Transcript Take the power searching challenge

Learning how to search on the
web
“If all you ever do is all you’ve ever
done, then all you’ll ever get is all
you’ve ever got.” (author unknown)
How do I search the web????
The world wide web has over a billion
websites. How can you possibly search
through every one of them??
You can’t!
Information on the web
Not everything you see or read on the
internet is scholarly or relevant.
This PowerPoint will attempt to give you
the tools you need to evaluate the
information in front of you.
Search Engines
What are Search Engines?
Search Engines such as Google are
databases for billions of web pages. (More
about Google later.)
Some examples: Teoma, Alta Vista,
Lycos, Hotbot, and Excite just to name a
few. (click on the engine and try it out)
When do I use a search engine?
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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 and
retrieve a large number of documents on your topic
When you want to make use of the features in an
advanced search screen or search for particular types
of documents, file types, source locations, languages,
date last modified, etc.
When you want to take advantage of newer retrieval
technologies, such as concept clustering, ranking by
popularity, link ranking, etc.
Valenza, Joyce. Neverending Search Powerpoint.
MetaSearch Engines
What are Metasearch engines and what
can they do for me?
These types of search tools search other
search engines to find the best results
for you.
For example, Dogpile’s motto is “search all
the best search engines for you.”
MetaSearch Engines continued
Some Metasearch engines are:
Ask Jeeves
MetaCrawler
Mamma
WebCrawler
Wisenut and Zapmeta.
When do I need to use a MetaSearch Engine?
When you have failed to find what you
are looking for in your favorite search
tools.
When you don’t feel you need to use
complex search strategies.
When you want to get a feel for what’s
out there on a particular topic.
Valenza, Joyce. Power Research Tools. Chicago, ALA 2003
Subject Directories
What are Subject Directories? And what
can they do for me?
Subject directories are organized and
catalog by humans and not robots or
spiders.
They “return results that are generally of
higher quality and high relevance.”
Examples of Subject Directories
Google Directory
Looksmart
Yahoo
About.com
Some Academic Directories
Librarian’s Index
Virtual Library
INFOMINE
Invisible Web or Deep Web
What is the Invisible or Deep web?
The Invisible or Deep web is anything that
can not be reached through normal search
tools, such as academic databases, PDFs
and spreadsheets, sites that block spiders
and robots.
Examples of the Invisible Web
Invisible Web Directory
Invisible Web.com
CompletePlanet
Profusion
WebLens
Take the Google Challenge!
You can go beyond your basic search
with Google.
For instance the advanced search screen
can yield more results for you.
Don’t forget look at Google Services (see
the next slide). This is where you can find
answers to your questions or conduct a
special search.
The Google Web Search Features is
another helpful screen.
Google is loaded with information
Take advantage
of Google’s
Services
Don’t be afraid
to go beyond
your normal
search scope!
Google Fully Charged
Don’t forget Google’s Web Search
Features.
They can help you find everything from
Book Search to Who links to your URL??
And everything in between.
Click here for a more comprehensive list.
(Google Web Search Features)
Try it! You never know what you might
discover.
New Features of Google
Google Scholar – Search scholarly
papers
Google Images – Best place to find
images
Google Directory – Browse the web by
topic
Google Print -Search for full text of
books (new)
Boolean Searching
After you’ve decided what search tool to
use, how do you maximize your search
phrases or words. One way to do that is
to use Boolean phrases correctly.
AND OR NOT
How to Use Boolean Operators
AND – Narrows your search and only uses the words you
choose.
Ex. justice AND peace
OR – Broadens your search. Use words that are similar and
you’re get more results.
Ex. cup OR mug
NOT – Limits your search by only returning your first word and
not 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 to
stand for any character or string of characters.
Some search engines allow you to type in questions
as you would think or speak them.
You often will want words to appear together in
specific order. Commonly, quotation marks ("") set
words off as phrases to be searched as a whole.
(Some search engines use parentheses, commas, or
hyphens instead of quotation marks.)
Valenza, Joyce. Virtual Library
Power Searching
We hope that this power point will give you
the tools you need to be a better
searcher on the web.