1 © Netskills Quality Internet Training, University of Newcastle Search Engines and Other Animals © Netskills, Quality Internet Training, University of Newcastle Netskills is a trademark of Netskills, University of Newcastle. Partly funded by the

2 © Netskills Quality Internet Training, University of Newcastle Topics The web as an information source Types of search site: Search engines Metasearch Engines Classified directories Subject gateways Invisible web Specialised sources What to use when?

3 © Netskills Quality Internet Training, University of Newcastle The Web: What's Out There? Online books Electronic journals Bibliographic databases Full-text materials Personal home pages Discussion groups & mailing lists Audio, video, images Interactive resources Free & subscription services

4 © Netskills Quality Internet Training, University of Newcastle The Internet As An Information Resource Advantages Up-to-date Access at point of use Accessible 24 hours a day Access to a wide variety of information sources Disadvantages Quality? Lack of organisation Poor search tools? Limited help

5 © Netskills Quality Internet Training, University of Newcastle Sites for Finding Information On The Web Search Engines Metasearch Engines Classified Directories Subject Gateways Invisible web Specialised sources Note: Some sites offer more than one way to search uk.yahoo.com

6 © Netskills Quality Internet Training, University of Newcastle Search Engines Automated indexing of (lots of) web pages Searched by keyword Find lots of information Results ranked by relevancy Good for specific queries Too much information?

7 © Netskills Quality Internet Training, University of Newcastle Metasearch Engines Enable you to search across a number of (commercial) search services simultaneously Increases proportion of web searched Usually remove duplicate results May have limited query language

8 © Netskills Quality Internet Training, University of Newcastle Classified Directories Human-compiled general subject listing of resources Commercial or academic Browsable and searchable Searches catalogue record - not web pages themselves Good for general queries Find fewer but higher quality resources dir.yahoo.com

9 © Netskills Quality Internet Training, University of Newcastle Subject Gateways A subject-specific classified directory Contain high quality resources selected by subject specialists Good for general queries Intute (formerly the Resource Discovery Network) Subject Gateways collection

10 © Netskills Quality Internet Training, University of Newcastle The 'Invisible' or 'Deep' Web Not accessible by web search engine spiders Information held in databases Very recent sites Different file types (eg PDF, Word) Information beyond search engines index limit (eg may only index first 200 words on page) Use directory sites to find 'invisible' sources Find out more: library.albany.edu/internet/deepweb.html

11 © Netskills Quality Internet Training, University of Newcastle What to use when? Search Engines If you have a very specific query If you need lots of information Metasearch Engines If you have a very specific query If you want to increase the proportion of the web searched If you're not worried about creating a very complex search query Classified Directories & Subject Gateways If you have a general information need If you want to browse through structured information If you want higher quality information

12 © Netskills Quality Internet Training, University of Newcastle Summary There are a number of different tools available for searching the web The tool you choose to use will depend on your information needs You may need to use more than one tool to find the information you need

13 © Netskills Quality Internet Training, University of Newcastle Note for Hands-On Session Try searches used in the workbook then… Try searches using your own keywords