NYU WEB

Searching for Paydirt on NYU Web? That, and Group Projects, Will Soon Be Easier

Kristina Abeson

The enormous (and growing) size of NYU Web is making it harder for people to find what they are searching for. They know about, and use, Web search engines such as Yahoo, Lycos, and AltaVista. Those will turn up items at NYU, but there should be a good way to search just NYU Web. So far, there hasn't been.

From the time NYU Web was launched, the Web team at NYU has been testing different software products that would help us make it easier to navigate. Finding a good tool from a reliable company is difficult: Some promising products come from fledgling companies that may not survive. Some companies are reliable, but its products don't serve our needs. We want to be sure that whatever product and company we choose will grow with us and support NYU Web for some time to come.

After much searching and testing, we've narrowed the field to two possibilities: Open Text and AltaVista. We've come to an agreement with AltaVista to be a beta-test site of their Enterprise server when it is released for testing in September. AltaVista is a division of Digital Equipment (DEC), which makes much of the software and hardware used to run NYU-NET and its services.

Their AltaVista software would be used by NYU Web on two important fronts: searching and newsgroups.

Now a Searching Tool That Works

Most users have done searches on the Web. The process is simple -- type in a keyword, click the "Submit" button, then review the different "finds." But what happens behind the friendly Web-based front end?

Every search page relies on a search engine. When you type whales, for example, in the input box on a search page, and then submit your request, the search engine goes to work. But it doesn't search the Web at that point; rather, it searches its own database of information, called an index. It pulls out all the references to whales and presents them to you in its own format.

Each search engine has its own database. A variety of means are used to compile and update the databases. Some are made up of submissions from people who send in the URL and keywords for their Web site; the links may or may not be evaluated before being posted. Other search sites send out "Web crawlers" -- software robots that go from site to site, indexing the pages.

The larger a database grows, the longer it takes to retrieve all the references to satisfy a request. Our database on NYU Web will, of course, not be as large as Yahoo, for example, but that will make it faster and easier to find the desired NYU page.

Discussion Online

ACF has also been experimenting with a number of Web-based programs to facilitate group discussion and collaborative work. These are next-generation replacements of the clumsy but functional old standbys, network newsgroups. They have potential to not only replace the old technology, but also extend and enhance the functions. During the fall, we will be recruiting several classes for pilot tests of AltaVista Forum, which uses a Web front end, and is therefore reasonably simple to use. Once we've completed installation and testing, and have evaluated the results with the participants, these newsgroups will be available to and accessible by everyone at NYU. [ C ]

Kristina Abeson is ACF Information Services Coordinator for the Distributed Computing Group.
kristina.abeson@nyu.edu

Posted 23 September 1996; revised 22 October 1996