Internet Search Workshop

Mohammed Zahran

Our goals today... • Discover the biggest mistakes made by most

Internet users• Talk about the differences between directories

and search engines (and when to use each.)• Learn some basic Google searching

techniques.

The Biggest Mistake

Typing URLs in the wrong box

EFSGG

EFSGG

The Second Biggest Mistake

Using the wrong tool at the wrong time

Three questions• Where would you find the telephone

number or address of the El Gomuhireya theatre?

• Where you would find the definition of the word “leadership?”

• Where would you find the name of the Mouse Inventor?

Demo

Directories• Usually human-compiled guides to the web,

where sites are organized by category• Major directories:

– MSN– Yahoo– Netscape ODP

What directories are good for• “What is the Web page address for some company,

organization, or entity?”• (or “who makes product X?”)• “Where can I find a list of Web pages that focus on a

particular, ‘universal’ topic?”• In other words, directories are GREAT for “telephone

book” searches.

Search Engine• The three parts of a search engine:

– the spider• A spider (also called a "crawler" or a "bot") that goes to every

page or representative pages on every Web site that wants to be searchable and reads it, using hypertext links on each page to discover and read a site's other pages.

Search Engine• The three parts of a search engine:

– the catalog• A program that creates a huge index (sometimes

called a "catalog") from the pages that have been read.

Search Engine• The three parts of a search engine:

– the front end• A program that receives your search request,

compares it to the entries in the index, and returns results to you.

Directories v Search Engines• Directories are human-compiled and have a

small number of pages in their databases (usually in the low millions)

• Search engines are machine-compiled and have a HUGE number of pages in their databases (usually in the hundreds of millions or even the billions)

The Search Engine five rules1. Be specific ... because if you aren’t specific,

you’ll end up with a bunch of garbage!

2. Use quotes to search for phrases.

3. Use the + sign to require.

4. Use the - sign to exclude.

5. Combine symbols as often as possible (see rule #1).

Search engine rule #1

Be specific ... because if you aren’t specific, you’ll end up with a bunch of

garbage!

Search engine rule #2

Use quotes to search for phrases.

“pirates of the caribbean”

Search engine rule #3

Use the + sign torequire.

“pirates of the caribbean” +disney

Search engine rule #4

Use the - sign toexclude.

“pirates of the caribbean” -video

Search engine rule #5

Combine symbols as often as possible (see rule #1).

“pirates of the caribbean” +disney -video

Demo

Advanced Operators

Query modifiers• filetype:• intitle:• inurl:• site:• synonyms

Alternative query• cache:• link:• related:• define:

A sample Google search

+inurl:apollo +moon –”john young” +site:nasa.gov

Now, Can you guess the result? ?

Demo

Internet Search

Mohammed Zahran

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