Internet Searching

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Internet Searching

• A Student Primer

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Presentation Outline

• How search engines work
• Categories of searching tools
• Pitfalls to avoid
• Tips and tricks for effective searching
• A recommended list

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Why Use Search Tools?

• Make sense of chaos
• Save time
• Locate richer sites

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How it works

• Use of spiders or robots (bots)
• Catalogued results

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3 Categories

• Search engines
• Directories
• Meta-search sites
• Not considered here

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1. Search Engines

• Most common type
• Broad reach
• Most hits but less overall organization
• Examples include Google and Altavista

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2. Directories

• Organized by category
• Fewer pages than a search engine
• Best for less obscure searches

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Building a Better Search Engine

• Search tools vary in quality
• Tools are evaluated on 2 criteria
• Bias
• Accuracy

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Bias Whose Results?

• Are you getting the results you sought?
• Sponsored links
• Corporate associations

Travel on MSN the first page is populated
with hits that are Microsoft related
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Accuracy

• Number of pages
• Level of oversight
• Repetitive links

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Tips and TricksEffective Searching
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Think Like a Tourist

• Travelers benefit from quality info

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Use Advanced Search Functions

• Allows the user to be more specific
• Users can select
• Dates
• File types i.e. mp3
• Frequency
• Exact phrasing
• Location
• Etc.

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Boolean Operators

• Key terms that refine the search by expanding or
  limiting the options

• And

• Or

• Not

• hockey and college not NHL

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Use Expressions

• Employ common usages or phrases
• Examples
• proper diets for puppies
• how do I replace a light bulb?
• setting up a home network
• cleaning wine stains from carpet

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Decode the URLUniform Resource Locator

• The URL is the address on the Web
• Look to the root of the address for clues to more
  resources
• http//www.copykat.com/asp/copykatrecipe.asp?recip
  e255
• A secret recipe for an Olive Garden salad
• Scroll back to the root and you have
  www.copykat.com

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Use Quotation Marks

• Border the text with the phrase
• Forces the engine to look for that sequence

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Keep Your Search Page

• Open a new page rather than move
• In IE, right click on the link and choose Open
  in a New Window

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Suggestions

• www.google.ca
• www.yahoo.ca
• www.about.com
• www.libraryspot.com
• www.itools.com