Vivísimo

Vivísimo Help

Above is a sample view of a Vivísimo search page. Continue reading down this page for a concise overview of the features that will change the way you search!

Starting your Search

The Query Box

Type your query in this box. A query can be as simple as words separated by spaces, or it can take advantage of more advanced features.

Syntax

OPTION	DESCRIPTION
AND or +	Multiple word searches use AND as a default. A search for peanut butter means the same as peanut AND butter or peanut + butter, and finds documents containing both words.
OR	A search for red OR blue will find documents containing either the word red or the word blue.
NOT or -	A search for grants -loans , or grants NOT loans will find documents containing the word grants but not the word loans.
" "	To find a specific phrase, use quotation marks around the phrase. For example: "search engine".
Capitalization	The search engine ignores capital letters. Pennsylvania produces the same result as pennsylvania or PenNsyLvanIa.
Title search	To search by title, use the command title:titlename . For example, title:(special report) will return results with special and report in the title. A search for title:"special report" will return results containing that exact phrase in the title.
Boolean expressions	All the operators above can be combined into boolean expressions. You can use ( ) to ensure the proper precedences. For example, title:(cancer treatment) AND (author:jones OR author:johns). Note that the underlying search engines may not all support the syntax you choose. Vivisimo will only query those that do, and will translate your query into the corresponding syntax of each underlying search engine.

Selecting Sources

Use this pull-down menu (checkboxes are found in some customized versions) to select the search engine or group of search engines you would like your query sent to. Selecting Sources: Checkboxes The results from these search engines will be incorporated and then clustered as a whole.

Execute the Search

Click this button to begin the search. Vivísimo will send your query to the search engines you requested and wait for them to return results. Those results will then be clustered and displayed for you to browse.

Browsing the Clusters

Viewing the Contents of a Cluster

Clicking on the name of a cluster will display all of the search results that it contains in the search results frame, to the right of the cluster hierarchy.

Expanding a Cluster

Clicking on a node will expand the cluster, displaying below it the clusters that it contains. If the symbol is grayed (like this: an example ) it means that the cluster does not contain any sub-clusters. In this case, clicking here will instead display the search results that the cluster contains. Clicking on the arrow symbol () next to a cluster will both expand it and display its contents.

Number of Search Results in a Cluster

The number displayed next to a cluster is the number of unique search results that a cluster contains.

Extending the List of Clusters

When a list of clusters is especially long, only the beginning of the list is displayed. To unhide the next segment of the list, click on this link.

Accessing the Results

Link to a Search Result

Clicking on the title of a search result will open the result page in the full window, replacing the Vivísimo interface.

Opening the Result Page in a New Window

Clicking the new window link conveniently opens the result page in a new browser window.

Opening the Result Page in the Frame

Clicking the frame link opens the result page in the current frame, replacing the list of results, and provides navigation features for further browsing the results of your search.

Previewing the Result Page

Click the preview link to show a preview of the result page.

Finding the Source of a Result

These are links to the search engines which returned this search result, along with their ranking of the result.

The URL of a Result

The URL of a search result is listed in this field.

More Features

Searching the Clusters

To search for specific text within the search results, type the text you would like to find into this box and click . Clusters which contain results that match this text will be highlighted in yellow, as will be all occurrences of this text in the list of results.

Displaying the Clusters of a Result

Clicking on this link will highlight all of the clusters in which this particular search result occurs.

Viewing Statistics about the Outcome of your Meta-Search

Each time you perform a search with Vivísimo, any number of sources may have been queried. To find statistics about what Vivísimo has received from each of these sources during the course of your metasearch, click on this link. It is located in the yellow bar above the list of search results, and will scroll the page to the very end of the list. Here you will find a table displaying the number of search results requested and the number retrieved from each search engine queried.