Shayna Keces Reference Librarian

Intermediate Internet Searching

Or

How to really find information on the internet

Agenda

Size of Internet

Types of search engines

Search strategies

Choosing a search engine

Interpretation of search results

Size of Internet/World Wide Web

July 2000 2.1 billion web pages, est. 4 billion pages by early 2001 (Some place much higher if count invisible or deep web)

Size of search engine databasesGoogle 2 billion

Fast (alltheweb) 625 million

AltaVista 550 million

Yahoo 2 million catalogued (Google for not catalogued)

Search strategies

Do notsuse search buttonuse a string of keywords without specifying Boolean propertiesuse upper case unless part of strategyuse NOT or - unless absolutely sure is necessary

elimination of unanticipated pagesformat is non standardized

Search Strategies

DoConsider what type of resource will best answer your question and search for that resource (eg. dictionary or certain type of web page)think of a list of keywords that will narrow or broaden your search keeping in mind that with the internet, narrowing your search is usually betterStick to small list of search engines and learn the search syntax for the search engine you’re using

Boolean Search

Developed by mathematician George Boole

Or widens a search

AND and AND NOT narrows a search

Parentheses used to group operations that have to be done together

(Public libraries OR bookstores) AND

(Ottawa OR Nepean OR Gloucester OR

Goulbourn OR Carp)

Public libraries OR bookstores Ottawa OR Nepean

OR Gloucester OR Kanata OR Goulbourn OR Carp

Group A AND Group B

Senators

hockey

Orange = Senators AND NOT hockey

Types of search engines

Keyword or robot based (builds a database)

Directory based (categories indexed by people rather than computer)

Annotated directory-based search engines

Meta indexes (can combine searches or allow you to search a variety of engines individually)

Specialized search engines

Keyword or robot based Search Engines

Large database of web pagesNo human involvement and no quality controlCan submit website or will find some on ownSearches full text to certain level, does not search deep or invisible webGoogle (www.google.com)Alta Vista (www.altavista.com)Hotbot (www.hotbot.com)Fast (www.alltheweb.com)

Google (www.google.com)

Presently largest database (1.5-2 billion)

Very sophisticated placement of results particularly good for popular sites, company sites

Advanced search can limit search to title of page or to URL

implied AND

+ for stop words

Google (www.google.com) cont.

If you want or needs to be expressed in caps

not case sensitive

no stemming

description shows keywords in context

cached pages

AltaVista (www.altavista.com)

One of larger search enginesParticularly good for finding less popular sitesImplied “or” probably, often changesCase sensitive when word is in quotationsStemming with * at end or in middle of wordsSearch within these resultsSophisticated search of elements, url, text, etc. http://help.altavista.com/adv_search/syntax

AltaVista Advanced Search

Has guided search as well as blank space for true Boolean search using Boolean terms and parenthesisMust use Boolean operators or equivalent symbol (not + and -) No operators implies phraseHas sort by feature which can be used to determine how results are Can specify dates of last modification

Directory-based Search Engines

Indexed by individuals so subject searches will be more accurateSmaller database than Robot enginesUsed mainly for finding good site on general topicYahoo (www.yahoo.com or ca.yahoo.com)About (about.com or home.about.com/aboutcanada)Looksmart (www.looksmart.com)

Yahoo (ca.yahoo.com)

Most popular of directory based search enginesMany different versions (international have same pages as others but local options are supplied first)Uses Google as search engineCan search by categories and move up and down the category structure by clicking on category and looking at hierarchy

About (about .com or home.about.com/aboutcanada

Another popular directory-based search engine

Volunteer guides responsible for finding good websites on appropriate subjects

Some guides exist on all version of About but geographic versions have items specific to country

Annotated directory-based search engines

Because annotated, database is even smaller than Directory-based engine

Quality of web pages is better

Web pages often rated

Librarian’s Index to the Internet (lii.org)

Argus Clearinghouse (www.clearinghouse.net)

Argus Clearinghouse (www.clearinghouse.net)

Topical list of fairly scholarly guides submitted to Argus on a variety of subjects.Can have more than one guide or page on the same subject.Not all are accepted and all are objectively rated by Argus staff and the detailed rating in available.Because Argus does not solicit web pages, coverage is unevenDate of rating is also provided

Meta indexes

One site searches more than one search engineResults can be separated or combinedSometimes a problem in interpreting question for all search enginesUsed if not sure which search engine will give you best results and/or obscure topics

Meta indexes examples

Dogpile (www.dogpile.com)

Metacrawler (www.metacrawler.com/index.html)

Surfwax (www.surfwax.com)

All4one Search machine (www.all4one.com)

Specialized Search Engines

Geographic based (www.altavistacanada.com, http://www.ottawastart.com/

Phone directories (canada411.sympatico.ca/, home.infospace.com/)

Newsgroup searching (groups.google.com)

Women’s information (wwwomen.com)

Specialized sites

Ottawa Public Library (www.library.ottawa.on.ca)Reference tools (see library reference sites, eg. lii.org, www.ipl.org/ref)Encyclopedias (www.britannica.com, Columbia encyclopedia www.bartleby.com/65/Canadian information (vrl.tpl.toronto.on.ca/, Canadian information by subject www.nlc-bnc.ca/caninfo/ecaninfo.htm, Canadian encyclopedia online, www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/

Some hints on selecting search strategies

For any page on general topic you need an introduction try Directory-based search engine. If do not need specific quality can use address bar search

For web page of major company or organization try Google or Alta Vista if more obscure

For a specific web page that would not necessarily be popular try Alta Vista.

Some hints on selecting search strategies cont.

For health topics try health website engine like www.medbroadcast.com or health links on OPL web page.

For very obscure topic topic try Google or Alta Vista or one of meta indexes

Interpretation of search results

Look at results and reformat search using things like searching within results and adding new keywords

Analytically choose which sites to look at in result list

Anatomy of URL domain + type of name

Do not look through pages and pages of results. If first three pages are not promising redo search

Some useful tutorials for searching

See “Learning to search” section of Collection of special search engines

www.leidenuniv.nl/ub/biv/specials.htmWeb searching tips www.searchenginewatch.com/facts/index.htmlNet tutor (gateway.lib.ohio-state.edu/tutor/les5/)Check links under Internet, General in OPL adult links (www.library.ottawa.on.ca)

To find more info on search engines

Searchenginewatch (www.searchenginewatch.com)

Searchengineshowdown (www.searchengineshowdown.com)