May 4, 1998

VERMILLION, SD – The WebTools Company (TWTC) today released a comprehensive reference on how to find information on the Internet. The 60-page guide is entitled, "Search Tutorial: Guide to Effective Searching of the Internet." The tutorial provides a one-stop resource for the beginning to intermediate Web searcher.

Search engines are essential starting points to finding needles in the Internet’s 300 million document haystack. But, on average, users only issue 1.5 keywords per query and have little knowledge of effective query construction or how Internet search services operate. The inability to find desired information is cited by three-quarters of all Internet users as one of their biggest frustrations.

The guide begins with how to first formulate a query, then describes how to refine and combine search keywords, and concludes with how to construct simple to advanced queries and use special search engine features. It is generic to all major search services such as Yahoo, Excite, Infoseek, AltaVista, Lycos, HotBot and WebCrawler. The tutorial has twelve parts broken into 46 topics, with easy-to-follow examples throughout.

Parts of the guide’s contents are covered elsewhere on the Internet in piecemeal fashion. But previously published search tutorials have been incomplete, and not geared to the millions of first-time Internet users now struggling to learn basic search techniques. TWTC, as an Internet information management company, prepared and published the guide to improve the overall search literacy of the Internet public.

Notable sections of the tutorial include:

• The Two-Minute Bottom Line
• Query Concepts and Identifying Keywords
• Using Phrases and Wildcards
• Synonyms and Finding the Right ‘Level’ for Keywords
• Boolean Basics
• Advanced Construction
• Pitfalls to Avoid
• Using Specialty Filters and Search Options
• A Comparison of 100 Search Services
• Features of Major Search Engines
• Tips for Conducting Specialty Searches.

TWTC’s "Guide to Effective Searching of the Internet" is available from its Web site at:

http://thewebtools.com/searchgoodies/tutorial.htm

It may also be downloaded from the site in Microsoft Word 6.0 and Adobe Acrobat formats.

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The WebTools Company is devoted exclusively to providing user-intelligent tools for the Internet. Mata Hari™, an advanced Internet metasearch tool for the desktop, is its first product. TWTC, based in Vermillion, South Dakota, is a closely-held software company founded in July 1997.

Microsoft Word and Adobe Acrobat are registered trademarks of their respective companies.