DESCRIPTION:

Excite (http://www.excite.es/) was launched in late 1995. It is not one of the largest search engines but it has many extra features. Today it functions as both search engine and commercial portal.

SEARCHES IN:

• Web
• "Excite Channels" Subject Directory
• News Search (newswires, Web news)

DEFAULTS TO:

OR

SEARCH OPTIONS:

• Browsing access to popular portal sites
• Implied Boolean (+) and (-) signs
• Double quotes (" ") for phrases
• Nesting, with parentheses
• Full Boolean operators AND, OR, and NOT/AND NOT (type in CAPS)
• Combined results from subject directory, Web, and Web news

Basic Search Page (labeled "More") supports:

• Browsing access to subject directory categories
• Implied Boolean (+) and (-) signs
• Double quotes (" ") for phrases
• Natural language queries
• Languages settings
• Combined results from subject directory, Web, and Web news
• Audio/Video search
• "Select words to add to your search" option

"Advanced" Web Search Page supports:

• Boolean-type searching with drop-down menus ("must" = AND; "should" = OR; and "must not" = NOT)
• Web searches alone, with Web news and Audio/Video search options
• Language, country, and top domain searches
• "View by Web site" option
• "Show titles only" option
• Results displayed from 10 to 50 per page

• "Search for more documents like this one" option
• NewsTracker (free clipping service)
• Companies Online
• Usenet news groups
• Archived mailing lists

• Concept-based searching
• In "Basic" and "More" searches, subject results displayed first, followed by "Top 10" web results and "Top 5" news results
• Relevancy rating displayed with each return as a percentage
• "Stop words" recognized (many common ones won't be searched)
• No case sensitivity
• No truncation
• No field searching