Finding information on the Web - methodology

Finding Information towards a methodology 2011 Ayala Alternative Organizational Consulting Ltd. By Philippe Scheimann MSc MBA CEO Ayala Alternative Organizational Consulting [email_address]

Philippe Scheimann
CEO of Ayala Alternative Organizational Consulting
MSc + MBA
Professional experience on the Internet since 1990
Consultant & Entrepreneur

Overall view: finding information
A 6 step process:
Define your Topic
Analyze your Topic
4 types of search tools
Table: Search Strategy
Summarized evaluation
Go back to step 1

Define your Topic Questions to answer
How much info do you need
How current
Type of information
Time frame
Language
Broad subject
Which source of information

Analyze your Topic List of key words
Unique words used ? '+‘
Any expression to be put into “expression"
Any words you don’t want to use? '-‘
What are the synonyms ? ‘~’ Use of following sites for focus:
Surfwax.com, ask, Answers , wikipedia.org
Collarity , eurekster.com
Google…

Focus – use of surfwax.com

4 types of search tools
Search Engines
Subject Directories
Invisible Web
Search 2.0

Search Engines
Google
Alternatives:
Globalspec.com for engineers
Yahoo.com >20 billion "web objects“
Ask.com > 2 billion searchable pages
Bing.com by Microsoft

Why Google?
Simply the best search engine
Biggest web search engine database:50% of the searchable Web
Includes powerful features and applications

How Google works
Spider program finds pages on the web & builds database
Search program gives you ways to search this database
Page Rank™ arranges your results
Word proximity and placement
linking to a page - notion of cluster
Importance - traffic, popularity of pages

Google preferences

Google account

“ Easy” examples using Google
Calculator 1200 * 34
Speed of light, radius of the earth
"speed of light is * meter per second“
“ The world wide web was invented by *"
patent 7,169,489
Flight #
Address: George W.Bush Washington DC

Use of some Operators oil refining oil OR refining “ Oil refining " refining – sugar ~ refining technologies define: refining oil * refining the words oil and refining either the word Oil or the word Refining the exact phrase oil refining the word refining but NOT the word sugar technologies info for both the word refining and its synonyms: purify , etc. definitions of the word refining from around the Web. the words oil and refining separated by one or more words.

Advanced Search - Google
OR, AND is per default
Include (+) or Exclude (-)
Similar Words ~
Exact Phrase “ “
List Similar Pages
operator:search_term
Site e.g. site:.il
Filetype e.g. filetype:pdf
Link e.g. link:www.sostravelers.com
Intitle
Inurl
related

http://www.google.com/intl/en/help/features.html

Subject Directories chosen by people
http:// directory.google.com selected by the Open Directory Project
Librarians' Index http:// lii.org
Infomine http://infomine.ucr.edu compiled by academic librarians of the Universities of California.

http://www.google.com/Top/Business/Energy_and_Environment/Oil_and_Gas/Tools_and_Equipment

Invisible Web
Deep Web
Deepnet
Hidden Web Refers to World Wide Web content not part of the surface Web indexed by search engines

Invisible Web – cont’
Archives, buyers guides, calendars of trade fairs and events, industry website link lists, statistical information, interactive databases, glossaries, encyclopedias, dictionaries, acronym lists, etc.
Intute
infomine.ucr.edu
Librarians' Internet Index: www.lii.org
Internet Archive: www.archive.org
direct search: www.freepint.com/gary/direct.htn
Zoominfo.com
Pipl.com

Search 2.0
Newsgroups
Usenet e.g sci.engr.control
Google
Managed by companies
Managed by individuals
Blogs (e.g General Motors )
Technorati Search Engine for Blogs
Twitter: search.twitter.com
Social Bookmarking (diigo, delicious)

Finding information – 6 step process: 1,2 Define & Analyze your topic 3,4 Four types of search tools & Search Strategy Table 5,6 Summarized evaluation & Go back to step 1 Search Engines Subject Directories "Invisible Web" Search 2.0 Sentence Use " ". Check the subject of your search Look for a specialized database when searching for Facts, Statistics etc. newsgroups: google weblog:technorati Twitter Social bookmark No distinctive words Use as many words as possible Try to find distinctive terms in Subject Directories General topic not first choice Look for a specialized Subject Directory focused on topic: about, answers, wikipedia Narrow and specific Boolean searching e.g Oil and Gas > Operating Companies Looking for facts, statistics etc

Summarized evaluation

Summarized evaluation Before clicking:
Read URL
Personal name
Personal page ~
commercial ISP or geocities.com
Type of domain: .com, .org, .gov...

Summarized evaluation When entering the site:
Check "About“
Look for the date "last updated"
Check the authority of the author: "Googling the author" or zoominfo or pipl
What is the objective of this site?
Information: is it accurate, current, objective ?
Contact
Owner of the domain: Who is or Domaintools.com
Credentials
Publications
Outside links
Reverse linking Use alexa.com URL information and in Google link:URL
Check the page up in Librarians' Index, Infomine, About.com, AcademicInfo…

Evaluation - Example
http:// www.martinlutherking.org vs. http:// www.thekingcenter.org

"We are drowning in information and starving for knowledge" R.D. Roger
Information and knowledge development

Finding information on the Web - methodology

by Philippe Scheimann on Jul 08, 2009

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