Santa Rosa District Schools

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Searching the Internet

• Santa Rosa District Schools
• Professional Development Center
• Budgie Latshaw

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SEARCH ENGINES
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Search Engines

• An Internet search tool that searches sites for
  key words
• Search their own database of information
• Deploys robots or spiders to find incidences of
  key words to add to its database

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What do the results mean?

• Results are presented in order of relevance
• Relevancy rankings based on a formula
• Different methods of collection

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How do I formulate my search?

• Identify important concepts within the question
• Identify keywords and related synonyms
• Read the HELP!

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Boolean Searches

• Using terms to broaden or narrow your search
• Uses AND, OR, NOT
• Or , -

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Boolean Examples

• Endangered AND species AND mammals NOT bears

AND
endangered
species
NOT
mammals
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Boolean Examples

• If you were looking for non-surgical treatments
  for glaucoma

glaucoma treatment -surgical
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Does the engine support

• Quotation marks?
• Capital letters?
• Wildcards, truncations or word stem?

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Search Engines

• Google www.google.com
• Wisenut www.wisenut.com
• HotBot www.hotbot.com
• Teoma teoma.com
• All the Web www.alltheweb.com

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SEARCH DIRECTORIES
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Search Directories

• Organized by subject
• User works down a series of menus
• Organized by HUMANS
• Smaller database than engines

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Search Directories

• Yahoo! www.yahoo.com
• Infomine infomine.ucr.edu
• The Open Directory dmoz.org
• About.com about.com
• Librarians Index to the Internet lii.org
• National Directory www.nationaldirectory.com

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Which is better -- an engine or a directory?

• Personal preference
• Directories allow the user to form the search,
  but may not use common terms
• Search engines allow the user to use common
  language, but may lead to lots of hits

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Build a Better Query

• Use the advanced search feature
• Use many words, not just a few
• Search for your target words, and synonyms
• Search for phrases in quotation
• Read the search engines help files

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Did I say?

• Read the HELP!

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Meta Search Tools

• Search tool that uses other engines databases
• Skims the surface of multiple databases
• Typically used after other engines have failed

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Meta Search Tools
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Meta Search Tools

• Dogpile www.dogpile.com
• Vivisimo vivisimo.com
• MetaCrawler www.metacrawler.com

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Specialized Search Tools

• News Engines
• Library-based Search Tools

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Choose the Best Search Engine for Your Purpose

• Noodle Tools Debbie Abilock
• http//www.noodletools.com/debbie/literacies/infor
  mation/5locate/adviceengine.html

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Search well!