Learning how to search on the web “If all you ever do is all you’ve ever done, then all you’ll ever get is all you’ve ever got.” (author unknown)

How do I search the web???? The world wide web has over a billion websites. How can you possibly search through every one of them?? You can’t!

Information on the web Not everything you see or read on the internet is scholarly or relevant. This PowerPoint will attempt to give you the tools you need to evaluate the information in front of you.

Search Engines What are Search Engines? Search Engines such as Google are databases for billions of web pages. (More about Google later.)Google Some examples: Teoma, Alta Vista, Lycos, Hotbot, and Excite just to name a few. (click on the engine and try it out)TeomaAlta Vista LycosHotbotExcite

When do I use a search engine? When you have a narrow topic or several keywords When you are looking for a specific site When you want to do a comprehensive search and retrieve a large number of documents on your topic When you want to make use of the features in an advanced search screen or search for particular types of documents, file types, source locations, languages, date last modified, etc. When you want to take advantage of newer retrieval technologies, such as concept clustering, ranking by popularity, link ranking, etc. Valenza, Joyce. Neverending Search Powerpoint.

MetaSearch Engines What are Metasearch engines and what can they do for me? These types of search tools search other search engines to find the best results for you. For example, Dogpile’s motto is “search all the best search engines for you.”Dogpile

MetaSearch Engines continued Some Metasearch engines are: Ask Jeeves MetaCrawler Mamma WebCrawler WisenutWisenut and Zapmeta.Zapmeta

When do I need to use a Meta- Search Engine? When you have failed to find what you are looking for in your favorite search tools. When you don’t feel you need to use complex search strategies. When you want to get a feel for what’s out there on a particular topic. Valenza, Joyce. Power Research Tools. Chicago, ALA 2003

Subject Directories What are Subject Directories? And what can they do for me? Subject directories are organized and catalog by humans and not robots or spiders. They “return results that are generally of higher quality and high relevance.”

Examples of Subject Directories Google Directory Looksmart Yahoo About.com Some Academic Directories Librarian’s Index Virtual Library INFOMINE

Invisible Web or Deep Web What is the Invisible or Deep web? The Invisible or Deep web is anything that can not be reached through normal search tools, such as academic databases, PDFs and spreadsheets, sites that block spiders and robots.

Examples of the Invisible Web Invisible Web Directory Invisible Web.com CompletePlanet Profusion WebLens

Take the Google Challenge! You can go beyond your basic search with Google. For instance the advanced search screen can yield more results for you. Don’t forget look at Google Services (see the next slide). This is where you can find answers to your questions or conduct a special search. The Google Web Search Features is another helpful screen.

Google is loaded with information Take advantage of Google’s Services Don’t be afraid to go beyond your normal search scope!

Google Fully Charged Don’t forget Google’s Web Search Features. They can help you find everything from Book Search to Who links to your URL?? And everything in between. Click here for a more comprehensive list. (Google Web Search Features)Google Web Search Features Try it! You never know what you might discover.

New Features of Google Google ScholarGoogle Scholar – Search scholarly papers Google Images Google Images – Best place to find images Google DirectoryGoogle Directory – Browse the web by topic Google Print Google Print -Search for full text of books (new)

Boolean Searching After you’ve decided what search tool to use, how do you maximize your search phrases or words. One way to do that is to use Boolean phrases correctly. AND OR NOT

How to Use Boolean Operators AND – Narrows your search and only uses the words you choose. Ex. justice AND peace OR – Broadens your search. Use words that are similar and you’re get more results. Ex. cup OR mug NOT – Limits your search by only returning your first word and not the second. Ex. Dolphins NOT Miami Click here to see Rockwell Schrock’s Boolean MachineRockwell Schrock’s Boolean Machine

Some more helpful hints: An asterisk (*) or a question mark (?) may be used to stand for any character or string of characters. Some search engines allow you to type in questions as you would think or speak them. You often will want words to appear together in specific order. Commonly, quotation marks ("") set words off as phrases to be searched as a whole. (Some search engines use parentheses, commas, or hyphens instead of quotation marks.) Valenza, Joyce. Virtual Library

Power Searching We hope that this power point will give you the tools you need to be a better searcher on the web.