2. Why develop Internet search skills?
• You find what you are looking for.
• You find it faster.
• Your search results are likely to be more accurate.
• The internet is the largest library in the world.
• You can access information you might not get locally.
• You can search and access multiple types of media
(text, images, video or audio files)
3. Different types of sites
.com – these are usually American company websites which are often
trying to sell you stuff.
.org – this is an organisation such as a non-profit organisation or club.
.ac – this is an academic site, usually for a university.
.co.nz – this is for a company in New Zealand
.au – this is for Australia
.uk – this is for United Kingdom
.ca – this is for Canada
4. Search Engines
A search engine is a tool that finds information across the
World Wide Web.
Here are some of the main search engines:
Google
dogpile.com
ask.com
yahoo.com
altavista.com
clusty.com
answers.com
5. Refining your search
• Search options - Click on the correct tab for your search
e.g. image, news, web, etc
• Phrases – use a phrase if you want a wide search
• Keywords – to limit your search use one or two
keywords.
• Using quote marks - If you want to group words
together then put them in quote marks i.e., “New
Zealand Flag”
• Try different word combinations
i.e, instead of “american leader” try “american president”
6. Key Words
• Most people learn how to choose key words by trial and
error.
• The majority of us use a combination of key words and
scan the search results for relevant topics, looking at the
highlighted words and web address (url)
Example
If I wanted to know the statistics for shark attacks in New
Zealand, I would use the following search:
• shark attacks statistics New Zealand
7. How do you know if a website is
legitimate?
• Check out a range of websites and compare the
information contained within them.
• Well maintained sites often have:
- contact details that allow you to make enquiries or to advise of
problems.
- a date when the site was last updated.
• Legitimate sites often contain links to other legitimate or
popular sites.
• Use the CAMPER model to ask critical questions of the
information contained within a website
• Check out www.dhmo.org
