This presentation uses a free template provided by FPPT.com Contextualized Online Search and Research Skills Week 5: Handout #5

This presentation uses a free template provided by FPPT.com Contextual Search Contextual search is a form of optimizing web-based search results based on context provided by the user and the computer being used to enter the query. Contextual search services differ from current search engines based on traditional information retrieval that return lists of documents based on their relevance to the query. Rather, contextual search attempts to increase the precision of results based on how valuable they are to individual users.

This presentation uses a free template provided by FPPT.com Basic Contextual Search The basic form of contextual search is the process of scanning the full-text of a query in order to understand what the user needs. Web search engines scan HTML pages for content and return an index rating based on how relevant the content is to the entered query. HTML pages that have a higher occurrence of query keywords within their content are not rated higher. Users have limited control over the context of their query based on the words they use to search with. For example, users looking for the menu portion of a website can add “menu” to the end of their query to provide the search engine with context of what they need. The next step in contextualizing search is for the search service itself to request information that narrows down the results, such as Google asking for a time range to search within.

This presentation uses a free template provided by FPPT.com Search Syntax Search syntax is a set of rules describing how users can query the database being searched. Sophisticated syntax makes for a better search, one where the items retrieved are mostly relevant to the searcher's need and important items are not missed. It allows a user to look for combinations of terms, exclude other terms, look for various forms of a word, include synonyms, search for phrases rather than single words.

This presentation uses a free template provided by FPPT.com Search Syntax Main Tools Boolean Logic Wildcards and Truncation Phrase Searching Proximity Capitalization Field Searching

This presentation uses a free template provided by FPPT.com Boolean Logic Boolean logic allows the use of AND, OR and NOT to search for items containing both terms, either term, or a term only if not accompanied by another term. Tip: NOT can be dangerous. Let's say you want to search for items about Mexico, but not New Mexico, so you use NOT to exclude the word "New" from your retrieved set. This would prevent you from retrieving an article about "New regulations in Mexico" because it contained the word "New," though that wasn't what you intended.

This presentation uses a free template provided by FPPT.com Wildcards and Truncations This involves substituting symbols for certain letters of a word so that the search engine will retrieve items with any letter in that spot in the word. The syntax may allow a symbol in the middle of a word (wildcard) or only at the end of the word (truncation). This feature makes it easier to search for related word groups, like "woman" and "women" by using a wildcard such as "wom*n." Truncation can be useful to search for a group of words like "invest, investor, investors, investing, investment, investments" by submitting "invest*" rather than typing in all those terms separated by OR's. The only problem is that "invest*" will also retrieve "investigate, investigated, investigator, investigation, investigating." The trick, then is to combine terms with an AND such as "invest*" AND "stock* or bond* or financ* or money" to try and narrow your retrieved set to the kind of documents you're looking for.

This presentation uses a free template provided by FPPT.com Phrase Searching Many concepts are represented by a phrase rather than a single word. In order to successfully search for a term like "library school" it's important that the search engine allow syntax for phrase searching. Otherwise, instead of getting documents about library schools you could be getting documents about school libraries or documents where the word "library" and "school" both appear but have nothing to do with a library school.

This presentation uses a free template provided by FPPT.com Proximity This allows the user to find documents only if the search terms appear near each other, within so many words or paragraphs, or adjacent to each other. It's a pretty sophisticated tool and can be tricky to use skillfully. Many times you can accomplish about the same result using phrase searching.

This presentation uses a free template provided by FPPT.com Capitalization When searching for proper names, search syntax that will distinguish capital from lower case letters will help narrow the search. In other cases, you would want to make sure the search engine isn't looking for a particular pattern of capitalization, and many search engines let you choose which of these options to use.

This presentation uses a free template provided by FPPT.com Field Searching All database records are divided up into fields. Almost all search engines in CD-ROM or online library products and the more sophisticated Web search engines allow users to search for terms appearing in a particular field. This can help immensely when you're looking for a very specific item. Say that you're looking for a psychology paper by a professor from the University of Michigan and all you remember about the paper is that it had something about Freud and Jung in its title. If you think it may be on the Web, you can do a search in Alta Vista, searching for "Freud" AND "Jung" and limit your search to the "umich.edu" domain, which gives you a pretty good chance of finding it, if it's there.

This presentation uses a free template provided by FPPT.com Google’s Search Syntax

This presentation uses a free template provided by FPPT.com Google’s Search Syntax allinanchor: If you start your query with allinanchor: Google restricts results to pages containing all query terms you specify in the anchor text on links to the page. For example, [allinanchor: best internet marketing] will return only pages in which the anchor text on links to the pages contain the words “best,” “internet,” and “marketing.” allintext: If you start your query with allintext: Google restricts results to those containing all the query terms you specify in the text of the page. For example, [allintext: seo services ] will return only pages in which the words “seo” and “services” appear in the text of the page. allintitle: If you start your query with allintitle: Google restricts results to those containing all the query terms you specify in the title. For example, [allintitle: internet marketing] will return only documents that contain the words “internet” and “marketing” in the title. allinurl: If you start your query with allinurl: Google restricts results to those containing all the query terms you specify in the URL. For example, [allinurl: google faq] will return only documents that contain the words “google” and “faq” in the URL, such as “

This presentation uses a free template provided by FPPT.com Google’s Search Syntax author: If you include author: in your query, Google will restrict your Google Groups results to include newsgroup articles by the author you specify. The author can be a full or partial name or address. For example, [ seo author:john author:doe ] or [ seo ] return articles that contain the word “seo” written by John Doe or cache: The query cache:url will display Google’s cached version of a web page, instead of the current version of the page. For example, [ cache: will show Google’s cached version of the ESPN home page. define: If you start your query with define: Google shows definitions from pages on the web for the term that follows. This advanced search operator is useful for finding definitions of words, phrases, and acronyms. For example, [ define: seo ] will show definitions for “SEO”. ext: This is an undocumented alias for filetype: filetype: If you include filetype:suffix in your query, Google will restrict the results to pages whose names end in suffix. For example, [ seo evaluation filetype:pdf ] will return Adobe Acrobat pdf files that match the terms “seo” and “evaluation.”

This presentation uses a free template provided by FPPT.com Google’s Search Syntax link: The query link:URL shows pages that link back to that URL. For example, to find pages that point to ESPN’s home page, enter:[ link: ] location: If you include location: in your query on Google News, only articles from the location you specify will be returned. For example, [seo location:india ] will show articles that match the term “seo” from sites in India. Many other country names work; try them and see. movie: If you include movie: in your query, Google will find movie-related information. phonebook: If you start your query with phonebook: Google shows all public U.S. residence telephone listings (name, address, phone number) for the person you specify.

This presentation uses a free template provided by FPPT.com Google’s Search Syntax related: The query related:URL will list web pages that are similar to the web page you specify. For instance, [related: ] will list web pages that are similar to the Consumer Reports home page. site: If you include site: in your query, Google will restrict your search results to the site or domain you specify. source: If you include source: in your query, Google News will restrict your search to articles from the news source with the ID you specify. For example, [ election source:new_york_times ] will return articles with the word “election” that appear in the New York Times. weather: If you enter a query with the word weather and a city or location name, if Google recognizes the location, the forecast will appear at the top of the results page. Otherwise, your results will usually include links to sites with the weather conditions and forecast for that location.

This presentation uses a free template provided by FPPT.com Online Research Skills 1.Check Your Sources Evaluating information found in your sources on the basis of accuracy, validity, appropriateness for needs, importance, and social and cultural context

This presentation uses a free template provided by FPPT.com Online Research Skills 2. Ask Good Questions Developing and refining search queries to get better research results

This presentation uses a free template provided by FPPT.com Online Research Skills 3. Go Beyond the Surface Displaying persistence by continuing to pursue information to gain a broad perspective

This presentation uses a free template provided by FPPT.com Online Research Skills 4. Be Patient Displaying emotional resilience by persisting in information searching despite challenges

This presentation uses a free template provided by FPPT.com Online Research Skills 5. Respect Ownership Respecting intellectual property rights of creators and producers

This presentation uses a free template provided by FPPT.com Online Research Skills 6. Use Your Networks Using social networks and information tools to gather and share information

This presentation uses a free template provided by FPPT.com Sources: search-syntax-explained/ search-syntax-explained/ ng-content/6-online-research-skills-your-students- need/ ng-content/6-online-research-skills-your-students- need/