Types of Internet Searching

1. Types of Internet Searching For The Community Spirit Task You need to know how to search the internet • ~Tilde • String • Boolean • Advanced • Keyword • AND OR NEAR NOT You must explain each type of search and then use the WEB QUEST activity for practice. Learning Objectives All to develop an understanding of the different search methods (C) Most to be able to choose an appropriate method when searching the internet(B) Some to be able to enhance their searching skills depending on the task in hand (A)

2. Searching the Internet • In order to search the internet, there are different methods you can use – Key Word, String, Boolean and Wildcard searching. • Find out what these types/methods of internet searching are (they must relate to/be about searching the internet) and explain how they help someone to search the internet effectively. • Create a table and type in the search you used to find the answer for each of the methods. • Enter how many sites were shown for the method used and then the answer you got to the question below • Method Used/Search Entered/Number of Sites Returned/Answer • Key Word • String • Boolean etc. • Using each of the above methods, find the answer to the following question. You will need to think about the search you enter into Google.

3. How to Search the Internet There is lots of information available on the Internet, but how do you find specifically what you are looking for? This short introduction will show you the basics of using Search Engines and Directories to find information. Efficiency and shortcuts are needed to sift through over a billion web sites. Overall, remember these three things: • Be specific as possible • Try not to get distracted • It gets easier the more you use it! What you need to know: e.g. All Names mentioned on this page are followed by .com. (e.g. yahoo means www.yahoo.com)

4. WHAT ARE SEARCH ENGINES? Search engines are huge databases of web page files that have been assembled automatically by machine. Each one has its own characteristics. There are two types: • Individual Search Engines compile their own databases. Examples: AltaVista, Google, MSN Search, Ask Jeeves, and WebCrawler (simplest). • Metasearchers do not compile databases. Instead, they use the databases of many individual engines simultaneously. Examples are: MetaCrawler, Dogpile, Search, and Copernic (Canadian, requires free download, but worth it)

5. WHAT ARE DIRECTORIES? • Directories, unlike search engines, are created and maintained by human editors, not electronic spiders or robots. They tend to be smaller than search engine databases, typically indexing only the home page of a site. Their advantage is they give more rounded results than individual search engines. They may include a search engine for searching their own directory (or the web, if a directory search yields unsatisfactory results Examples: Yahoo, and Open Directory Project (Dmoz). • Today, the line between search engines and subject directories is blurring. Search engines no longer limit themselves to a search mechanism alone. Across the Web, they are partnering with subject directories, or creating their own directories, and returning results gathered from a variety of other guides and services as well.

6. The Main Type of Searches are How to Use the Tilde sign (~) in Google for Best Results • String Search • AND, OR, NEAR, and NOT • Boolean searches There is a detailed explanation of the various search types on the next few slides

7. How to Use the Tilde sign (~) in Google for Best Results • When you want to expand your search from a given keyword to its synonyms as well, you can use the tilde operator. • This is especially useful for a broad search of the Internet.

8. String Search http://www.cplusplus.com/reference/string/string/find/ In computer science, string searching algorithms, sometimes called string matching algorithms, are an important class of string algorithms that try to find a place where one or several strings (also called patterns) are found within a larger string or text. Let Σ be an alphabet (finite set). Formally, both the pattern and searched text are vectors of elements of Σ. The Σ may be a usual human alphabet (for example, the letters A through Z in the Latin alphabet). Other applications may use binary alphabet (Σ = {0,1}) or DNA alphabet (Σ = {A,C,G,T}) in bioinformatics. In practice, how the string is encoded can affect the feasible string search algorithms. In particular if a variable width encoding is in use then it is slow (time proportional to N) to find the Nth character. This will significantly slow down many of the more advanced search algorithms. A possible solution is to search for the sequence of code units instead, but doing so may produce false matches unless the encoding is specifically designed to avoid it.

9. Common Search Operators Using search operators can greatly improve the relevance of your results in any search engine. Limit the number of hits for your search by enclosing a phrase in quotes. Searching for "chocolate ice cream" retrieves only pages that contain all these words in that exact order. Without the quotes, your search will return any pages that have one of these words on it. You can also use operators AND, OR, NEAR, and NOT (caps required) to create better results. Apple AND Pie is similar to "Apple Pie," but the words do not have to be in the exact order that you typed them. Mercedes OR Lexus tires retrieves results for both vehicles, but no results for Buick tires. In the Google search engine, you can limit your results by using NOT or the minus sign. The search hairstyles NOT men's is the same as hairstyles --men's. Combining common search operators will help you even more. A search for "New York landmarks" AND Manhattan will retrieve Madison Square Garden but not the Bronx Zoo. "New York sightseeing" AND Manhattan -"Times Square" will exclude Times Square from the results.

10. Common Search Operators Using search operators can greatly improve the relevance of your results in any search engine. Limit the number of hits for your search by enclosing a phrase in quotes. Searching for "chocolate ice cream" retrieves only pages that contain all these words in that exact order. Without the quotes, your search will return any pages that have one of these words on it.

11. Common Search Operators You can also use operators AND, OR, NEAR, and NOT (caps required) to create better results. Apple AND Pie is similar to "Apple Pie," but the words do not have to be in the exact order that you typed them. Mercedes OR Lexus tires retrieves results for both vehicles, but no results for Buick tires. In the Google search engine, you can limit your results by using NOT or the minus sign. The search hairstyles NOT men's is the same as hairstyles --men's.

12. Common Search Operators Combining common search operators will help you even more. A search for "New York landmarks" AND Manhattan will retrieve Madison Square Garden but not the Bronx Zoo. "New York sightseeing" AND Manhattan -"Times Square" will exclude Times Square from the results.

13. BOOLEAN SEARCHESUse double quotation marks ("like this") around phrases. EXAMPLE: "Bye bye Miss American Pie" would probably find the song but not include pie recipes.Use the plus (+) and minus (-) signs in front of words to include or exclude words in your search.EXAMPLE: +anorexia –bulimia (NO space between the sign and the keyword)