. a search for "computers" will give the same result as a search for "computer".
Finds spacing variants, e.g. a search for "oracle 8" will involve the matching of the text strings of "oracle8", "Oracle 8", "Oracle-8", etc.
Supports automatic phrase recognition. This feature allows users to find words that are adjacent. In a search query, multiple phrases may be specified.
Supports plain language search.
Supports proper name recognition. Users need not "quote" proper names, or even type them with initial capitial letters, e.g. abraham lincoln.
Provides the ability to search the subsets of query results (search refinement).
Supports the title search, e.g. a search with "title:star trek" as the query specification will retrieve all the documents with a title containing the words "star trek".
Supports URL search, e.g. a search with "url:star_trek" as the query specification will retrieve all the documents the URLs of which contain the word "star_trek".

To gain access to this new search engine on the HKUWWW server, users can first click on the the "Search Over HKU WWW" icon of the HKU homepage (http://www.hku.hk/) , and then click on the hotlink "Keyword Search on HKU WWW Server" displayed on the webpage.

With the new web search engine, a user can search for the webpages kept on the HKU WWW server (www.hku.hk) or those on Internet by means of keywords or user-defined text strings. The Ultraseek search engine supports two search modes, namley the "Simple Search" and "Advanced Search" modes.

(A) Simple Search Mode

The "Simple Search" mode is set as the default search mode. Users can switch between the "Simple Search" and the "Advanced Search" modes by clicking the hotlinks shown near the bottom of the screen.

Some common search examples are illustrated below :

(1) Searching by words and phrases

Pentium computer with 8x CD-ROM for sale

The search will give a list of documents containing these words and phrases. The search engine will rank the documents found according to their relevance related to the query specified.

(2) Defining phrases with quotation marks and separating phrases with commas

Pentium computer with "8x CD-ROM", "for sale"

The phrases specified in a search query should be enclosed by a a pair of double quotation marks; and multiple phrases or proper names to be specified in a search query have to be separated by a comma.

(3) Using UPPER case to indicate the requirement of an exact match

Steve Jobs, NeXT

For search text specified in lowercase, the search engine will try to find out documents with such text in either upper or lower cases. If the text specified in upper case, e.g. Next, an exact case matching will be executed during the search.

(4) Using a require operator (+)

product price +widget

The documents found by a search with the above query specification may or may not contain the words product and price. On the other hand, all documents found will contain the word widget which is associated with the "+" operator".

(5) Using a reject operator (-)

product price -widget

The documents found by a search with the above query specification may or may not contain the words product and price. On the other hand, all documents found will not contain any occurrence of the word widget which is associated with the "-" operator".

(6) Searching by document title

title:"year 2000 compliance"

A search with the query specification shown above will find out all the documents with a title containing the phrase "year 2000 compliance".

(7) Searching by URL

url:http://www.itservices.hku.hk

A search with the query specification shown above will find out all the webpages which are kept under the specified directory, i.e. www.hku.hk/cc.

(8) Searching by links

link:www.hku.hk/cc

A search with the query specification shown above will find out all the webpages containing at least one link pointing to the URL specified, i.e. www.hku.hk/cc.

(B) Advanced Search Mode

Users can elect to switch to the "Advanced Search" mode by clicking the "Advanced" hotlink shown near the bottom of the screen.

In the "Advanced Search" mode, a user-friendly interface is provided to allow users to formulate a complex search command Such a complex search command can be built by choosing the pre-defined commands provided through each the pull-down menus in screen for an "advanced search". The advanced search screen is self explanatory and easy to use.

For further information or queries, please contact the undersigned.

Lui Tun Yee
Tel: 2857 8633
Email: lty@cc.hku.hk

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