How to rule the world (Wide Web)

Building Operating Management, Nov 1998

No doubt, the Internet has changed the way we find answers to our questions. But anyone who has ever attempted to locate substantive information without a well-thoughtout web-searching game plan has likely learned a lesson: The Internet can be a big, bad, and awfully frustrating place.

There's no shortage of valuable facilityrelated information out there if you know where to look for it. Unfortunately, the traditional method for hunting it down - using a search engine to seach the web by keyword - just dosen't always work that well.

A search on the term "HVAC efficiency" using the search engine HotBot (www.hotbot.com), for instance, dredges up an unwieldy 6,306 websites. At first, you may think you've hit pay dirt. But a closer look will reveal that much of what you've found relates vaguely to what you need, and that much of it is useless.

Granted, scattered among 6,ooo plus hits there are bound to be at least a few useful ones.

But who has time to wade through a list that long?

There are ways to fine-tune your search. One important step is to know your search engine. A tool like the popular Yahoo! (www.yahoo.com), for example, is a great place to start if you need basic information on, say, energy. That's a very general topic likely to return lots of information which Yahoo! will neatly divide into logical categories for you. To track down suggested light levels for windowless office corridors, however, you're better off trying a search engine that specializes in finding more specific information, like HotBot or Altavista (www.altavista.com). Even with these, a huge number of useless hits will probably come up.

One good way to trim out sites that don't meet your needs is to put your search term in quotation marks - that eliminates any site where the two words appear in separate contexts, where just one appears, or where variations on one or both words appear. "HVAC efficiency," in quotes, pulls up just 48 HotBot hits. While you will still have to do some sifting, the odds of finding a useful site are in your favor.

Another trick is to master the use of Boolean terms like "and" and "not." That sounds complicated, but many of the search engines make it easy by providing drop-down lists or check-box forms to help you further refine your search. Most searchers ignore these options, but you'll have much more success finding information on windows for your facility if you tell the search engine not to bring back sites containing words like "Microsoft" and "residential."

Using a search engine like Dogpile (www.dogpile.com) is also a good shortcut. This engine will search most of the major search engines and list their findings.

Of course, one solution to the searchengine conundrum is to avoid them altogether. That is, to begin your search for facility information someplace where you know you will find it - at facility-specific sites.