AnswersQ: What is metasearch? A: The short answer is that metasearch searches more engines, allowing better coverage of the Web, and therefore providing better overall results to the user. Or take a crash course on metasearch. Top of pageQ: What are the different sections on the Excite Search results page? A: Here is a look at the various pieces of an Excite results page, where each component is located and a brief description of what each piece does: A. Web Search Box - The area where you enter your search term. Enter your keyword(s) and hit the Search button to retrieve your results. B. Search Button - The button you press to search for results. C. Radio Buttons - Buttons to help you focus your search to specific categories like News, Audio, etc. D. Advanced Search - Links to the Advanced Search options page where you can set specific filters for a one-time search. E. Preferences - Links to a page where you can set a variety of customized search preferences. F. Tools & Tips - Links to a page with suggestions on how to find exactly what you're looking for using Excite. G. Did You Mean - Offers suggested spellings for words that may be misspelled and automatically corrects commonly misspelled keywords. H. Attribution Bar - Shows you which engines Excite searches for your keyword(s). I. View By Relevancy - Displays results by relevance to search topic. J. View By Search Engine - Displays results sorted by search engine. K. Are You Looking For? - Displays the most likely results for your search based on an exclusive collection of search data and analysis. L. Website Match - Identifies when a Website address (URL) matches your search term. M. Related Content - Displays the most likely results for your search based on an exclusive collection of search data and analysis. N. Recent Searches - Keeps track of your 15 most recent searches. Top of pageQ: What is Website Match? A: Website Match identifies when a Website address (URL) matches your search term. For example, a search for "Sears" would be matched with www.sears.com, or a search for "American Airlines" would return www.aa.com as the Website Match. Top of pageQ: What is Advanced Search? A: The Advanced Search page allows you to set advanced filters and other settings for one specific search. These settings are reset after each search. Top of pageQ: What is the Preferences section? A: The Preferences section allows you to customize Excite to search based on your preferences. These settings remain in place until you change them. Top of pageQ: How do I search within results or refine my search? A: Excite gives you the opportunity to search within results for greater accuracy. When you enter a search, Excite search automatically organizes results into categories based on words and phrases contained in the results. For example, if you searched the term "insurance", Excite search would sort the results into various insurance categories, like Home, Auto, Fire, Health, etc. under the Refine Your Results heading on the left side of the results page. By clicking on any of the category links there, you would then view the results for that specific category. Top of pageQ: How do I filter out Adult Content from my searches? A: Adult content can be filtered from your search results, by changing your Preferences settings. To do so, go to the Preferences page, select Filter On from the drop-down menu in the Adult Filter section and click Save Settings. Once you have set the filter to On, it will remain on until you change your settings. Results for filtered searches are only provided by partners who provide filtered results. Top of pageQ: How can I improve my search accuracy when looking for images, audio, video or news results? A: You can search for these specific categories of results by clicking on the corresponding radio buttons at the top of the search page. Also note that you can refine your search within each category by using the Advanced Search option. For an image search, for example, you can filter for specific image color, size or format. Audio and video searches can be filtered by playtime or file format. And news searches can be filtered by news category, location, date or source. Top of pageQ: What if I see an offensive term in the Filtered results of SearchSpy™? A: You can report offensive word by sending in this form. Top of pageQ: What does the Recent Searches feature do? A: The Recent Searches area allows you to view your previous search terms and then click to retrieve past results quickly without having to re-enter in your search terms into the search box. Just click any link in your Recent Searches area to see the results for your last ten searches. Top of pageQ: Can anyone else access my Recent Searches information? A: No, not from another computer. The information for these searches is stored for a limited period of time while you have your browser open. Once you close your browser, your recent searches list will be cleared. Please note that no personal information is saved or shared at any time. Read the complete Infospace privacy policy. Top of pageQ: Can I change the number of keywords stored in my Recent Searches area? A: No, the number of keywords is consistently set at 15 at this time. Top of pageQ: Can I turn off the Recent Searches feature? A: Yes. Go to your Preferences page and de-select Display on checkbox in the Recent Searches area. Top of pageQ: What is Related Content? A: Related Content is additional search content that Excite has identified as being relevant to your search term. The purpose of this content is to help you find your answers and results more quickly. The related content area will be displayed on in the area above your search results. Top of pageQ: How does Related Content work? A: The Related Content area will be displayed every time additional content is found that is related to your original search term. For example: Let's say you searched on the term Madonna. The results page would show links to related News, Audio, Video and Image content matched to your original Madonna search. Clicking any of these links would take you to that specific content, for instance clicking on Audio would take you to the results page for Madonna audio files. Top of page
