What to Know: 9 Essential Things to Know About Web Searching

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What to Know9 Essential Things to Know About
Web Searching

• Janet Eke
• Graduate School of Library and Information
  Science
• University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana
• ?2003

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Topics

• 3 Essential Conceptual Things to Know About the
  Web.
• 3 Essential Practical Things to Know About
  General-purpose Search Tools.
• 3 Essential Useful Tips to Know About Search
  Strategy.

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3 Essential Conceptual Things to Know About the
Web
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What to know Web concepts

• 1. Understand basic context and structure.
• Know what the World Wide Web is.

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Key Terms Defined

• The Internet is a global network of computers.
• The World Wide Web is a service running on the
  Internet.
• it is the name given to a collection of documents
  stored on computers connected to the Internet
• these documents are written in a markup language
  (usually HTML) and characterized by hypertext
  links

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Key Terms Defined

• A web browser is a piece of software.
• its purpose is to read and display web pages

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Key Terms Defined

• To search the web, we use search tools accessed
  via web pages.
• Search tools may be as simple as a list of links,
  or as complicated as a large database of
  information gathered from web pages.

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HTML tags define document structure
Web browser software interprets HTML and displays
page
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What to know Web concepts

• 2. Know the basic types of general-purpose
  search tools and how they work.
• search engines versus subject directories

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Basic Web Search Tools

• Both Subject Directories and Search Engines offer
  access via a web page to a database of
  information about web sites.
• The information in their databases, however, and
  the way this information is gathered, organized
  and maintained, is very different.

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Subject Directories

• A subject directory searches a human-compiled
  database of web sites, organized into subject
  categories.
• The database includes the name and URL of the web
  site, plus a brief description.
• The database does NOT include individual web
  pages within the site.

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Search Engines

• A search engine searches a computer-compiled
  database of information about individual web
  pages. There are no subject categories. No
  human examines the web sites.
• The database includes detailed information from
  the web site -- in some cases every word on every
  page is indexed in others only selected portions
  are indexed.

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Directories VS Engines
UI LIS Current Clips http//www.lis.uiuc.edu/clip
s/2002_12.html
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What to know Web concepts

• 3. Bear in mind the implications of the
  structure of the Web environment and its search
  tools.
• Web sources must be carefully evaluated.
• Everything is NOT on the Web.
• There is no such thing as a live Web search.
• There is no such thing as a fully comprehensive
  Web search.

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3 Essential Practical Things to Know About
General-purpose Search Tools
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General-purpose Search Tools

• 1. Know when directory results may be more
  useful than search engine results, and vice versa.

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Directories VS Engines
UI LIS Current Clips http//www.lis.uiuc.edu/clip
s/2002_12.html
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E.g., Yahoo!
Search keywords here
Or browse subject categories here
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Search Results 5 types
Types of results
Yahoo Directory category matches
Blends site results from Google and Yahoo
Directory
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Search Results Directory only
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Yahoo Directory Site
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Google Directory
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Example

• Find major earthquake engineering research
  centres.

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Category view
Annotated directory entries
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General-purpose Search Tools

• 2. Know advanced search features and syntax,
  such as search engine math.

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Basic Search Syntax

• Searching Phrases
• searches enclosed terms as a phrase
• Example
• Find source and completion of quotation
  beginning went down to the station to look for
  her there

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Without Quotation Marks
First results NOT relevant. Terms are scattered
in documents.
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Search terms as a phrase
Enclose terms in quotes to search as a phrase.
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Full album is in one web page
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Use browser to search page
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Use browser to search page
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Use browser to search page
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Basic Search Syntax

• -- include term
• - -- exclude term
• -- truncation symbol (AltaVista)
• allows for 5 characters at end of word
• use to search plurals / alternate endings
• e.g., computer retrieves computers,
  computerized, etc.

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Advanced Search Syntax

• Field searching
• Format
• fieldnameTERM

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Advanced Search Syntax

• Field Searching Examples
• titledrucker searches for drucker only in
  title of web page (Google intitle)
• urlhoovers searches for hoovers anywhere in
  the web address (Google inurl)
• domainca searches for ca (canada) only in
  the domain portion of the web address
• linkwww.hoovers.com searches for pages that
  link to www.hoovers.com
• lyrics sitej-tull.com searches for the word
  lyrics within the site www.j-tull.com (Google)

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Example

• Search for Canadian federal election results.
• federal election domainca
• retrieves documents containing BOTH the phrase
  federal election in the text, and the domain
  ca in the web address

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Example

• Search for a good list of international phone
  directories.
• we already know a good Canadian online phone
  directory
• strategy see what other sites link to it
• linkcanada411.sympatico.ca

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Google Search
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Google Search
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Google Search
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Listing of Web Phone Dirs.
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Google Advanced Search
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General-purpose Search Tools

• 3. Know where to go to learn more quickly.
• what search tools are out there?
• what are their advanced features?
• where do they get their results?
• is there a more specialised search tool for my
  topic?

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Search Engine Watchwww.searchenginewatch.com
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Search Engine Watchwww.searchenginewatch.com
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Search Engine WatchSearch Features Charts
http//www.searchenginewatch.com/facts/ataglance.h
tml
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Search Engine Showdownwww.searchengineshowdown.co
m
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Search Engine ShowdownSearch Tool In-depth
Reviews
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3 Essential Useful Tips to Know About Search
Strategy
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Search Strategy

• 1. For some topics, consider using
  general-purpose search tools to search for
  sources, not for directly for content.

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Example

• What is the provenance of the Leonardo da Vinci
  painting Virgin of the Rocks in the National
  Gallery (UK)?

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Direct search in Google
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Direct search in Google
Results may be useful. Need to examine and
evaluate individually. No source stands out as
useful for future provenance searches.
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Search for general topic, to find source
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Search for general topic, to find source
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Search Strategy

• 2. Find expert sources by asking yourself, Who
  cares about this topic?

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The Who Cares? strategy

• Ask Who cares about this?
• Rather than searching for the info needed, find
  out if someone has already gathered it together
  for you
• identify a likely organisation and its web site
• use specialised tools to find guru pages and
  subject guides

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Strategy Who cares?

• Is there an organisation or person interested in
  this problem?
• Is there a government agency responsible for
  collecting or disseminating this info?
• Would a trade association be interested on behalf
  of its members?
• Has a university department or independent
  scholar or hobbyist created a subject guide?

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Example

• Where can I find coal production statistics for
  the US?

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Example

• Where can I find coal production statistics for
  the US?
• Who cares?
• United States Geologic Survey (USGS)
• often government agencies are responsible for
  compiling statistics

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Government Agency
US Geologic Survey publishes the Minerals
Yearbook. Sample Coal Product statistics
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Search Strategy

• 3. Build a core collection of specialised search
  tools beyond general-purpose subject directories
  and search engines.
• collect sites useful for searching your subject
  area
• develop a workable way to organise and access them

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http//www.census.gov
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Powermarks bookmark utility -- creates searchable
database of bookmarked sites easy to organise,
weed, and search.
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Powermarks bookmark utility -- creates searchable
database of bookmarked sites easy to organise,
weed, and search.
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Summary

• 3 Essential Conceptual Things to Know about the
  Web
• Know what it is know basic definitions and
  components involved.
• Know that there are two basic types of
  general-purpose search tools, and how they work.
• Bear in mind implications of structure for how
  searches work, and limitations of the Web.

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Summary

• 3 Essential Practical Things to Know about
  General Purpose Search Tools
• Know when directory results may be more useful
  than search engine results, and vice versa.
• Know advanced search features and syntax, such as
  search engine math.
• Know where to go to quickly learn more.

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Summary

• 3 Essential Useful Tips to Know About Search
  Strategy
• Consider using general-purpose search tools to
  search for sources, not for directly for content.
• Find expert sources by asking yourself, Who cares
  about this topic?
• Build a core collection of specialised search
  tools beyond general-purpose subject directories
  and search engines.