There are two basic methods to conduct a search through the 8towns.com service. One method is to browse our categories until you find one that matches your specific area of interest. The second method is a keyword-based search, similar to what you would use on Google, Yahoo!, or MSN.
BROWSING OUR CATEGORY STRUCTURE
Each organization in our directory is associated with at least one sub-category (e.g. - Loans-Auto or Home Insurance). There are over 400 sub-categories — each carefully selected and continually updated to respond to a changing marketplace of products, services, and personal interests.
To facilitate a quick search for as wide an audience as possible, this large collection of sub-categories is further summarized into a group of 18 Main Categories. Each sub-category may be associated with more than one main category. (e.g. - Loans-Auto may be found in both the AUTOMOTIVE and BANKS, FINANCE, INSURANCE main categories).
KEYWORD-BASED SEARCHING
Thanks to global search engines like Google and MSN, keyword-based search has become a familiar activity for most Internet users. The 8towns service enables you to search on a word or group of words to determine if any of the listings in our service match your criteria. The unique power of 8towns, however, lies with your ability to expand or reduce the geographic search area with just one click.
When you search the 8towns.com tab for "gift baskets", our service will automatically return a listing of all organizations that contain that phrase — either in the organization name (e.g. - Main Street Gift Baskets), the text description in their profile (e.g. - ...we offer a full range of gift baskets...), or the sub-category name itself.
By clicking on an individual town tab (listed alphabetically just below the search box as shown above), that same search will display results unique to that particular town. This will enable the user to decide if one town or all towns is best for a particular search.
In addition to this 'exact matching', we also utilize advanced tools to project 'likely results' based on what we think you are probably lookin for. An example ‐ if you search for "tax lawyer", we will present all records that contain an exact match for that text string. We will ALSO include results for organizations that may include the phrase "tax attorney" or "tax law".
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