Transcript Constructive Surfing - mveca-home

Constructive Surfing
How to find what you need on the
Internet, when you need it.
Before you ever think of searching the
Internet for anything…
 Make sure your web browser (i.e. Internet
Explorer, Netscape, etc…) has the most
recent updates.
 Make sure your computer is virus protected.
 Strongly recommended: Spyware and
Adware protection.


http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html
Microsoft® Windows AntiSpyware (Beta)
Google this:
 Google provides an internet search engine that utilizes special
algorithms that outperform other engines.
 PageRank Technology: PageRank performs an objective
measurement of the importance of web pages by solving an
equation of more than 500 million variables and 2 billion terms.
Instead of counting direct links, PageRank interprets a link from
Page A to Page B as a vote for Page B by Page A. PageRank then
assesses a page's importance by the number of votes it receives.
 Hypertext-Matching Analysis: Google's search engine also
analyzes page content. However, instead of simply scanning for
page-based text (which can be manipulated by site publishers
through meta-tags), Google's technology analyzes the full content of
a page and factors in fonts, subdivisions and the precise location of
each word. Google also analyzes the content of neighboring web
pages to ensure the results returned are the most relevant to a
user's query.
Simple Searches
 http://www.google.com/help/basics.html





Choosing Search Terms
Capitalization doesn’t matter
Google only returns pages that contain all search
terms. No need to use “and.”
Common words excluded (i.e. where, the, how,
and other digits that slow down searches)
Stemming Technology (i.e. root words or
variations).
Phrase Searches
 For results that match an exact phrase, use
quotation marks.

Teaching and Learning vs. “Teaching and
Learning”
 Use the “Search within results” feature to
expand searches.

“best practices”, Ohio, “content standards”,
“special education”.
Negative Terms
 If terms in your query have multiple
meanings, you can use a minus sign (“-”) in
front of words related to the meaning you
want to avoid.
 Google this: bass –fish
“+” Searches
 If common words, ordinarily excluded by the
search engine, are necessary, use the “+”
sign.
 Google this: World War I
 Google this: World War +I
Synonym Search
 If you want to search for a specific term and
its synonyms use the tilde sign (“~”) in front of
the search term.
 Google this: ~classroom ~content

The resulting search will include terms like:
education, learning, teaching, etc…
“OR” Search
 To find pages that include either of two
search terms, add an uppercase “OR”
between the terms.
 Google this: technology content standards
ohio OR michigan
Domain Search
 You can look in one specific website for
search terms by typing the terms and
following them with the word “site” and a
colon, followed by the domain name.
 Google this:

curriculum model site:www.ode.state.oh.us
Numrange Search
 You can search for results containing
numbers in a given range. Numbers can
represent everything from dates to dollars.
Use two periods between numbers and
specify any units of measurement.
 Try these searches:


American History 1900..1920
Electronic Whiteboard $500..1000
Google Local
 You can search for products or services in a
specific town or zip code. Use the local link
near the search bar.
MapQuest Stinks
 Check out maps.google.com!
Advanced Search
 Once you know the basics, give the advanced
search a try. Click the “Advanced Search”
link on the Google home page.