The invisible Web Uncovering information sources search engines can't see

Today, the Web is the first place people look for information. Unhappily, the retrieval tools used--search engines--are losing their effectiveness. An increasing percentage of the Web is "invisible" to search engines because of the technical and logistic limitations of current search engine technology. Unless users know where and how to search, much of the Web's most authoritative content is effectively invisible because it is so difficult to locate. Chris Sherman (associate editor of SearchEngineWatch.com ) and Gary Price (compiler of Price's List of Lists and The Virtual Acquisition Shelf and News Desk ) present an overview of what is known about search engine technology by focusing on problems in applying this technology to the rapidly expanding, evolving Web. Dynamic database-driven Web sites, Flash and Shockwave technology-driven Web sites, and password-protected Web pages (with free registration) are growing problems for today's search engines. Twenty-five "invisible" Web categories are explored, including authoritative dictionaries, historical documents, and philanthropy and company directories. The balance of the work consists of an annotated directory of almost 1,000 Web sources arranged by broad subject categories (e.g., art and architecture, business and investing, education, entertainment, government information, health information, legal information, real-time information, science) and a brief glossary of commonly misunderstood information retrieval terms. Information is kept current at . Strongly recommended for librarians and reference service staff in public, academic, and corporate libraries. J. A. Buczynski University of Miami