Shayna Keces

1
Basic Internet Search Techniques

• Or
• How to really find information on the internet

August 2004
2
Agenda

• Size of Internet
• Types of search engines
• Search strategies
• Some hints on selecting search strategies
• Interpretation of search results
• Tutorials on searching and search engines

3
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 databases
• Google 4.28 billion
• Fast (alltheweb) 2.1 billion
• AltaVista 1.1 billion
• Yahoo 2 million catalogued

4
Search strategies

• Do not
• use search button
• use a string of keywords without specifying
  Boolean properties
• use upper case unless part of strategy
• use NOT or - unless absolutely sure is necessary
• elimination of unanticipated pages
• format is non standardized

5
Search Strategies

• Do
• Consider 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 better
• Stick to small list of search engines and learn
  the search syntax for the search engine youre
  using

6
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

7
Keyword or robot based Search Engines

• Large database of web pages
• No human involvement and no quality control
• Can submit website or will find some on own
• Searches full text to certain level, does not
  search deep or invisible web
• Google (www.google.com)
• Alta Vista (www.altavista.com)
• Fast (www.alltheweb.com)
• Wisenut (www.wisenut.com)

8
Google (www.google.com)

• Presently largest database (ca. 4 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
• If you want or needs to be expressed in caps
• not case sensitive

9
Google (www.google.com) cont.

• no stemming or truncation (except on ad hoc basis
  controlled by Google.
• description shows keywords in context
• cached pages helpful for sites not working
• Searches some formats not found in other search
  engines (eg. Adobe acrobat and postscript files,
  Excel, Powerpoint, and Word files as well as rich
  text files.)
• Innovative in new features (eg. ability to
  convert measurements, eg. 4 miles in km) See
  www.google.ca/help/features.html for a
  description of features.

10
AltaVista (www.altavista.com)

• One of larger search engines (1.3 billion
  pages/objects or more)
• Particularly good for finding less popular sites
• Implied and but noted for changing
• Case sensitive when word is in quotations
• Stemming with at end or in middle of words
• Has related terms which helps you focus your
  search

11
AltaVista Advanced Search

• Has build a Boolean search facility or can
  create your own
• Can specify pages be from certain country based
  on country codes so will not include .com etc.
• Can specify dates of last modification

12
Directory-based Search Engines

• Indexed by individuals so subject searches will
  be more accurate
• Smaller database than Robot engines
• Used mainly for finding good site on general
  topic
• Yahoo (www.yahoo.com or ca.yahoo.com)
• About (about.com )
• Looksmart (www.looksmart.com)

13
Yahoo (ca.yahoo.com)

• Most popular of directory based search engines
• Many different versions (international have same
  pages as others but local options are supplied
  first)
• Now has own web search which is competing with
  Googles
• Can search by categories and sub-categories

14
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
• Librarians Index to the Internet (lii.org)
• The Internet Public Library (www.ipl.org/)

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Librarians Index to the Internet (lii.org)

• Topical list of high quality websites with
  abstracts and qualitative analysis
• Can willow down by topic or use search capability
• Only websites which meet the standards of the
  editors are included
• Provides date site was added to index as well as
  date the lii entry was last updated

16
Meta indexes

• One site searches more than one search engine
• Results can be separated or combined
• Sometimes a problem in interpreting question
  equally effectively for all search engines
• Used if not sure which search engine will give
  you best results and/or for obscure topics

17
Meta indexes examples

• Dogpile (www.dogpile.com)
• Metacrawler (www.metacrawler.com/index.html)
• Surfwax (www.surfwax.com)
• Hotbot (www.hotbot.com)

18
Specialized Search Engines

• Geographic based (www.altavistacanada.com,
  http//www.ottawastart.com/
• Phone directories (canada411.sympatico.ca/,
  www.infospace.com/canada/index.htm)
• Newsgroup searching (groups.google.com)
• News searching (news.google.ca)
• Womens information (wwwomen.com)
• Different formats (www.gimpsy.com/,
  www.kartoo.com/)

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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.c
  om/

20
Some hints on selecting search strategies

• For any page on general topic to which 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
• For a specific web page that would not
  necessarily be popular try Alta Vista or Google

21
Some hints on selecting search strategies cont.

• For health topics try a health website engine
  like www.medbroadcast.com or the Canadian Health
  Network www.canadian-health-network.ca/customtools
  /homee.html, or the librarys health database,
  Health Source (www.library.ottawa.on.ca/electronic
  /index.htm), or the health links on the librarys
  web page (www.library.ottawa.on.ca/english/links/
  PublicAdults/index.htm).

22
Some hints on selecting search strategies cont.

• For very obscure topic topic try Google or Alta
  Vista or one of meta indexes
• For items in databases, try to find the correct
  host or search a special site for invisible
  websites (eg. www.invisible-web.net/)

23
Interpretation of search results

• Look at results and reformat search using things
  like searching within results, Prisma and adding
  new keywords.
• Analytically choose which sites to look at in
  result list
• Anatomy of URL domain type of name, I.e. the
  name or organization followed by the type of
  organization. Some popular suffixes are
• .com for commercial sites, .edu for university
  sites (mainly American), .org for non-profit
  organizations, .gov for U.S. government sites,
  and .gc.ca for Canadian government sites.

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Interpretation of search results cont.

• Consider things like the authority of the author,
  the currency of the information, and the reason
  for creating the website (implications for bias)
• Do not look through pages and pages of results.
  If the first three pages are not promising refine
  the search (see the first point on interpreting
  the results).

25
Some useful tutorials for searching

• See Learning to search section of Collection
  of special search engines (appears under contents
  on left-hand side of the page)
• www.leidenuniv.nl/ub/biv/specials.htm
• Web searching tips www.searchenginewatch.com/facts
  /index.html
• Net tutor (gateway.lib.ohio-state.edu/tutor/les5/)
  

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Some useful tutorials for searching cont.

• In the links section of the Ottawa Public
  Librarys web site, (www.library.ottawa.on.ca/engl
  ish/links/PublicAdults/index.htm), look under the
  category WWW under the subcategory Internet

27
To find more info on search engines

• Searchenginewatch (www.searchenginewatch.com)
• Searchengineshowdown (www.searchengineshowdown.com
  )

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For More Help on Searching

• Contact the Reference Dept. of the Main Branch of
  OPL by phoning 236-0302, ext. 233, or email
  ref_at_library.ottawa.on.ca
• Consult this web page or other specialized web
  presentations on the librarys web page at
  http//www.library.ottawa.on.ca/english/services/r
  eference/index.htm