the best tourist attractions in central Slovakia, maintains an English language site at .... domain names are currently free for registering. Start offers the traditional ...
William H. Collinge
SLOVAK SEARCH ENGINES
William Collinge, MA, is Business Librarian at City University, Drienova 34, PO Box 78, 820 09 Bratislava, Slovakia (e-mail ). University International Headquarters in Bellevue, Washington, USA.
Opinions stated in the article are those of the author.
SLOVAK SEARCH ENGINES William H. Collinge Slovak search engines have become more numerous as the Internet itself has grown in popularity and affordability in Slovakia. There are now a variety of engines available with a variety of features. This article will briefly describe some of the most popular Slovak search engines, discuss their merits and assess their performance when given search queries. At our own university, we attempt to keep track of the available engines through our own directory of sites but I would welcome readers to forward data on any other engines that they may be aware of not mentioned here.
All engines examined present their services in the Slovak tongue (those offering alternatives will be noted). To test their effectiveness, I identified two specific sites I wanted to find using simple two-worded phrasal searches. Firstly, Bojnice castle, one of the best tourist attractions in central Slovakia, maintains an English language site at . This would be searched for using a simple two-word phrase search “Bojnice castle”. My second search would be for a net magazine called Chaverim. This addresses the lives of Jews living in the Czech/Slovak Republics . It would be searched for using a two-word formula “zidovsky magazin” (“Jewish magazine”).
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Zoznam A popular engine with Slovaks, Zoznam has an impressive opening page with numerous options/links presented to the user. News headlines, weather reports, exchange rates and various other categories of information are available for instant analysis whilst the engine also provides data about travelling, jobs, cultural events and other topics. Zoznam allows users to personalise the layout of the opening page following registration. In addition to the search-box, Zoznam provides 12 initial subject categories to assist searching which then subdivide as you go deeper. When a search term is entered, the user can specify where the search should be targeted (eg. in Slovakia, in Czech Rep., firm listings, rest of world). Zoznam also maintains its own catalog of sites which users can restrict their searches to if they so wish. The engine is well-structured and professionally organised to make the user feel at ease. Zoznam proved an effective engine when interrogated, listing both the Bojnice castle site and the Chaverim magazine in first place in the results listings when a full-text search was performed. Overall, an impressive engine whose popularity is justified.
Panorama Panorama styles itself as the “Slovakia Link Store” and offers an English language option for visitors to its site. Like many of the engines, Panorama offers subject categories to the user (28 in number) as well as a currency converter, a selection of useful maps and information links to other sites. The major strength of Panorama is its travelling data. As well as train, bus and air timetables, the engine holds data on travel-
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agents and extensive information about attractions throughout Slovakia via the map of the country. Panorama presents itself in a clear, uncomplicated way and although lacking a wealth of links, most visitors to this site will immediately feel comfortable. Search query results for this engine were mixed, Panorama identifying the castle site easily, but failing to find the net magazine Chaverim.
Katalog Katalog offers a good selection of information topics from its homepage. News and sports headlines, exchange rates, weather data and an on-line dictionary are just some of the services displayed. Katalog even gives a menu of the day. The engine also provides comprehensive category subject listings to aid the user. These are well-structured and are well worth investigating. Advertising banners on Katalog are limited in number and nonintrusive, the overall presentation of the engine being superior to many of the others reviewed. A peculiar feature of this engine is the in-built accommodation database, which can be accessed either from the homepage link or by using a search option via the search input-box. In performance terms, Katalog identified the Bojnice castle site swiftly, placing it first in its results listings. However, the engine failed to produce anything positive for the second search query, so search findings for Katalog were generally mixed. However, in terms of presentation and information links, this engine ranked very highly.
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Navigation Pages This engine has an English language option to go with the default Slovak. Its major strength is the search options which allow the user to fine tune their queries. Each set of results can be manipulated by either conducting further searches or by displaying them in alphabetical or chronological order. Users can use phrasal searches, distinguish between big and small scripts on sites or target “long-distance” pages. Other options are there to be used as well. The engine provides 13 categories to aid the user and these sub-divide comprehensively and can be searched individually if desired. The Pages engine identified the Bojnice castle site without difficulty but drew a blank with the Jewish netmagazine, so no definite conclusions can be given about its overall capabilities. In terms of presentation, the engine is tidy and quite conservative in image and this simplicity may attract users.
Best Best initially offers 14 subject categories for those not wishing to immediately input a query into the search-box. These sub-divide into smaller divisions and are quite comprehensive. The engine has a conservative image, with few advertising banners and a limited number of links, its overall presentation being similar to the Navigation Pages. Best does not particularly catch the eye and the search results proved disappointing as well. When the engine failed to produce any results for the queries, it advised me to widen my search to another engine such as Google, Yahoo or AltaVista. Although good advice, this guidance fails to encourage the user to make Best their first engine of choice. Overall, a disappointing engine which fails to live up to its name.
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Atlas Atlas is a well-organised search engine which offers numerous services to the user such as an e-mail service and a customisation option. Searchers are assisted by 12 subject categories and further data is provided covering finance, news and TV listings. Atlas produced mixed results when presented with the search queries. The Bojnice castle site was given a 36% relevance rating and finished low down in the results listing. By contrast, the Jewish web-magazine came out first and Atlas cannot be faulted on this second search. Atlas was one of the better engines reviewed.
Start Start styles itself as the “crossroads to the Internet”. A quick examination of the engine and its services reveals that Start is orientated towards users with a strong I.T. interest. New downloads are available daily from the homepage, and links are maintained to several I.T. related sites (eg. Gamesland). The Start homepage allows visitors to search for particular companies, put queries to the whole web or investigate to see if particular domain names are currently free for registering. Start offers the traditional range of links common to many of the engines (eg. news stories, dictionary, discussion listings). Results for the sample searches proved quite encouraging. Start placed the Bojnice castle site in 19th place and the Chaverim site in 1st place when a search on the whole web was conducted. Overall, Start is appears an impressive package with a strong appeal for those with I.T. interests.
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Box A product of Box Network Ltd., the Box engine is in fact a meta-search engine which is capable of performing searches across several different Slovak engines at one time and producing star-rated results listings to indicate quality. The homepage presents 14 subject categories to aid searching whilst the small search box is placed inconspicuously in the top-right hand corner and could be easily missed by visitors. The site is pleasantly organised, advertising is non-intrusive, links are excellent and the engine even provides a dictionary to aid research. Box was unable to provide any positive results for my search queries, but instead offered a meta-search results listing where the engine had found positive leads in the sub-category listings of other engines. Box is an attractive engine which may prove popular with researchers following further investigation.
Superzoznam Superzoznam declares itself as having “the biggest catalog of pages on the web”, a not infrequent claim of search engines. Its homepage offers a dazzling array of links which the user needs a little time to review. The main difference between this engine and Zoznam appears to be the number options which Superzoznam offers to the user. For example, as well as Czech/Slovak limiting options, the pull-down menu of the search box allows searches to be targeted at pages added to the engine in the past week. The scope of other engines is also indicated if a user wishes to put a search through another interface. The subject categories near the top of the page are not as conventional as many engines, but all are well-structured and inviting (the EU option, for example, presents pertinent news stories with comprehensive hyper-text links to official sites). The other
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subject categories have also been selected for popularity of use (chat sites, news and business amongst others). Good, clear fonts and advertising banners which do not distract the eye are further plus points. Excellent responses to the search queries makes Superzoznam one of the most impressive engines currently available to Slovaks.
Other search engines/directories of note Nadzoznam A useful directory of Slavic search engines and telephone directories. Naj This site combines a search engine with an updated daily listing of the most popular Internet sites in Slovakia. An interesting place to find out what is popular with Slovaks on the Web. Mozaika An unattractive engine with a simple search box and 12 subject categories to aid the user. The stripped down image may attract some searchers but the lack of useful links and poor search results did not work for me. One interesting feature of Mozaika are the 4 sites referred to at the top of the homepage, these being Demon (facilitates full-text searches), Pralinky (“other www pages”), Vedme (practical information) and 123 (interesting economic information). Najdes The FAQ feature of Najdes tells us that the engine maintains links to 11,000 pages and this number is rapidly increasing by the day. The engine itself is reasonably wellorganised and its subject categories breakdown into exhaustive sub-categories. Users
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may also personalise the engine if they so wish. However, some poor search results cast a somewhat negative light on the engine and these proved a disappointment. Infobank Infobank is the Slovak Yellow Pages on the web. The site has English, French and German language options open to the user and maintains links with digitised Yellow Pages databases of many countries around the globe. As well as the basic search fields you expect to find on such an interface (name, address), companies can be identified through their activities or brand names. Surf A well-organised search engine with attractive screen-layouts. 12 subject categories facilitate ease of searching whilst the engine gives data on popular topics. Business Intended for business users of the Internet, the Business engine is well-organised and has some interesting features of note. The engine maintains its own listings of firms with their activity areas together with regional breakdowns of businesses across the country. Other features include business news items, exchange rates and data about business developments in Slovakia. Centrum < www.centrum.sk> Centrum boasts 14 subject categories, exhaustive links to further services, some of which are quite original (eg. X-chat & gambling house). Well-organised and returning excellent results when interrogated, Centrum is one of the best engines currently available.
William Collinge, Business Librarian, City University – Slovakia.
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