How to Search for Other GeoCities Member Web Sites

Searching for other GeoCities Web sites offers no surprises if you are familiar with other Internet search engines. The mechanics of the search and the strategies involved are pretty standard, but if you are new to the computer or the Internet, you might find a little advice helpful. Follow these steps to search for other GeoCities Member Web sites.

Things You'll Need

• Internet access
• Computer
• GeoCities account

Instructions

1. Fire up a search engine and type in "GeoCities Pages" in the search field. This will produce a list of results and Yahoo! GeoCities should top the list.

2. Look underneath the "Search or Browse the Directory" heading. Check out the list of categories displayed below for a good match to your search. Otherwise, enter a search term or terms in the box and click on the "Search" button.

3. Wait for the computer to run a search and populate the list of results. This can take some time if you entered a very broad search term or if you are using a dial-up connection. Once finished, you will be at the "Yahoo! GeoCities Web Site Matches" page.

4. Check out the first page of results. The total matches for your search will be displayed in parentheses beside the title of the page. The number of matches initially displayed will vary. Each result consists of a title and author line followed by a short description of the site. The search term or terms that matched up on the site will be in bold print.

5. Click on the "Next 20 Results" button at the bottom of the page of results to look at more sites. Up top, you can see the range of results you are currently viewing displayed beside the "Yahoo GeoCities Web Site Matches" title.

Tips & Warnings

• Keep in mind that certain search terms will generate a massive number of results. For example, if you enter "bands" in the search field, you will get more than 10,000 results. Consider using more than one term to focus your search. From the example, entering "rock bands" cuts the number of results almost in half.

• Be aware that search engines look for terms, not necessarily context. If you typed in "rock band" you might find a site whose site description included a sentence like this: "Sedimentary rock forms layers and bands of color...." Avoid this by adding more search terms, for example "rock band music."

• You can also get to the directory from the "GeoCities Control Panel" page. Look for the "GeoCities Community" pane at the bottom of the page and click on the "GeoCities Directory" link to go to the "Member Pages Directory."

• Protect your computer. A good anti-virus and spyware program is a necessity when surfing the Internet.