Living Online Module Lesson 26 Researching on the Internet

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Living Online ModuleLesson 26 Researching
onthe Internet

• Computer Literacy BASICS

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Objectives

• List some reasons for searching the Internet.
• Describe different search approaches.
• Define a search engine and explain how search
  engines work.
• Identify some of the more popular search engines.
• Describe some search tips and tricks.

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Objectives (cont.)

• Copy, save, and print Web page data.
• Bookmark a Web site as a Favorite site so you
  can return to it quickly.
• Download a file from a Web site.

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Vocabulary

• Boolean logic
• Hits
• Keywords
• Math symbols

• Related search
• Search engine
• Spider
• Wildcard character

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Searching Online

• The Internet contains a wealth of information
  about any topic you can imagine.
• Some reasons that people search the Internet
  include
• Research for school assignments
• Looking for medical and scientific information
• Travel information and accommodations
• Shopping for goods and services

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Search Engines

• Search engines are programs that allow you to
  search for information.
• There are hundreds of search engines on the
  Internet.
• All search engines allow keyword searching.
• The results (applicable Web sites) returned from
  your search are called hits.

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Concept-Based Search Engines

• Some search engines, such as Excite, support
  concept-based searching.
• Concept-based searching uses ICE (intelligent
  concept extraction) to determine what you mean
  when you enter specific keywords for a search.
• Concept-based search engines return hits from
  searches based on word relationships.

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Stemming

• Some search engines support stemming.
• When you search for a word, the search engine
  also includes other stems of the word.
• For example, if you enter the search word play,
  you may also get back results for plays, playing,
  and player.

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Keyword Searches and Meta Tags

• Keyword searches look for specific words within a
  Web page.
• Many search engines use meta tags to build their
  search index.
• Meta tags are HTML tags in a Web page that do not
  display on the page but can be used to define
  page content.

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Keyword Searches andSignificant Words

• Search engines also use significant words to
  build their index.
• Significant words may be words mentioned near the
  beginning of a page or repeated frequently
  throughout the page.
• Some search engines claim to index all words in a
  Web page.
• Some search engines differentiate between
  uppercase and lowercase keywords, but others do
  not.

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Keyword Search Steps

• To search using keywords
• Launch your browser and go to a search engine
  site.
• Enter your keywords in the form provided by the
  search engine and submit the form.
• The search engine examines its internal database
  index looking for your words.
• It returns a list of hyperlinks (hits) to Web
  sites containing your words, and you can click a
  hyperlink to go to a site.
• If you get no hits on your search, revise your
  keywords and submit a new search request form.

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Search Engine Components

• Search engines usually have three main
  components
• The search engine program that does the search of
  its database
• A spider or crawler that looks for the
  information in the database
• The index, which is built from information
  returned by the spider.

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Search Results Window
The hits in a search results list are hyperlinks
that you can click to go directly to a Web site.
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Examples of Search Engines
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Specialty Search Engines

• Specialty search engines are also called
  category-oriented search engines.
• They are commonly used for
• Locating people
• Finding shareware and freeware
• Shopping
• Maps and almanac information
• Career planning

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Examples of Specialty Search Engines
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Multimedia Search Engines

• To find graphics, video clips, animation, and
  music files, use a special multimedia search
  engine
• mp3.lycos.com/ and www.audiofind.com provide
  search engines for music files.
• www.corbis.com/ has the worlds largest
  collection of fine art and photography.

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Multimedia Search Engines (cont.)

• www.ditto.com is a visual search engine for
  photographs and artwork.
• www.google.com has an images tab.
• www.altavista.com has a special tab for images,
  audio, and video.

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Search Tools and Techniques

• Some commonly used search techniques are
• Phrase searching
• Search engine math
• Boolean searching
• Wildcard searching
• Title searching

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Phrase Searching

• This technique is used to search for words that
  must appear next to each other.
• Phrases must be enclosed in double quotation
  marks.
• For example baseball cards
• Only sites with the exact phrase will be returned
  as hits.
• You should capitalize proper nouns.

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Search Engine Math

• Use math symbols to enter formulas or to filter
  out unwanted listings
• A plus sign () before a word means it must
  appear.
• To search for sites that contain both cookies and
  recipes, enter
• cookiesrecipes

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Search Engine Math (cont.)

• A minus sign (-) before a word means it should
  not appear.
• To exclude any sites that have coconut cookie
  recipes, enter
• cookiesrecipes-coconut

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Boolean Searching

• Boolean logic is similar to search engine math,
  but is more powerful.
• Boolean logic consists of three operators
• AND Search for sites that include word X AND
  word Y.
• NOT Search for sites that include word X but NOT
  word Y.
• OR Search for sites that include word X OR word
  Y.

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An Advanced Search Form
An advanced search form for the Ask Jeeves search
engine, designed to assist you in performing math
and Boolean logic-oriented searches by setting
text box options
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Wildcard Searches

• Wildcard searches allow you to search for words
  if you do not know the exact spelling or to
  search for plurals or variations of a word.
• The wildcard character () lets you search for
  any word that has the characters before or after
  the wildcard character.
• To search for the element potassium without
  knowing how it is spelled, enter
• PO or poium
• Not all search engines support wildcard searches.

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Title Searching

• Web pages usually contain an HTML tag.
• The text in that tag is displayed in a Web
  browser title bar when the page is loaded.
• Some search engines allow you to search for
  specific Web page titles.

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Title Search Example
The title tag indicates the text that will appear
in the title bar.
A title search for Internet Tutorials would
return this Web page.
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Related Searches

• Some search engines have a related search
  feature.
• The search engine will return hits based on your
  search criteria and may also display a list of
  other sites that have information related to your
  search criteria.
• This can greatly improve the odds of finding the
  information that you want.
• Some sites call this feature Similar pages or
  More pages like this.

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Related Search Example
Hyperlinks for related search
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Saving Data from a Web Page

• Web browsers allow you to save a Web page or an
  entire Web site.
• You can save a Web page as a text file or in HTML
  format.
• Use the Save As command on the File menu in your
  browser and set the options you want.
• After you save a Web page, you can open it from a
  disk in your browser.

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Copying Data from a Web Page

• You can also copy specific elements of a Web
  page, such as an image or a block of text, to a
  disk and use them in a new document or file
• Select the text or image you want to copy on the
  Web page.
• Click the Copy command on the Edit menu in your
  browser to copy the text or image to the
  Clipboard.
• Then use the Paste command to paste the image
  from the Clipboard into a new or existing
  document.

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Printing a Web Page

• You can print a copy of a Web page directly from
  your browser.
• Most browsers provide previewing and page setup
  options that enable you to control how the Web
  page prints
• Select Print Preview on the File menu.
• Click the Page Setup button if you want to adjust
  the margins on the printed page or set print
  options.
• Click the Print button.

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Favorites and Bookmarks

• You can create Favorites or Bookmarks (depending
  on the browser you use) for sites you want to
  revisit.
• Internet Explorer uses Favorites to refer to
  saved Web site locations
• Go to the site you want to add.
• On the Favorites menu, click Add to Favorites.

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Favorites and Bookmarks (cont.)

• Once you save a page as a Favorite, just click
  the Favorites button and select the Web site name
  from the list to return to the page.
• You can create folders to organize your bookmarks
  and favorites.

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Downloading a File from a Web Site

• You may want to download a file for many reasons
  
• Some sites offer shareware and freeware that you
  can download for a small cost or at no cost.
• You can download a patch or an update from a
  software manufacturer for an application program
  you already have.
• You may want to download clip art or an audio or
  video file.

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Downloading a File from a Web Site (cont.)

• Most sites provide an interface that makes the
  process of downloading simple.
• A series of steps or dialog boxes provides
  instructions about how to successfully download a
  file.
• Only download files from sources you trust to
  avoid introducing a virus or spyware to your
  computer.

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Microsoft Office Clip Art and Media Home Page
Web sites that offer files to download, such as
Microsoft clip art, usually provide an interface
that guides you through the process of
downloading.
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Summary

• Search engines are used to find specific
  information on the Internet.
• A search engine is a software program that
  creates an automated index of Web sites.
• Concept-based searching occurs when the search
  engine returns hits that relate to keywords.

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Summary (cont.)

• Stemming relates to the search engine finding
  variations of the word.
• Keywords describe the information you are trying
  to locate, and most search engines support
  keyword searches.
• Meta tags are special tags embedded in a Web
  page many search engines use the tags to create
  their index.

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Summary (cont.)

• A search engine has three main parts the search
  engine software, a robot or spider that searches
  for keywords, and an index.
• Specialty search engines focus on a particular
  topic.
• Multimedia search engines focus on video,
  animation, graphics, and music.
• Use double quotation marks around a set of words
  for phrase searching.

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Summary (cont.)

• Use the plus and minus sign for inclusion and
  exclusion of words within a search.
• Boolean searches use the three logical operators
  OR, AND, and NOT.
• Many search engines offer advanced search options
  that let you filter search results with specific
  criteria.
• The symbol is used for wildcard searching.

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Summary (cont.)

• Some search engines support title searching.
• A related search is a preprogrammed question
  suggested by the search engine.
• You can save, copy, and print text, images, and
  links from Web pages as well as entire Web pages.

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Summary (cont.)

• For sites you will return to often, you can
  bookmark the Web address and add it to your
  Favorites folder.
• When you download a file from a Web site, make
  sure the provider of the file is a reliable
  source. Most sites that provide files to download
  include a simple form or dialog boxes to help you
  through the process of downloading.