Transcript Searching the Internet - Staff and Faculty Websites

Tips and Tricks to
Find Internet Information Quick and Effectively
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Virtually any person
can publish almost
anything on the
Internet.
Unlike most print
sources, web sources
do not have to be
professionally accepted
and edited to be
published.
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Informative pages
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Personal web pages
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Political/interest
group pages
Marketing-oriented or
“infomercial” pages
Entertainment pages
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Internet: A global network connecting millions
of computers
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URL (“Web Address”): Universal Resource
Locator
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Domain: the part of the URL that identifies and
calls up the specific computer on the Web that
stores the information you requested
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Registered Domain name: the three-letter
suffix that is part of a URL.
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Keyword: the word(s) or phrase(s) you enter
into a search engine's search field
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.com – commercial use (unrestricted)
.net – network associated entities (unrestricted)
.org – organizations (unrestricted)
.gov – government use
.mil – U.S. military
.edu – educational institutions
.biz – for businesses
.info – for informative Web sites
.museum – museums
.name – for individual or personal websites
.pro – professionals
.au - country designations are usually country abbreviations
 Search
engines
◦ Metasearch engines
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Search directories
◦ Invisible web
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Similar to the index in the back of a book
Let you search for specific words and topics
from a data base
Use robots known as spiders to search for
information.
Sites in database not evaluated
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Google: http//: www.google.com
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KidRex: http://www.kidrex.org/
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Wolfram Alpha: http://www.wolframalpha.com/
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Clusty: http://clusty.com/
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All the Web: http://www.alltheweb.com
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Bing: http://www.bing.com
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Sends your search terms to several
other search engines at once.
Gives an overview of a topic across
the Internet.
Shallow search. Only searches the
top 2-3 pages of a search engines
database
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Turboscout:
http://www.turboscout.com/index.php
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Ixquick: http://ixquick.com
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Yippy: http://clusty.com/
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Surfwax: http://www.surfwax.com
Similar
to the table of contents at the front of
a book
Allows
searching for concepts or subject
categories
Go
from general to specific.
Sites
are evaluated and added by people.
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Kidtopia: http://www.kidtopia.info/
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Sweet Search: http://www.sweetsearch.com/
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Infomine: http://infomine.ucr.edu
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Internet Public Library: http://www.ipl.org
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Dibdabdoo: http://www.dibdabdoo.com/
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Fact Monster: http://www.factmonster.com/
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Kids Click: http://www.kidsclick.org/
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Search Engine:
 lots of information
 a specific information need
 specific key words
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Search Directory:
 a general information need
 vague idea of key words
 finding higher quality information
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Noodle Tools:
Site that gives information on how to best chose what type of
search tool to use.
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Before you begin searching create lists of
keywords that describe your topic.
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Use a thesaurus to stimulate your word choice.
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Generate synonyms for the concept.
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Use search engines that provide a list of related
terms along with the results of your first search.
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Sortfix
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Use the professional vocabulary of the subject
you are investigating to create keywords.
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Choose words that are unique and descriptive.
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Look in the documents returned by the first
query.
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Upper and lower case
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Spelling
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Some engines give more weight to the first
keyword in a query.
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Try varying the order of keywords.
Example: Which keywords will return the most
hits:
blues music
or
music blues
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Hits are returned and ranked according to-◦
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How
How
How
How
many times terms appear on the page
often terms appear
close terms are to each other
near the top of the page the terms are found
The best results will appear on the first page or
two of hits
No two search tools are alike. Try another
search engine, or rephrase your terms if you
don’t get good results.
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A query is made up of the keywords that describe
your topic and the arrangement of those keywords
using operators that focus the retrieval process.
AND
Requires all terms to appear somewhere in the document, in any order.
Example: curriculum AND high AND school
+
Requires all terms to appear somewhere in the document, in any order.
Example: +curriculum+high+school
""
Requires all terms within the quotation marks to appear in the order written.
Creates a highly specific phrase. Example: "high school curriculum"
NOT
Excludes documents containing whatever follows it.
Example: high school curriculum not .com
-
Excludes documents containing whatever follows it.
Example: high school curriculum-.com
OR
Includes any page with at least one of the terms.
Example: high OR school OR curriculum
Example
“On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog.”
The above cartoon by Peter Steiner has been reproduced from page 61 of July 5, 1993 issue
of The New Yorker, (Vol.69 (LXIX) no. 20)only for academic discussion, evaluation, research
and complies with the copyright law of the United States as defined and stipulated under
Title 17 U. S. Code.
Tilde symbol indicates
this is a personal page
Hypertext Transfer
Protocol
Specific page in
directory folder
Owner and
Domain name
http://www.nwu.edu/~asmith/di/dc/camps.html
World Wide Web
Indicates the folder the
information is saved in
Based on the domain name in the following
addresses, which site that would probably
contain the more useful information for an
authorative information?
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http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/atwood.html
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http://lit4lib.artshost.com/atwood.htm#atwood
 Currency
 Reliability
 Authority
 Purpose
/
Point of View
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How recent is the information?
How recently has the website been
updated?
Is it current enough for your topic?
Find the history of a site by going to Way
Back Machine http://www.archive.org
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What kind of information is included in
the resource?
Is content of the resource primarily
opinion? Is it balanced?
Does the creator provide references or
sources for data or quotations?
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Who is the creator or author?
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What are the credentials?
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Who is the published or sponsor?
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Are they reputable?
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What is the publisher's interest (if any) in this
information?
Are there advertisements on the website?
Go to http://www.easywhois.com to find publisher
of the site
 Is
this fact or opinion?
 Is
it biased?
 Is
the creator/author trying to sell
you something?
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Use the best search tool for the job
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Read search tool instructions and use the advanced
search feature
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Use more than one search tool
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Choose unique keywords and put your most important
terms or words first
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Evaluate the source
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Know when to look somewhere else