Learning how to search on theweb
“If all you ever do is all you’ve everdone, then all you’ll ever get is allyou’ve ever got.” (author unknown)
How do I search the web????
The world wide web has over a billionwebsites. How can you possibly searchthrough every one of them??
You can’t!
Information on the web
Not everything you see or read on theinternet is scholarly or relevant.
This PowerPoint will attempt to give youthe tools you need to evaluate theinformation in front of you.
When do I use a search engine?
•When you have a narrow topic or several keywords
•When you are looking for a specific site
•When you want to do a comprehensive search andretrieve a large number of documents on your topic
•When you want to make use of the features in anadvanced search screen or search for particular typesof documents, file types, source locations, languages,date last modified, etc.
•When you want to take advantage of newer retrievaltechnologies, such as concept clustering, ranking bypopularity, link ranking, etc.
Valenza, Joyce. Neverending Search Powerpoint.
MetaSearch Engines
What are Metasearch engines and whatcan they do for me?
These types of search tools search othersearch engines to find the best resultsfor you.
MetaSearch Engines continued
Some Metasearch engines are:
When do I need to use a Meta-Search Engine?
When you have failed to find what youare looking for in your favorite searchtools.
When you don’t feel you need to usecomplex search strategies.
When you want to get a feel for what’sout there on a particular topic.
Valenza, Joyce. Power Research Tools. Chicago, ALA 2003
Subject Directories
What are Subject Directories? And whatcan they do for me?
Subject directories are organized andcatalog by humans and not robots orspiders.
They “return results that are generally ofhigher quality and high relevance.”
Examples of Subject Directories
Some Academic Directories
Invisible Web or Deep Web
What is the Invisible or Deep web?
The Invisible or Deep web is anything thatcan not be reached through normal searchtools, such as academic databases, PDFsand spreadsheets, sites that block spidersand robots.
Take the Google Challenge!
You can go beyond your basic searchwith Google.
For instance the advanced search screencan yield more results for you.
Don’t forget look at Google Services (seethe next slide). This is where you can findanswers to your questions or conduct aspecial search.
The Google Web Search Features isanother helpful screen.
Google is loaded with information
Take advantage
of Google’s
Services
Don’t be afraidto go beyondyour normalsearch scope!
Google Fully Charged
Don’t forget Google’s Web SearchFeatures.
They can help you find everything fromBook Search to Who links to your URL??And everything in between.
Try it! You never know what you mightdiscover.
New Features of Google
Boolean Searching
After you’ve decided what search tool touse, how do you maximize your searchphrases or words. One way to do that isto use Boolean phrases correctly.
AND OR NOT
How to Use Boolean Operators
AND – Narrows your search and only uses the words youchoose.
Ex. justice AND peace
OR – Broadens your search. Use words that are similar andyou’re get more results.
Ex. cup OR mug
NOT – Limits your search by only returning your first word andnot the second.
Ex. Dolphins NOT Miami
Click here to see Rockwell Schrock’s Boolean Machine
Some more helpful hints:
An asterisk (*) or a question mark (?) may be used tostand for any character or string of characters.
Some search engines allow you to type in questionsas you would think or speak them.
You often will want words to appear together inspecific order. Commonly, quotation marks ("") setwords off as phrases to be searched as a whole.(Some search engines use parentheses, commas, orhyphens instead of quotation marks.)
Valenza, Joyce. Virtual Library
Power Searching
We hope that this power point will give youthe tools you need to be a bettersearcher on the web.