Guide to Comparative Politics on the Internet

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6. TRAWLING THE DEEP WEB

A weakness of general search engines is that they still cover only part of the web. The ‘deep’ or ‘invisible’ web consists of public materials such as rapidly changing databases which are not fully indexed by search engines such as Google, Brightplanet claims that the deep web may be 500 times the size of the surface web. Thus, you should not rely on general search engines alone but also search more specifically.

For current news, for example, use either the news section of your engine or media websites such as the BBC, New York Times or Financial Times. Similarly, the best way to trace a particular book is through a bookseller (e.g. Amazon) or a library catalogue (such as the Library of Congress or the British Library). Many websites themselves contain internal search engines; if you search the United Nations site for ‘literacy’ you are likely to discover documents there that would not be included in the results of a more general search.

You can also try subject-specific directories and gateways such as the World Wide Web Virtual Library, Yahoo, Intuteand Infomine.