Search Techniques for the Search Savvy

1. Search Techniques for the Search Savvy

2. Search Engines Detailed Very complete Current Harvested by BOTS Generally sites do not pay to be on search engines Google Search Directories Encyclopedia like Organized by topic Often sites pay to be listed Yahoo What to use?

3. Invisible Web usually organized like a search directory Behind a database and therefore unsearchable by another database Often yields specialized information Beaucoup Meta Search Engines Compile results by searching other search engines Can be limited by the engines being searched - Vivisimo- clustered meta search engine Other vehicles to use

4. Represents about 1/3 of web

5. Be sure to put the search criteria in the correct location URL’s go here Enter key search words here

6. Inefficient searching gets too much information Use more than one word List is organized by how many links a site has

7. What can you learn from an item in your list? Some of site content taken verbatim from site. • Math.com - World of Math Online Free math lessons and math homework help from basic math to algebra, geometry and beyond. Students, teachers, parents, and everyone ...www.math.com/ - 22k - 16 Aug 2004 - Cached - Similar pages Uniform Resource Locator (URL) Size Other related sites Saved on Google server

8. Refining your search Get more specific

9. Time to apply Advanced Search Techniques • The words- math fraction lesson plans are yielding results of a word by word search • By looking in the large category of math and then by grouping fraction lesson plans together we will get very different results • Put fraction lesson plans in the exact phrase section of the advanced search in Google • By the search button- click on advanced search

10. Math “fractions lesson plans” • Use quotations for exact phrase- helps with refining search and also when checking for plagarism

11. Other ways to refine your search • Use a tilde ~ to get synonyms of your search (you don’t have to know the synonyms to use this trick)

12. Use symbols • + means you want one word and the other word to both be included in your search results

13. Or if you want dogs but do not want any references to cats use the – symbol • Be sure that the –symbol does not have a space by the word you want to leave out

14. And, or, but, not are used in Boolean search engines/directories and are very much like the symbols • An example of this -EBSCO

15. You have been there before and know what you want but not quite where to find it? • Search by domain restriction • Curriculum site:southshore.ednet.ns.ca

16. Need some numerical information? • A price range, dates, or other sequential numbers • Put in what you want followed by the number range. The numbers will be separated by two dots • Olympic records 1950..2004

17. Key words to help your searching • Define - define pesticides • Related- or use similar in page-specific search section of advanced search • Info • Inurl (to get a URL with what you want in the title) or use Occurances in advanced search • Link (to similar websites or to check validity of site) or use links in page-specific search section of advanced search

18. Other Advanced Search Functions Search in different languages By format By date By where key words appear on page Filtering results

19. Google Search Tabs

20. Google Images Google News A closer look

21. Google Services

22. Other ways that Google can help with answers • Calculator/ Converter • Travel Information • And more on their information and search pages

23. By refining your search techniques you will… • Save time • Find more accurate information • Become more search savvy!