Transcript Successful Web Search Strategies

Search Tools
for the Internet
M. Rosettis
St. Augustine CHS
Adapted from: Kathy Schrock
<http://www.capecod.net/schrockguide/>
What is an Internet search
engine?
• An Internet tool which will search for
sites containing the words that you type
in as a search term
• Search engines search their own
databases of information
What are some search engines?
AltaVista
Teoma
Google
HotBot
Excite
How does a search engine work?
• Before a search engine can tell you where a
file or document is, it must be found.
• To find information on the hundreds of
millions of Web pages that exist, a search
engine employs special software robots,
called spiders, to build lists of the words
found on Websites.
• When a spider is building its lists, the process
is called Web crawling.
What do the search results
mean?
• Results are presented in order of relevance
• Beware: Web page designers often try
spamdexing (embedding search terms many times in a
hidden field)
• Engines use different methods of
collection – don’t be afraid to search using a
number of Search Engines
What is an Internet
subject directory?
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Organizes Internet sites by subject
User works down a series of menus
Smaller than search engines
Maintained by human beings
There are many other specialized subject
directories and many other general ones.
What are some subject directories?
Yahoo Canada
Google
About
Internet
Public
Library
Choose a subject from the top menu
Navigation by clicking on links
Number of
Web Sites
Choose a category
What are Search Strings?
Terms and Strings
•The words that you enter in the Google basic
search box are called terms.
•As you look for information, try to use terms that
are commonly used and that are absolutely
essential to your research question.
•A group of terms is called a search string.
Search Strings continued
Phrase Search
•Sometimes the best way to find information is to search for two or more words in a
certain order.
•Words should be in quotation marks to do a phrase search.
•For example, you might search “peanut butter”
•Keep in mind……a phrase search should only be used for proper names and
common or standard phrases.
•For example, if your question is: “What Markham schools can students go to
after elementary school?”
•The common phrase is not “Markham schools after elementary school” but
“High schools in Markham”
•Try this example:
•Incorrect phrase search: “What recipes are popular during snowy days?”
•Correct phrase search: “___________ ____________”
What are Negative Term Searches?
Negative Term Search
•Sometimes your results include a term that
you definitely do not
want.
•A minus sign can be added to that term to
create a negative term.
•See Advanced Search in Google for an
example