Transcript Tips for Internet Searching - Exeter Township School District

Tips for Internet
Searching
(use these any time you
need to find the correct
information fast)
 If
you opened this in PowerPoint
(instead of your web browser), click
F5 to view this presentation in “Slide
Show” mode.
 You will also need to have the file
“7th- Search Tips Questions” open.
Use this PowerPoint to answer the
questions.
1. What is a Search Engine?
A
search engine is designed to
search for information on the Web.
2. How does a search engine
work?
1. Web
crawlers (or spiders) follow links
all throughout the web and gather
information about sites
Note - These spiders are computer
programs, not actual living things
2. Indexes
– These sites are indexed,
or put into an order by categories
and subcategories according to
keywords on the sites.
2. How does a search engine
work?
3. Searching – You type in queries
(questions) into a search engine and
the engine returns results based on:
– Keywords you used
– Page Rank
2. How does a search engine
work?
Keywords are the important part of a
search. If I want to know “Who won
the Heisman trophy in 2008” the
keywords would be “Heisman” and
“2008”
Keyword “Test”
If you want to find a cookie recipe,
which of these searches would have
the best keywords?
Cookie recipe
Types of cookies
How to make cookies
Go to next slide
for the correct
answer.
Keyword “Test”
If you want to find a cookie recipe,
which box has the best keywords?
Cookie recipe
Correct!
This won’t give recipes, it will
give types of cookies
Types of cookies
How to make cookies
Words like “how” and “to” are ignored
Page Rank
Page Rank – Google and other search
engines give each page a ranking
based on how many pages link to it
How are pages ranked?

Links from other pages – If other
pages link to the page, then Google
considers it important and gives it a
higher ranking
Search
Engine
Tips
3. Separate Search Words
 Put
spaces between words
(obviously)
– Unless proper words are one word Ex.)
“PowerPoint” is not the same as “Power
Point”
 No

commas
No dashes
junior high schools|
Submit
4. Enter Most Important Words
First
 Order
may matter and may provide
different results
 Didn’t get the good results? Change
the order
 Some words are ignored unless in
quotes
– Ex.) Of, the, how, about, is
China great wall of|
Submit
5. Use Synonyms
 If
you know a good synonym, use it.
 Use abbreviations
 Be mindful of spelling variations- “grey”
and “gray”
 British English- “color” vs. “colour”
Old ancient archaic people|
Submit
6. Use Phrase Searching (if
possible)
 Search
by exact phrases.
 Use quotation marks. “Exeter
Township” instead of just Exeter
Township
 When you do this, you are searching
for pages that include only those
words in that order
 Some websites have phrase
searching in their menus.
7. Indicate Inclusions (+) or
Exclusions (-)

Plus (+) sign
– Works like “and”
– Ex. Paris and
London
populations

Minus (-) sign
– Works like “not”
– Ex. Bass Types –
fish if you are
interested in the
instrument and
not the fish
8. Use Boolean Connectors
 And,
or, not
– “And” and “not” decrease results

Ex. Football not NFL
– “Or” increases results

Pigs or Cows
BOO(lean)!!
9. Don’ts

Don’t use complete sentences
– If you want to find out who was the general for
the North in the Civil War don’t search for
“Who was the General for the North in the Civil
War” instead just type “Civil War Generals
North”

This is by far the most common mistake
made when searching the web. It makes
searching so much harder for both you
and the search engine you are using!
10. Different search engines
 The
top 4 search engines, along with
the percentage of all searches
conducted on them
– Google – 70.46%
– Yahoo – 16.73%
– Bing- 9.28%
– Ask – 2.5%
If you aren’t familiar
with any of these
search engines, click on
the link to take a quick
look at them.