CSCI-235 Micro-Computer in Science Internet Search

Searching on the Web  Search Engines- help to find sites related to a specific topic.  One enters queries or keywords, search engine will return many links containing those words. Some will rank the relevancy of the links depending on how many times the words appeared in the pages.

Search Engine  Each Search engine builds its own database of web pages.  Some engines: Google, Altavista, Yahoo, Bing, Infoseek, Excite  Google and Altavista return the links containing the keywords. It brings back too many irrelevant hits, it is best used for very specific information.  Yahoo categorizes data and then let you search when the topic has been narrowed down somewhat producing more relevant results. No search engine is best No search engine is best

4 Popular Web Search Engines

Search Techniques  A search engine has its own searching rules.  A good guide:  Some tips: Try multiple search engines on one query Try multiple search engines on one query Use quotes around a string of words Use quotes around a string of words Use AND, OR, and NOT to narrow down the topic Use AND, OR, and NOT to narrow down the topic And - Includes all findings of both key wordsAnd - Includes all findings of both key words Or - Looks for only one of the specified key wordsOr - Looks for only one of the specified key words Not - Allows you to exclude certain key wordsNot - Allows you to exclude certain key words Use + (-) in front of words to make sure the word is included (excluded) Use + (-) in front of words to make sure the word is included (excluded)