Transcript Searching & Navigating

Searching Strategies
More ways to use the web
By Dr. Jennifer Bowie
Searching Choice 1: Search Engines
• Built by computer robot programs (spiders and bots) that
crawl the web and create an index of the words on the
pages
• Actually search the index and not the whole web as it exists
at the time of your search (very new info may not be
available at the time of your search)
• Pages are ranked by a computer algorithm
• Search based on word matches between your query and
the full text of the web pages (even hidden text)
• Results: many results, may require refining or sub
searching
• Results require your evaluation
• Best method so far for search (according to USC Beaufort)
Library)
• Cons: may return too much for simple searches, may
return many irrelevant pages
Sources: http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/ToolsTables.html
&http://www.sc.edu/beaufort/library/pages/bones/lesson1.shtml
Searching Choice 2: Subject
Directories
• Created & managed by human editors
Results often annotated
• Organized into subject categories based
on predetermined selection criteria
• Limited search (only of visible text)
• Results: more select and are already
evaluated, less results then most search
engines
• Pros: good organization, often higher
quality content
• Cons: More dead links
Sources: http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/ToolsTables.html
& http://www.sc.edu/beaufort/library/pages/bones/lesson3.shtml
Searching Choice 3: Metasearch
Engines
• Searches a variety of search engines for your
search (one stop shopping)
• May analyze and cluster results for a smarter
(but not necessarily wiser) search
• Allows you to see which engines work best for
your search
• Good for rushed searches or simple searches
• Doesn’t allow the same amount of control
• Not recommended method according to Berkley
• A few engines: Dogpile, Mamma, Vivisimo
Sources: http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/ToolsTables.html
&http://www.sc.edu/beaufort/library/pages/bones/lesson2.shtml
A few Searching tips: Math
• Add (+) to find all the words you
include
• Example: +spinach +tomatoes +recipe
Will get you pages that have spinach, tomatoes and
recipe on them
• Subtract (-) to find things with some
words in them, but not others
• Example: +spinach +tomatoes +recipe
-pasta
Will get you pages that have spinach, tomatoes and
recipe on the, but not pasta
A few Searching tips: Boolean
• OR: Search engine looks for any of the terms
– Example: cats OR dogs
Will find web pages with the term cats in them and web pages with
the term dogs in them
• AND: Search engine looks for all of the terms
– Example: cats AND dogs
Will find web pages with both the terms cats and dogs in them
• NOT: Search engine will not include pages with that term
– Example: cats NOT dogs
Will find web pages the terms cats but not and dogs in them
• Nesting: Allows more complex searches
– Example: marathons AND (Maine OR Georgia)
Will find web pages with the terms marathons and Maine in then or
pages with Marathon and Georgia in them
Make sure you use all caps for Boolean searches
Sources: http://searchenginewatch.com/facts/article.php/2155991
A few more Searching tips
• Uses quotation marks around phrases when you want the
exact wording in your results
– Example: “four score and seven years ago”
Will return results with the exact phrase four score and seven years
ago in them
• Do not capitalize words unless you only want the word with
a capital. Use lowercase if you want both
– Example: Robin
Will only return pages with Robin in them and not robin
– Example: robin
Will only return pages with Robin and robin in them
• Use an asterisk (*) to open your results to various word
endings
– Example: nav*
Will return page with terns that start with nav such as navigation,
navigate, navigator, NAVISTAR, nav, NAV, and more
Happy Searching!