The document provides guidance on how to effectively search the internet and evaluate the credibility of online sources. It discusses different types of search engines like directories, indexes, and meta search engines. It emphasizes that anyone can publish anything online and sources should be critically evaluated based on author, publisher, date, references, and potential biases. Key factors in assessing websites include domain name, intended purpose, and credentials or citations. The document encourages using multiple search engines and libraries in addition to online research.

1. The Internet as a Search Tool Prepared by Ms. Emery, Summer 2006 With billions of web pages online, you could spend a lifetime surfing the Web, following links from one page to another.

2. Research and the Internet The Internet can be a great tool for research, but finding quality web materials and using them to your advantage can be challenging.

3. Why do we need to evaluate web sources? Any person can publish anything on the Internet. Web sources do not have to be professionally accepted or edited.

4. Types of web pages Informative pages Personal web pages Political/interest group pages Marketing-oriented or “infomercial” pages Entertainment pages

5. What is a search engine? A search engine is an Internet tool that locates web pages and sorts them according to specified keywords. searchenginewatch.com is a website that provides detailed information about different search engines.

6. Search Engines Break Down into Two Categories Directories (Yahoo) Indexes (Google)

7. Directories Good at identifying general information Classifies websites into similar categories like a card catalog in a library The results of your search will be a list of websites related to your search term

8. Indexes Searches all contents of a website Uses software programs called spiders and robots that scour the Internet, analyzing millions of web pages and newsgroup postings and indexing all words Finds specific information such as biographical information

9. Natural Language Query You can ask your question in plain English!

10. Meta Search Engine Submit your query simultaneously to multiple search engines by doing a metasearch . Momma.com , dogpile.com , and clusty.com are popular meta search engines.

11. Use search engines to your advantage Pick the right search engine for your research needs. Yahoo and Google are common favorites. Hotbot locates information based upon the popularity of the site. Refine your search whenever possible.

12. Most Popular Search Engines

13. The Top 5 Google Yahoo MSN AOL ASK (Jeeves)

14. Your Favorites Create a folder called Search Engines under your Bookmarks or Favorites menu. Add your favorite engines to the folder so you can easily access them whenever you want to do a search.

15. Limit Keywords in a Search It is a good idea to read the directions for each search engine to get the most out of your search. Use + or – to limit your hits. Or +panther -pink Tobacco Legislation Lawsuit Smoking And Cancer Advertising Teenagers

16. Online Information—Fact or Fiction? Anyone with a computer and modem can become an electronic publisher on the Internet many web sources are not checked for accuracy some personal sites are used to express individual opinions about issues, but not necessarily the facts

17. Are these valid websites? http://www.malepregnancy.com/ The first pregnant male http://www.geoffmetcalf.com/bread.html The dangers of bread http://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus.html The tree octopus

18. You Be the Judge Who is the author? Who is the publisher? What is the point of view? Are there references to other sources? How current is the information?

19. Identify the Web Site Whenever possible, try to locate the home page. You can often do this by eliminating some information from the end of the URL. .org .gov .com .net .mil .edu .us .au .uk .biz http://www.microsoft.com/security/antivirus/mydoom.asp http://www.microsoft.com

20. Domain Names—Country Codes In addition to the generic top-level domains, 244 national top-level domains (NTLD) were established for countries and territories, for example: .au - Australia .ca - Canada .fr - France .de - Germany .uk - United Kingdom

21. Examine for credibility Credibility may be compromised by intentional misinformation or by unintentional neglect. Locating the name of the site’s creator may be challenging. Credentials may be missing even if the author’s name is provided.

22. Final Word The Internet is not the only place to find information. While it abounds with a wealth of information, it is not as good for historical information. Visiting the library should always be a consideration in conducting research. Visit http://tinyurl.com/pb48m to view the pros and cons with library vs. Internet research.

23. References http://www.learnthenet.com http://owl.english.purdue.edu/workshops/pp/Internet.ppt