Introduction to Web Browsers and Basic Search Strategies Using Search Engines

1
Introduction to Web Browsers and Basic Search
Strategies Using Search Engines

• Davina Pruitt-Mentle
• EDUC 478

2
Outline

• History (WWW Internet)
• Search tools
• Search Engines vs. Subject Directory
• Meta search Engines
• Steps for Searching
• Effective Strategies
• Narrow or broaden a search?
• Wildcards

3
Internet History

• Internet made up of thousands of networks
  worldwide
• No one in charge of Internet - No governing body
• Internet backbone owned by private companies

4
Looking at the Net
Taken from http//www.cio.com/WebMaster/sem2_net.
html
5
Understanding the Map

• Computers use TCP/IP to communicate (Transmission
  Control Protocol/Internet Protocol)
• Computers use client/server architecture

6
Internet Providers

• Research and Educational Institutions
• Government and Military Entities
• Businesses
• Private Organizations
• Commercial Providers

7
Internet Protocols

• Email (Simple Mail Transport Protocol)
• Telnet (Login to remote host computer)
• FTP (File Transfer Protocol) - transfers files
  between server and client
• HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol)

8
History

• WWW or Web or W3 includes all information, text,
  images, audio, video, and computational services
  that are accessible from the internet
• July 8, 1999 Nature - approximately 800 million
  pages of publicly accessible information(1)
• Web continues to grow, tripling in size over the
  past two years(2)

(1) Steve Lawrence C. Lee Giles, Accessibility
of Information on the Web, Nature 400 (July 8,
1999), 107 (2) OCLC Office of Research, June
1999 Web Statistics Web Characterization Project
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WWW

• System of Internet servers that support hypertext
  to access several Internet protocols on a single
  interface
• Almost all protocols accessible on Internet are
  accessible on web (email - FTP - Telnet - etc)
• In addition, WWW own protocol HyperText Transfer
  Protocol

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HTTP

• Hypertext - means of information retreival
• Contains links that connect to other documents
• Links selected by user
• Virtual web of connections

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HTTP (cont)

• Produce HTTP through HTML
• HyperText Markup Language
• Way of writing or creating with tags added to
  tell information
• i.e. Bold yields Bold

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More History

• Internet initially conceived in 1989 by Tim
  Berners-Lee at CERN (European Particle Physics
  Lab in Switzerland)
• Needed a wide variety of information to be shared
  and distributed to many different computers and
  platforms
• Universal readership

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Web Popular Because

• Easy to use
• Easy to navigate
• Combines words, graphics, sound, video
• Easy to Publish
• Plethora of information
• Reach larger audience

14
Summary Web vs. Internet

• What is the relationship between the web and the
  Internet?
• The Internet contains physical components
• computers
• networks
• services

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Web vs. Internet

• The Internet connects thousands of computers
  across the world, but it is the web that allows
  communication to occur
• Web - abstraction and common set of services on
  top of the Internet
• Web - set of protocols and tools that let us
  share information with each other

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Directed Search Strategies

• Davina Pruitt-Mentle
• July Design Institute
• July 20, 2000

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How Do I Find Information on the Internet?

• Join an email discussion or USENET newsgroup
• Go directly to a site if you have the address
• Browse
• Explore subject directory
• Conduct Search

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How Does Information Get Indexed by the Search
Tools

• A publisher of a web page can register the site
  with the search engine or directory
• Database collects data autonomously

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Browsers

• Netscape Navigator (Communicator)
• Product of Netscape (Now owned by AOL)
• Originally was dominant
• Multi-platform (all operating systems)
• Internet Explorer
• Product of Microsoft
• Current Dominant Browser
• Not available for all operating systems
• Browser compatibility problems can cause web page
  problems

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Netscape Search
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Netscape Search

• 1 Access to different search engines
• 2. Type words or phrases into text entry box
• 3. Click Button
• 4. Preserve favorite search engine

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Internet Explorer Search

• Separate Panel In Browser
• Uses MicroSoft Network search

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Internet Explorer Search

• Direct access to only Microsoft Networks search
  engines
• Allows easy access to different types of search
• Web pages
• People
• Businesses
• Maps

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Internet Keywords

• Type straight in location bar of
  Netscape/Explorer
• Simple words instead of URL (uniform resource
  location)
• Words tie to websites
• Can be tied to language preference
• Example Typing in maryland converts to
  http//www.state.md.us/

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Know your URLs

• Address of a file on the Internet
• Contains type of protocol followed by the
  computer name, directory and file name
• Examples
• http//www.capecod.net/Wixon/wixon.htm
• gopher//gopher.boombox.micro/
• ftp// wuarchive.wustl.edu/pub/windows/psp3.zip
• mailtokschrock_at_capecod.net

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Anatomy of a Web Address

• protocol//host/path/filename
• See handout Anatomy of a Web Address

27
Two Basic Approaches to Searching(although not
really basic)

• Search Engines
• Subject Directories

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Search Engines vs. Directories

• Search Engines
• Computer built index of information on web
• More inclusive
• Used to find specific resources
• Searchable by keyword
• Excessive hits
• Every page of a Website is indexed
• Better for general searches, but can be used to
  find specific information

• Directories
• Human aided, organized list
• May be general or subject-specific
• May be able to search directory
• Google - general
• NetTech Educational Technology Coordinator
  Website - subject specific
• User has control of browsing
• Fixed vocabulary
• Links go to Website home pages only
• Better at general searches

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What are Search Engines?

• Designed to assist you in searching through the
  enormous amount of information on the Web
• No single search tool has everything
• Each engine is a large database which utilizes
  different search techniques and tools (spiders or
  robots) to build indexes to the Internet (some
  also utilize submissions and administration)

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Which Search Engine?

• Yahoo
• Altavista
• Excite
• Google
• NorthernLights
• Hotbot
• Infoseek
• See Handout - The Little Search Engine that
  Could

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How to Choose

• Consider
• Size of the database ( of URLs)
• Currency of the database (updates)
• Search interface
• Help screens
• Search features
• Results listed ( of documents retrieved)
• Relevance of results

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More About Search Engines

• Searches for matching terms (keywords or several
  keywords)
• Results ranked by relevancy (for some)
• Can search by
• subject or category
• keyword
• Learn about each search engines description,
  options, and rules and restrictions

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GO TO

• http//www.google.com/help.html

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• Searches for exact matches
• Try different versions of your search term
• Example Boston hotel vs. Boston hotels
• Rephrase query
• Example cheap plane tickets vs. cheap
  airplane tickets

35

• Automatically places and between words (expands
  search)
• To reduce search
• add more terms in original search
• refine search within the current search results.
  (adding terms to first words will return a subset
  of the original query)
• Exclude a word by using a sign
• Example to search bass but not speaker ? bass
  speaker
• Does not support or operator
• Does not support stemming or wildcard
  searches
• Not case sensitive

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• Finds street maps
• Just enter a U.S. street address, including zip
  code or city/state into the search box
• Google recognizes query as a map request
• Try your address

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Phrase Searches and Connectors

• Phrase Searches are useful when searching for
  famous sayings or specific names Gone with the
  Wind
• Phrase Connectors are recognized
• Hyphens
• Slashes
• Periods
• Equal signs
• Apostrophes
• Example mother-in-law

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Stop Words

• Stop words are ignored
• These rarely help narrow and slow down search
• http
• com
• certain single digits
• certain single letters
• to include stop words use space
• Example
• Star Wars, Episode 1 ? Star wars episode 1
• OS/2 ? OS/ 2
• dont forget the space before the - signs

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How to Interpret Results
See Handout
40

• Combines in one search a very large full-text
  Web-page database (160 million pages) with over
  5,400 searchable full-text published (print)
  journals and an array of online news resources

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• You may access both relevant web-pages and
  relevant journals and news releases
• Tagged
• WWW like other search tools or
• Special Collection (published, fee-for-viewing
  journal articles or other publication)

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• GOTO
• http//www.northernlight.com/docs/specoll_help_ove
  rview.html
• To obtain an item from the Special Collection
• Click on link
• Decide if you are willing to pay fee
• Page provides citation so you can locate
  publication in library

43
Unique Folders Approach

• Results grouped in folders listed at left
• Folders dynamically generated by search results
• From a controlled vocabulary
• Similar to library cataloging
• Not fixed like subject directories
• Click on any folder to refine or further focus
  search
• Sub-folders allow you to further zero in

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Four Types of Folders

• Subjects (baseball, desserts)
• Source descriptors (commercial, personal,
  magazines, databases)
• Types of documents (press releases, product
  review, maps)
• Languages (major Romanized languages only)

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Approaches to Searching

• Basic Search
• Power Search
• Industry Search
• Investext Search
• News

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Basic Search

• Http//www.northernlight.com
• From Home Page
• Allows Boolean logic
• Phrase in
• Truncation (for many characters or for 1
  character)
• requires, - excludes

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Power Search

• Http//www.northernlight.com/power.html
• Combines ALL basic search features in one search
• Limits to major language or country
• Can select subject or document in advance

48
Industry Search

• http//www.northernlight.com/business.html
• All features of basic search
• Can limit by date range or industry-based subject
  category
• Default is ALL industries

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Investext Search

• http//www.northernlight.com/investext.html
• Search or browse thousands of investment
  research reports written by expert analysts.

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News Search

• http//www.northernlight.com/news.html
• Allows on-line news searches

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Meta Search Tools

• Multi-threaded search engines
• Allows access to multiple databases
  simultaneously or via a single interface
• (-) Do not offer the same level of control over
  search interface and logic as individual engines
• () Fast
• () Improvements
• Results sorted by site used for search, or
  location of Website
• Able to select search engines to include
• ability to modify results

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Popular Meta-Search Engines

• Dogpile
• Metacrawler
• Profusion
• SavvySearch

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Subject-Specific Search Engines

• Do not index entire web
• Focus within specific Websites/pages within
  defined subject area, geographical area, type of
  resource
• Specialized search - depth rather than breath

54
Selected Subject-Specific Engines

• Companies
• Companies Online (http//www.companiesonline.com/)
  
• Hoover's Online (http//www.hoovers.com/)
• Wall Street Research Net (http//www.wsrn.com/)
• People (E-mail and Phone)
• Bigfoot (http//bigfoot.com/)
• WhoWhere? (http//www.whowhere.lycos.com)
• Yahoo! People Search (http//people.yahoo.com/)
• Switchboard.Com (http//www.switchboard.com)

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Selected Subject-Specific Engines

• Images
• The Amazing Picture Machine (http//www.ncrtec.org
  /picture.htm)
• Lycos Image Gallery (http//www.lycos.com/picturet
  his/)
• WebSeek (http//disney.ctr.columbia.edu/webseek/)
  
• Yahoo! Image Surfer (http//ipix.yahoo.com/)

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Selected Subject-Specific Engines

• Jobs
• Hotjobs.com (http//www.hotjobs.com/)
• Monster.com (http//www.monster.com/)
• The Riley Guide (http//www.rileyguide.com/)
• Games
• CNET Gamecenter.com (http//www.gamecenter.com/)
• Games Domain (http//www.gamesdomain.com/)
• Gamesmania (http//www.gamesmania.com/)
• GameSpot (http//www.gamespot.com/)

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Selected Subject-Specific Engines

• Software
• Jumbo (http//www.jumbo.com)
• Shareware.com (http//www.shareware.com)
• ZDNet Downloads (http//www.zdnet.com/downloads/)
  
• Health/Medicine
• Achoo (http//www.achoo.com/)
• BioMedNet (http//www.bmn.com/)
• Combined Health Information Database
  (http//chid.nih.gov/)
• Mayo Clinic Health Oasis (http//www.mayohealth.or
  g/)
• Medical World Search (http//www.mwsearch.com/)
• OnHealth (http//www.onhealth.com)

58
Selected Subject-Specific Engines

• Education/Children's Sites
• AOL NetFind Kids Only (http//www.aol.com/netfind/
  kids/)
• Blue Web'n (http//www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/bluewe
  bn/)
• Education World (http//www.education-world.com/)
  
• Kid Info (http//www.kidinfo.com/)
• Kids Domain (http//www.kidsdomain.com)
• KidsClick! (http//sunsite.berkeley.edu/KidsClick!
  /)
• Yahooligans! (http//www.yahooligans.com)

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Subject Directories

• Hierarchically organized indexes of subject
  categories
• User can browse through lists of Websites by
  subject in search of relevant information
• Maintained by human
• May include a search engine for searching their
  own database

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Examples of Subject Directories

• INFOMINE (Academic Scholarly Subject Directory -
  http//infomine.ucr.edu/)
• LookSmart
• Lycos
• Magellan (http//www.magellan.excite.com/)
• Open Directory (http//www.dmoz.org/)
• Yahoo
• Many of these have aspects of both search and
  directory

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Specialized Subject Directory

• Guide complied by subject specialist
• List important resources in his/her area of
  expertise
• More comprehensive than general guide
• Examples
• Film Internet Movie Database (http//www.imdb.com
  /)
• Includes Clearinghouses
• Argus Clearinghouse (http//clearinghouse.net/)
• About.com
• WWW.Virtual Library (http//www.vlib.org/)

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Summary

• Subject-Specific
• The BigHub.com
• Search Engine Colossus
• Subject Directory
• LookSmart
• Lycos
• Specialized Subject Directory
• WWW.Virtual Library
• About.com

• Search Engines
• The Big Guys
• Altavista
• Google
• Yahoo
• Meta-Search Tools
• Dogpile
• MetaCrawler

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Preparing to Search

• Whats the topic, question, area of interest?
• Identify search terms to describe your topic of
  interest
• Consider synonyms (echinoderm OR echinoidea OR
  "sea urchin")
• Consider variations of terms (restaurants,
  dining, gourmet)
• See Handout Practical Steps

64
Search tips

• Enclosing a multiword phrase in quotation marks
  tells the search engine to list only sites that
  contain that exact phrase
• Example heart disease

65
Boolean Logic

• Combines search terms in many databases
• AND, OR, and NOT or () and (-)
• Must check to see if search engines use Boolean
  logic

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Boolean Logic AND
Limits your search
Oral History Women
Only returns pages with both of these terms on
them
67
Boolean Logic OR
Broadens your search
Oral History
OR
Women
Returns every page with either of these terms on
them
68
Boolean Logic NOT
Limits your search
Oral History
NOT
Women
Only returns pages that contain one but not the
other term on them
69
Wildcards

• Special Character that can be appended to the
  root of a word so you can search for all possible
  endings to that root
• Good for variant spellings and common root words
• Example
• rocket will yield rocket, rockets, rocketry
  psycholog psychology, psychological,
  psychologist
• color color and colour

70
Ctrl-F

• Follow a link to a document retrieved by a search
  engine and dont know how relevant
• Ctrl-F finds the relevant words in current
  document
• Example women El Salavdor Oral History
• Pick one link, then Ctrl-F

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Searching Summary

• Choose a search engine
• Personal preference
• Different engines for different purposes
• Syntax - quotations, Boolean logic, wildcards
• Ctrl-F to find search words
• Try to stay focused on your task