The document discusses various strategies for searching the web, including what to search for, different types of search tools, and how search engines work. It provides details on search engines, directories, meta-search engines, and compares search engines to directories. The document also covers techniques for refining searches, such as using Boolean operators and keywords, as well as tips for evaluating search results.

1. Searching Strategies
1

2. What do we search?
Topic
Key words
Similar words
2

3. Types of Search Tools
 Search engines
 Directories
 Meta-search engines
 Other resources
3

4. Search Engines
 A Web page that finds other Web pages
 To use:
 Enter a keyword or search expression and
click a button
 Review search results
 If desired, refine the search
4

5. Cont’d…
5
 Designed to assist you in searching through the
enormous amount of information on the Web
 No single search tool has everything
 Each engine is a large database which utilizes
different search techniques and tools (spiders or
robots) to build indexes to the Internet (some
also utilize submissions and administration)

6. Cont’d…
6
 Searches for matching terms (keywords
or several keywords)
 Results “ranked” by relevancy (for
some)
 Can search by
 subject or category
 keyword

7. Directories
 A list of hyperlinks organized into
categories
 To use:
 Click on the category link to display links
within the category
 Continue to click more specific links until you
locate the subject of your search
7

8. Web Directory
8

9. Search Engines vs.
Directories
Search Engines
 Computer built index of
information on web
 More inclusive
 Used to find specific
resources
 Searchable by keyword
 Excessive “hits”
 Every page of a Website is
indexed
 Better for general searches,
but can be used to find
specific information
Directories
 Human aided, organized list
 May be general or subject-
specific
 May be able to “search”
directory
 User has control of browsing
 Fixed vocabulary
 Links go to Website home
pages only
 Better at general searches
9

10. Meta-Search Engines
 Search tools that submit a search to more
than one engine at a time.
 To use:
 Enter a keyword or search expression
 Specify which search engines to use
 Review search results from each engine
10

11. Meta Search Engine: Dogpile
11

12. Searching Vs. Browsing
Searching
 Tool to search the
information
 Looking for
information
 Finding a particular
thing
Browser
 Tool to browse the
internet
 Scanning the world
wide web
 Looking for the
website or web
pages
12

13. Techniques for Search
engines
 single words
 quotation marks
 Case independent
 Algebric and Boolean
13

14. Alternative Approaches
 Reword the search
 Switch to a different search engine
 Go straight to a known, reliable web site
14

15. Boolean Operators
 A system of logical operators that allow
you to specify relationships between
search words
 To use:
 Use AND to find all search terms
 Use OR to find either search term
 Use NOT to eliminate some portion of search
results for the keyword
15

16. Cont’d…
 AND
 OR
 NOT
 ( ) Parentheses
and quotes
 + Plus sign
 * Asterisk
16

17. Examples . . .
 AND
(Narrows search and the search engine
looks for information that contains all of
your keywords even if they are not next to
each other)
 Industrial AND pollution
 Biology AND molecular
17

18. Examples . . .
 OR
 College OR university
 (will return results with either word)
 OR logic collates the results to retrieve all the
unique records containing one term, the other
term or both.
18

19. Examples . . .
 NOT
 Media NOT television
 Returns results with websites having the word
Media and NOT television.
 Only one of the terms will be present.
 Not logic excludes records from search results.
19

20. Parentheses and Quotes
“Putting parentheses or quotes around a set
of keywords will force the engine to match
the entire word or phrase as it stands.
When you use a + after a phrase, followed
immediately by a keyword, the search
gets even more specific.”
20
Ex.: “carpal tunnel syndrome”
+treatment

21. Searching Tips
1. Set the search tool to display the smallest
number of results (10).
2. Use at least three search engines to do a
preliminary search.
3. Search using lower case letters.
4. Use near. Example Albert near Einstein.
Source: Mautner, Christopher. Educator’s Internet Companion, p. 141.
21

22. Tips Cont’d…
 always check the Help facility
 be prepared to do many searches using
different keywords
 use keywords from your previous search
results
 the more operators and limits you use,
the more relevant your results will be
22

23. Evaluating your results
are they….. what about…
relevant? coverage?
accurate? authority?
current? content?
good quality? sources?
23

24. Examples of Search
Engines
 UK - includes Yahoo! UK and Ireland
 worldwide - includes Yahoo!, Alta Vista,
Ask Jeeves, Google, Go.com
 metasearch engines (searches the
search engines) - includes Mamma,
Metacrawler, Copernic
 directory-based - Yellow Pages, Scoot
24

25. Examples Cont’d…
 Google - www.google.com
 Yahoo!UK and Ireland -
www.yahoo.co.uk
 Yahoo! - www.yahoo.com
 Mamma- www.mamma.com
25

26. Selected Subject-Specific
Engines26
Companies
 Companies Online
(http://www.companiesonline.com/)
 Hoover's Online (http://www.hoovers.com/)
 Wall Street Research Net (http://www.wsrn.com/)
People (E-mail and Phone)
 Bigfoot (http://bigfoot.com/)
 WhoWhere? (http://www.whowhere.lycos.com)
 Yahoo! People Search (http://people.yahoo.com/)
 Switchboard.Com (http://www.switchboard.com)

27. Selected Subject-Specific
Engines27
Images
 The Amazing Picture Machine
(http://www.ncrtec.org/picture.htm)
 Lycos Image Gallery
(http://www.lycos.com/picturethis/)
 WebSeek
(http://disney.ctr.columbia.edu/webseek/)
 Yahoo! Image Surfer (http://ipix.yahoo.com/)
 Image bazaar
(http://www.imagesbazaar.com/)

28. Selected Subject-Specific
Engines28
Jobs
 Hotjobs.com (http://www.hotjobs.com/)
 Monster.com (http://www.monster.com/)
 The Riley Guide (http://www.rileyguide.com/)
Games
 CNET Gamecenter.com
(http://www.gamecenter.com/)
 Games Domain
(http://www.gamesdomain.com/)
 Gamesmania (http://www.gamesmania.com/)

29. Selected Subject-Specific
Engines29
Software
 Jumbo (http://www.jumbo.com)
 Shareware.com (http://www.shareware.com)
 ZDNet Downloads
(http://www.zdnet.com/downloads/)
Health/Medicine
 Achoo (http://www.achoo.com/)
 BioMedNet (http://www.bmn.com/)
 Combined Health Information Database
(http://chid.nih.gov/)
 Mayo Clinic Health Oasis (http://www.mayohealth.org/)

30. Selected Subject-Specific
Engines30
Education/Children's Sites
 AOL NetFind Kids Only
(http://www.aol.com/netfind/kids/)
 Blue Web'n
(http://www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/bluewebn/)
 Education World (http://www.education-
world.com/)
 Kid Info (http://www.kidinfo.com/)
 Kids Domain (http://www.kidsdomain.com)
 KidsClick!
(http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/KidsClick!/)

31. Benefits of Using Search
Engines
 Larger, billions of records in their
databases
 No human selectivity of data
 Are designed for searching, not browsing
 A “search engine” is actually a service that
“facilitates” searching
31