Untangling the Web

1
Untangling the Web

• Session 2 DMA
• Open Internet Explorer
• Go to www.google.com
• Search for Martin Luther King
• Click on Martin Luther King Jr. - A True
  Historical Examination
• Do you notice anything unusual about this site?

2
Untangling the Web

• This training makes two basic assumptions
• Search engines don't always take us where we need
  to be
• Web sites aren't always (surprise, surprise) for
  real 

3

• Discussion
• When you use the Internet as a research tool . .
  .  
• What strategies do you use and how did you learn
  them?
• How do you check the information you find?

Note The following presentation was compiled
from the slides of Patrick Crispin, Professor
CSULB and our KSD Untangling the Web website.
4
The Grammar of the Internet

• Understanding a web address
• Phone numbers are a type of address that can be
  broken down moving from left to right.
• The Kent School District's Customer Support
  Center's number is 253-373-7030
• 253 represents the area code
• 373 is the exchange (where the number is within
  the area code)
• 7030 is the actual phone line that you will
  reach

5
The Grammar of the Internet

• READ THESE DIRECTIONS FIRST and then click on one
  of the following links
• Place your cursor in the address bar of Explorer
• Use the backspace key to move backwards one
  section at a time
• Delete the parts of the address separated by the
  "/" and click the Enter key (sometimes you may
  need to take the "/" off as well)

6
Truncating Practice

• http//www.kent.k12.wa.us/KSD/IT/TSC/managing/hard
  ware/projectors/index.html
• http//school.discovery.com/schrockguide/history/h
  istw.html
• http//www.computeruser.com/resources/dictionary/n
  oframes/nf.domains

7
Search Engines What's Under the Hood?

• Are these statements True or False?
• While some search engines are faster than others,
  they are all basically the same.
• The good search engines search everything on the
  web.
• The goal when searching is to gain the highest
  number of hits.
• Search engines provide the most up-to-date
  information.
• Search engines provide results in order of
  importance.

8
While some search engines are faster than others,
they are all basically the same.

• FALSE. Search engines collect information through
  different methods and then categorize that
  information in different ways.

9

• For a quick look at sites with different ways of
  displaying search results, tryHierarchical
  results http//vivisimo.com/   
• Interactive Results www.kartoo.com

10
The good search engines search everything on the
web.

• FALSE. While Google searches more pages than any
  other major engine, it still indexes less than 1
  of the entire web.
• The key is getting to the "deeper web" of
  information contained in Databases.

11
The goal when searching is to gain the highest
number of hits.

• FALSE. Of course not. So why are we still getting
  173 million results on some searches?We need
  ways to effectively drill down to the information
  we need most. 

12
Search engines provide the most up-to-date
information.

• FALSE again. To get the most current information
  use http//news.google.com or www.rocketnews.com

13
Search engines provide results in order of
importance.

• Trick Question TRUE! But just not necessarily in
  order of importance to YOU...
• Go to www.overture.com
• Enter a search term flowers
• Click Search
• Click View Advertisers' Max Bids in the upper
  right.
• Type in the code you see
• Click Search

14
Search Engines Increasing the Horsepower

• To get more out of search engines, start by
  thinking about what you don't want as well as
  about what you do

15
Google

• Everyone uses itbut how can we use it to its
  fullest potential?

16
Part Two How Google Can Work for You.
17
Narrowing the Search

• Narrowing with Google -www.google.com
• Boolean Searches
• Google Scholar
• Other Google Special Tools

18
Google rule 1

• Be specific ... because if you arent specific,
  youll end up with a bunch of garbage!

19
Google rule 2

• Use quotes to search for phrases.
• patrick crispen

20
Google rule 2a

• Use dashes between words to also search for
  phrases.
• patrick-crispen

Source http//tinyurl.com/cpcdg
21
Google rule 3

• Use the sign torequire an exact match.
  Well, not really.
• patrick crispen tourbus

22
Google rule 4

• Use the - sign toexclude.
• patrick crispen -tourbus

23
Google rule 5

• Combine symbols as often as possible (see rule
  1).
• patrick crispen tourbus pepperdine

24
Part Two In Summary

• Be specific ... because if you arent specific,
  youll end up with a bunch of garbage!
• Use quotes or dashes to search for phrases.
• Use the sign to require. Well, not really.
• Use the - sign to exclude.
• Combine symbols as often as possible (see rule
  1).

25
Activity Boolean Practice

• Enter the search term Atlantis   How many
  results do you get?
• In the search box add  -space -shuttle Now how
  many results do you get?
• Now add "lost continent" into the search box
  How many links this time?
• Just to the right of the search box in Google,
  click on Advanced Search.
• In the box that reads "with at least one of the
  words," type in Archaeology
• How far have you narrowed your search?

26
Part ThreeMore Stuff No One Tells You

• Googles shocking secrets revealed!

27
Boolean Default is AND

• If you search for more than one keyword at a
  time, Google will automatically search for pages
  that contain ALL of your keywords.
• A search for disney fantasyland pirates is the
  same as searching for disney AND fantasyland AND
  pirates
• But, if you try to use AND on your own, Google
  yells at you.

Source http//www.google.com/help/basics.html
28
Boolean OR

• Sometimes the default AND gets in the way.
  Thats where OR comes in.
• The Boolean operator OR is always in all caps and
  goes between keywords.
• For example, an improvement over our earlier
  search would be disney fantasyland OR pirates of
  the caribbean
• This would show you all the pages in Googles
  index that contain the word disney AND the word
  fantasyland OR the phrase pirates of the
  caribbean (without the quotes)

Source http//www.google.com/help/refinesearch.ht
ml
29
Three Ways to OR at Google

• Just type OR between keywords
• disney fantasyland OR pirates of the caribbean
• Put your OR statement in parentheses
• disney (fantasyland OR pirates of the
  caribbean)
• Use the (pipe) character in place of the word
  OR
• disney (fantasyland pirates of the caribbean)
• All three methods yield the exact same results.

Source Google Hacks, p. 3
30
OR, She Blows!

• Just remember, Googles Boolean default is AND
• Sometimes the default AND gets in the way.
  Thats where OR comes in.

Image source http//www.phil-sears.com/
31
Capitalization Does NOT Matter

• The old AltaVista trick of typing your keywords
  in lower case is no longer necessary.

32
How Insensitive!

• Google is not case sensitive.
• So, the following searches all yield exactly the
  same results
• disney fantasyland pirates
• Disney Fantasyland Pirates
• DISNEY FANTASYLAND PIRATES
• DiSnEy FaNtAsYlAnD pIrAtEs

Source http//www.google.com/help/basics.html
33
Google Used to Have a Hard Limit of 10 Keywords

• Bet you didnt know THAT!

Source Google Hacks, p. 19
34
Googles 10 Word Limit

• Until recently, Google wouldnt accept more than
  10 keywords at a time.
• Any keyword past 10 was simply ignored.
• Google now accepts up to 32 keywords.
• Stick with 10.

Source Google Hacks, p. 19
35
The Order of Your Keywords Matters

• A me life for pirates?

36
For Example

• A search for disney fantasyland pirates yields
  the same number of hits as a search for
  fantasyland disney pirates, but the order of
  those hits especially the first 10 is
  noticeably different.

37
Part Three In Summary

• Googles Boolean default is AND.
• Capitalization does not matter.
• Google has a hard limit of 32 keywords.
• The order of your keywords matters.

38
Part FourAdvanced Search Operators

• Beyond plusses, minuses, ANDs, ORs, quotes, and s

39
Advanced Operators

• Query modifiers
• filetype
• intitle
• inurl
• site
• synonyms
• Alternative query types
• info
• cache
• link
• related

• Other information needs
• stocks
• define
• Google Calculator

40
Query Modifiers

• Stuff you can add to your regular searches

41
filetype

• filetype restricts your results to files ending
  in ".doc" (or .xls, .ppt. etc.), and shows you
  only files created with the corresponding
  program.
• There can be no space between filetype and the
  file extension
• The dot in the file extension .doc is
  optional.

Source http//www.google.com/help/faq_filetypes.h
tml
42
Googles Official Filetypes

• Adobe Portable Document Format (pdf)
• Adobe PostScript (ps)
• Lotus 1-2-3 (wk1, wk2, wk3, wk4, wk5, wki, wks,
  wku)
• Lotus WordPro (lwp)
• MacWrite (mw)

• Microsoft Excel (xls)
• Microsoft PowerPoint (ppt)
• Microsoft Word (doc)
• Microsoft Works (wks, wps, wdb)
• Microsoft Write (wri)
• Rich Text Format (rtf)
• Shockwave Flash (swf)
• Text (ans, txt)

Source http//www.google.com/help/faq_filetypes.h
tml
43

• filetypeextension
• pirates filetypepdf
• pirates -filetypepdf
• minerals filetypeppt

44
site

• Using site restricts the results to those
  websites in a domain.
• There can be no space between site and the
  domain.

Source http//www.google.com/help/operators.html
45

• sitedomain
• pirates sitedisney.com
• minerals siteusgs.gov

46
Using site

• You use site in conjunction with another search
  term or phrase.pirates sitedisney.com
• You can also use site to exclude sites.pirates
  sitedisney.com
• You can use site to exclude or include entire
  domains (and, like with filetype, the dot is
  optional).pirates sitecompirates siteedu
• Use an OR search to include or exclude hits from
  multiple sites or domains.

47
Synonyms

• Using before a keyword tells Google to search
  for both that keyword and its synonyms.
• There can be no space between and the keyword.

Source http//www.google.com/help/operators.html
48

• keyword
• pirate treasure
• minerals stones

49
Alternative Query Types

• Stuff you can use if you want to search without
  using any keywords
• We are going to use the Martin Luther King Jr.
  site
• www.martinlutherking.org/

50
info

• Using info presents some information that Google
  has about a particular web page.
• There can be no space between info and the URL.

Source http//www.google.com/help/operators.html
51

• infoURL
• Infowww.martinlutherking.org/

52
cache

• Using cache shows the version of a web page that
  Google has in its cache.
• There can be no space between cache and the URL.

Source http//www.google.com/help/operators.html
53

• cacheURL
• cachewww.martinlutherking.org/

54
link

• Using link restricts the results to those web
  pages that have links to the specified URL.
• There can be no space between link and the URL.

Source http//www.google.com/help/operators.html
55

• linkURL
• linkwww.martinlutherking.org/

56
related

• Using related lists web pages that are "similar"
  to a specified web page.
• There can be no space between related and the
  URL.

Source http//www.google.com/help/operators.html
57

• relatedURL
• relatedwww.martinlutherking.org/

58
To find out how a site used to look or to find
one that has been taken off the web

• Web Archive http//web.archive.org/collections/web
  .html
• Paste in the site's address and click on a date
  to see previous versions of the page.

59
Other Information Needs

• Did you know that Google can look up phone
  numbers, stock quotes, dictionary definitions,
  and even the answer to math problems?

60
Google Calculator

• Simply key in what you'd like Google to compute
  (like 22) and then hit enter.
• Googles Calculator can solve math problems
  involving basic arithmetic, more complicated
  math, units of measure and conversions, and
  physical constants.

Source http//www.google.com/help/features.htmlc
alculator
61

• 344
• 100 miles in kilometers
• sine(30 degrees)
• 0x7d3 in roman numerals
• 10 miles in smoots
• For instructions on how to use the Google
  Calculator, see http//www.google.com/help/calcula
  tor.html

62
What is a smoot? Use the define functiondefine

• If you begin a query with define Google will
  display definitions for the word or phrase that
  follows, if definitions are available.
• You dont need quotes around your phrases.

Source http//www.google.com/help/features.htmld
efinitions
63

• defineterm
• definesmoot
• definebarbary coast

64
stocks

• If you begin a query with stocks Google will
  treat the rest of the query terms as stock ticker
  symbols, and will link to a Yahoo finance page
  showing stock information for those symbols.
• Go crazy with the spaces Google ignores them!

Source http//www.google.com/help/operators.html
65

• stocksSymbol1 Symbol2
• stocks msft
• stocks aapl intc msft macr

66
Part FiveThe Rest of the 70

• Behind the Google homepage

67
Googles Hidden Search Options
68
Part SixMore Googles

• Data mining for fun and profit

69
Even More Googles
70
The Hidden 20 and 10 More
71
Google Scholar Beta

• scholar.google.com
• Limits your searches to
• Peer-reviewed papers
• Theses
• Books
• Abstracts and articles
• A great tool to search for scholarly information
  from
• Academic publishers
• Professional societies
• Preprint repositories
• Universities and other scholarly organizations

Source http//scholar.google.com/scholar/about.ht
ml
72
Special Google Searches

• Topic or site-specific Google searches
• http//www.google.com/options/specialsearches.htm
  l

73
Google News Beta
74
Behind the Scenes

• Hey, lets take news articles from 4,500 online
  news sites and make them searchable.
• Two ways to get to Google News
• news.google.com
• Go to Google or Google Groups, Google News,
  Froogle, or Google Local/Google Maps and click
  on the News link.

75
The Last PartGoogle Resources

• Where to get more information

76
Question Everything

• When looking at a site that you might
• want to use as an information source,
• THINK about these questions
• Is this information fact or opinion?
• Who else is using this site's information and for
  what?
• Who owns the site?

77
Is this information fact or opinion?

• Can it be found anywhere else?
• Can you copy some of the key text from the site,
  do a search for it and then find it on other
  credible sites?  
• Do it copy some text from one of the sites and
  search.

78
Who owns the site?

• To find out who owns a site 
• Go to http//www.networksolutions.com/en_US/whois/
  index.jhtml and paste in the address. 
• Scroll down through the page for ownership
  information.