Searching the WWW Chapter 5

Search Engines  Software that lets a user specify search terms. The search engine then finds sites that contain those terms.  Over time a search engine builds a database of searchable terms that can be matched to web sites.

Search Engines (continued)  Examples: (pg. 202) – – PC World ranks as best –

Query  Terms entered into a form of a search engine’s web page.  Not necessarily phrased as a question since words such as “what”, “a”, “is” etc. would be ignored.  Enter specific keywords.  Make sure your spelling is correct.

Terms  Hit (match) – URL returned by a search engine  Relevancy score – Value indicating how close of a match it was to your query.

Not all search engines are the same.  Entering the same search query using different search engines will not produce the same list of sites.  Each search engine uses a different method when it comes to doing a search.

Not all search engines are the same. (continued)  As a result, you should use more than one search engine in order to do a thorough search.  Read the search rules of an individual search engine.

Methods of searching  Use more than one word.  Use quotes  Use boolean queries  Use + sign or - sign  Use * (wild card)

Boolean Query AND, OR, NOT  A AND B – results in sites containing both A and B  A OR B – results in sites containing A or B, or both A and B  A AND NOT B – results in sites containing A and excludes sites containing both A and B.

+ sign or - sign Use + in order to include a word  “A”, “and” or “the” -- such words are usually ignored by the search engine. To include, use +. Use - in order to exclude a word

Stemming Some search engines will return results that include variations on the endings of words.  computer  computers  computed

Wild Card * Some search engines use the asterisk as a wild card to include variations on a word.  kayak* would search for kayaks, kayaking, kayaker.

Examples of possible search entries:  shelf ice – Results in URLs of pages containing the words shelf and ice, or just the word “shelf” or just the word “ice”. – Results in many hits

Using quotes  “shelf ice” – results in URLs of pages containing the exact string “shelf ice”.

Using boolean queries  shelf AND ice – results in URLs of pages containing the word “shelf” and the word “ice” (in any order).  shelf OR ice – Results in URLs of pages containing the words “shelf” and ”ice”, or just the word “shelf” or just the word “ice”.  computers NOT notebook – Results in URLs of pages containing the word “computers” but not containing the word “notebook”.

More examples:  Elizabeth I – The “I” could be ignored.  Elizabeth +I – The “I” would be included.

Examples (continued)  Using Google – notebook computers = ? results – “notebook computers” = ? results – notebook AND computers = ? results – notebook OR computers = ? results

Metasearch Engines  Performs a search by using more than one search engine to do the search. – – – – Pg 206

White Pages  Used for finding individuals (pg. 207) – – –

Yellow Pages  Used for finding businesses –

Specialty Search Engines  Used for specific topics – News, shopping, travel... – MySimon.com -- comparison shopping – MoreOver.com -- news – Travelocity.com -- airfares

Too Few Hits  Eliminate one or more keywords  Try more general keywords  Use a metasearch engine

Too many hits  Add more keywords  May want to use “AND” and/or “NOT”  May want to use + or -  Capitalize proper nouns.  Some search engines allow you to do a search within a search.

4 Types of Links 1.Text Hyperlink 2.Image Hyperlink 3.Mailto Hyperlink – launches a mailer 4.Intra-document Link (Internal link) - links to another location within the same page.

Helpful Tip #1 ! To quickly find what you are looking for within a web page, you can do a search for a word or words within the page by doing the following:

To search for a word or words within a document Go to:  Edit  Find in Page  Enter the word or words you are searching for.  Click on “Find Next”.

Helpful Tip #2 ! You can open a web page in a separate browser window in order to continue viewing the original web page, while that page loads.

To open a web page in a new browser window.  Right-mouse click on the link of interest and then select “Open in new window”.  Click on the original browser window on the task bar below in order to continue viewing the original web page while that page loads.  This speeds up your search since you can view one page while another is loading.

To assist you in learning HTML, you can view other’s HTML.  Right mouse-click on a web page (not on a link)  Click on “View Source”