1. Net Search Engines The Which, Why and How Tim Landeck tlandeck@alisal.org Handouts/PowerPoint available at: www.alisal.org/tech/conferences www.alisal.org/tech/conferences

2. Presentation Focus WHICH: Differences Between the Engines WHY: 2 Ways to Search –Search Engines Vs. Directories HOW: Refining Your Search Queries

3. Which Search Engine Do You Use? Yahoo Excite Alta Vista MSN AOL HotBot Ask Jeeves Google GoTo Magellan Lycos Web Crawler BigFoot MetaCrawler DogPile Direct Hit

4. The Problem Too many hits for my query Can’t find what I am looking for...is it there? How to formulate words to get what I want –Boolean and Web Boolean Which Engine to use*

5. What is a Search Engine? Computer w/ special software (robots, Spiders, or Crawlers) that indexes and catalogues the Internet into a database Active 24 hrs/day Systematic approach to indexing sites Creates a database that you search through a web site

6. Two Ways to Search the Web Search Engine Program that searches database of Key Words relating to Web pages Directory (index) Category - subcategory - another subcategory

7. When do you use which method Do you have a specific object in mind: –Email address of your old college roommate –S.J. Mercury has to say about the ILOVEYOU virus Or do you want to just Amass knowledge –Everything about Carpal Tunnel Syndrome –All Trackball vendors on the web Narrow & Specific Info = Key Word Search Broad and General = Web Directory (Human Reviewed)

8. Examples of a Web Directory Search You want to create your own Web Page, but don’t know the first thing about what it takes.... Web Directory like Yahoo –Computers and Internet: WWW: authoring

14. Searching By Key Word Search Engines You are planning a trip to the Galapagos Islands and want to rent a boat to travel between the islands.... –If you search for Galapagos boats you will get results on both the word Galapagos and boats. So, you have to learn the specifics of Keyword Indexes....

15. Basic Boolean AND (+) result must contain all words joined by AND (Saturn AND planet) = Fewer Hits OR result must contain at least one of the words (elevator OR lift) = More Hits NOT (-) result cannot contain word after the term NOT (nirvana AND Buddhism NOT rock NOT music) = Fewer Hits

16. “Advanced” or “Web” Boolean ( ) - groups portions of queries together: math AND (software OR lesson) “PHRASES”- query on a phrase: “space, the final frontier” CAPITALIZATION- Bill, bill, Gates, gates, Digital, digital, Lotus, lotus

17. Review Boolean Books AND endangered AND species NOT owls Saturn AND planet NOT (car OR automobile) (dogs OR cats) AND "pet care” AND books NOT clinics

18. What do Search Engines look for? Title of Document –Internet Explorer: My Home Page Headings - Welcome to The Ark School Repeated words on the page Words closest to the top of the page Meta Tags in the of your HTML document Hyperlinks –Great PowerPoint Projects

19. Excite Features... Concept-based Search Engine... it will try to figure out what you mean, instead of just what you say (write). –determine meaning by calculating the frequency with which certain important words appear. HEART appears with: coronary, artery, lung, stroke, attack, etc. VS. flowers, candy, love, passion, etc. Confidence Percentile Ranking Personal Start Page (My Excite)

20. Excite

21. Google Simple, uncluttered design Large database Search on results Cache Feature “I’m Feeling Lucky” option Google ToolBar for Windows & I.E. Ranks in part according to how many links a web document has from other web sites (Popularity)

24. Google ToolBar Increases your ability to find information from anywhere on the web - Quick to install Automatically appears along with the IE toolbar.

25. Google ToolBar Google Search: Access Google's search technology from any web page. Search Site: Search only the pages of the current site. PageRank: See Google's ranking of the current page. Page Info: Access more information about a page including similar pages, pages that link back to that page, as well as a cached snapshot. Highlight: Highlight your search terms as they appear on the page.

26. Ask Jeeves The first natural language search service It is a question-answering system allowing anyone to ask a question in plain, simple English without having to use keywords or Boolean search strings. “The future of web navigation” Provides an Ask Jeeves for Kids (filtered) option (www.ajkids.com)

27. www.aj.com OR www.ajkids.com

30. Happy Searching! May all your searches be abundant with accurate and appropriate hits, from now until eternity. ;-} Tim Landeck tlandeck@alisal.org Handouts/PowerPoint available from: www.alisal.org/tech/conferences