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EFFECTIVE SEARCH STRATEGIES

EFFECTIVE SEARCH STRATEGIES. How to easily find what you are looking for on the Internet. Learning More About Search Engines and Subject Directories : FAQ’S. ADAPTED FROM: http://www.cln.org/searching_faqs.html. http://oii.org/cyberu/. http://www.monash.com/spidap.html.

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EFFECTIVE SEARCH STRATEGIES

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  1. EFFECTIVE SEARCH STRATEGIES How to easily find what you are looking for on the Internet Learning More About Search Engines and Subject Directories : FAQ’S ADAPTED FROM: http://www.cln.org/searching_faqs.html http://oii.org/cyberu/ http://www.monash.com/spidap.html http://home.sprintmail.com/~depflanagan/subject.html Presented by Lynn Sweezy

  2. Topics Click on a link below to go to a specific topic What’s an Internet Subject Directory? What’s a search engine? How does a search engine know about things on the net? How can I improve my use of search engines? What are some effective search strategies? How do I prepare a search? How do I limit a search? How do I broaden a search? How do I use a wild card? Which is better to use? What’s a meta-search? How do I do a people search? References Click on me to go to the next slide. Click to go back

  3. What's an Internet Subject Directory? • Subject directories organize Internet sites by subject. (Yahoo is a subject directory.) http://www.yahoo.com • Created by a human. • Users conduct their searches by selecting a series of progressively narrower search terms. • May contain a search element.

  4. Practice Click the link below for practice exercises with Subject Directories http://home.sprintmail.com/~debflanagan/subject.html

  5. What's a search engine? • An Internet tool which will search for Internet sites. • Contains the words you designate as your search • terms. • Provides results back to you in the form of links to those sites which include the terms you are looking for. • Search engines search databases of information that have been collected by automated computer programs.

  6. How does a search engine work? • A search engine can find it while its “spiders” are out collecting data from the Web servers. The information is put into a large database that the user searches. • A publisher of a Web page can register the site with the search engines.

  7. How can I improve my use of search engines? • Learn how to use wildcards and Boolean operators. • Wildcards allow you to search simultaneously for several words with the same stem. • Boolean operators allow you to combine terms to broaden or narrow a search. • Examples of search engines include Alta Vista, Hotbot, & Infoseek.

  8. What are some effective search strategies? • Decide whether a search engine or a directory will be best for your purpose. • When using a search engine, be as specific as possible. • Try different search engines. • Read the “tips” and help files that are included with most engines.

  9. How do I prepare for a search? Before you begin a search you will want to take some time to develop a list of questions and keywords that will help you. Click on the site below for more information: http://home.sprintmail.com/~debflanagan/prepare.html

  10. How do I limit a search? • Use the Boolean Operator “and” • Example: • The search string heart and disease will only provide links to sites that have both of these terms. • Documents which have just one of the terms will be ignored. • You can narrow it more by using and more than once.

  11. How do I broaden a search? • Using the Boolean Operator “or” • Example: • The search string drama theater will return links to sites that have either of these words present. • You can broaden it even more by using or more than once.

  12. How do I use a wildcard? Wildcards - A wildcard is a symbol used to leave out a letter in the middle of a word, to allow for alternative spellings or for some plural forms. A common wildcard is the question mark. For example, gr?y would find "grey" and "gray;" wom?n would find "woman" and "women." To leave out more than one letter, you would use more than one ?. The computer will look for combinations of letters that could fit into the question mark space(s). TRY IT! http://www.google.com • Example: • Doing a search on whal* would return • Whale, whales, whaling, whalers

  13. Practice For a little practice using the Boolean logic click on the site below http://home.sprintmail.com/~debflanagan/engines.html

  14. Which is better to use? Pros: • Directories allow more control for the user and allow the user to browse. • Search engines leave the searching pattern to the computer program and can be used to find more specific resources. • Cons: • With directories, there is a fixed vocabulary • With search engines, you get excessive hits

  15. What's a meta-search engine? • A meta-search engine doesn’t create its own database of information. • A meta-search engine searches the databases of other engines and directories. • By using multiple databases, the results are more comprehensive, but retrieved more slowly. • Savvy Search is a meta-search engine.

  16. Practice Click the links below for practice exercises.Dogpile searches 14 search engines and subject directories as well as newsgroups, business news, and newswires. Dogpile supports full Boolean logic and phrase searching. C4 displays results from 16 search engines, subject directories, and specialty databases. Use full Boolean logic and phrase searching. At MetaCrawler, submit queries to 9 search engines and subject directories. Use implied Boolean logic (+/-) and phrase searching. ProFusion searches 9 engines and subject directories. ProFusion allows full Boolean logic, but operators (AND, OR, AND NOT) must be in ALL CAPS. Change the Search mode drop-down menu to Boolean.

  17. How do I do a people search? Use the following sites to find an old friend, (someone who you haven’t seen in quite some time), a Politician, a movie star, and a family member. http://www.switchboard.com http://people.yahoo.com/ http://www.anywho.com/ http://www.whowhere.lycos.com/ http://www.altavista.com

  18. References http://www.cln.org/searching_faqs.html http://oii.org/cyberu/ http://www.monash.com/spidap.html http://home.sprintmail.com/~depflanagan/subject.html http://www.yahoo.com http://home.sprintmail.com/~debflanagan/subject.html Alta Vista, Hotbot, & Infoseek http://home.sprintmail.com/~debflanagan/prepare.html http://www.google.com http://home.sprintmail.com/~debflanagan/engines.html Dogpile MetaCrawler C4 ProFusion http://www.mjq.net/fiveo/

  19. The search is on! Using your new found skill to search the Internet, develop a hot list of sites that you can use in your classroom. The list should be about a topic that you teach in your classroom, or a project that you have you students work on. HAPPY SEARCHING HAPPY SURFING

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