Internet Search Strategies
Nearly everyone who uses the Internet has had the frustrating experience
of doing a web search and being flooded with hundreds of results. By
choosing the appropriate search engine, controlling the terms that you
search for, and using a few tricks, you can make Internet searching
faster and more efficient.
Agenda
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Understand your own search habits: What do you typically
search for? What search engines do you use? What search strategies
have you experimented with? What frustrations--and successes--have
you had and why?
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Understand the options: What are the differences between
a subject directory, search engine, and meta-search engine? Under
which circumstances would you favor one over the other? What features
do different search engines offer? How do different search engines
work? Which is the all-around best?
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Understand how to perform pointed searches that yield useful
results: What vocabulary should you use in performing searches?
How can you search for specific phrases? How can you tell the search
engine to look for two related terms together, or to exclude certain
terms?
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Understand how to keep track of what you've found and where
you've been: How can you keep from having to hit the back button
dozens of times to get the original search results? How can you
move to higher level information? How can you judge the credibility
of an Internet source?
The Different Kinds of Search Tools
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A subject directory "offers a collection of links to Internet
resources submitted by site creators or evaluators and organized
into subject categories." Subject directories are useful when you
are conducting general research or want to find resources recommended
by experts and evaluators.
Examples include:
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In contrast, a search engine is "a searchable database of
Internet files collected by a computer program." Use a search engine
when you are looking for a particular web site, have a specific
research question, or are looking for the most current information
(see Searching the Internet).
Examples include:
-
Meta-search engines send searches to several search engines
at once, then build the results into a coherent results pages.
Examples include:
-
Natural Language Engines allow you to ask questions in ordinary
language: "What is a screech owl?" or "When did Hank Williams die?"
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Specialized search engines enable you to narrow your search
to a particular discipline and profile web sites of particular interest.
See an extensive listing of specialized search engines, see Search
Engine Colossus (http://www.searchenginecolossus.com/).
Evaluating Search Engines
Spend a little time testing how a few different search engines work.
Which seems to return the most accurate results? Which has the most
appealing features? If your search engine allows advanced as well as
simple searches, what are the differences between the two?
Different search engines allow you to restrict your search by format
(audio, video, image, etc), geographic location, date, language, and
so forth. To figure out which search engine is best suited to what you
are looking for, try Chris Sherman's Interactive Search Wizard (http://websearch.about.com/internet/websearch/library/weekly/aa022900a.htm).
For a comprehensive list comparing the capabilities of various search
engines, check out How to Choose a Search Engine or Directory by the University of
Albany Library.
In general, the most recommended general search engines seem to be:
Google , the emerging
favorite among techies (http://www.google.com); Microsoft Networks (http://www.msn.com/);
Yahoo (http://www.yahoo.com); and Hotbot (http://hotbot.lycos.com/).
See, for instance, the CNET rankings of the Top Five Search Sites.
Useful Searching Techniques
Let's try out some techniques that will allow us to tailor our searches.
We'll use altavista (http://www.altavista.com/).
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Field searching: You can restrict your search to particular
fields within a web pages, which should narrow your results. For
instance, say you want to find a web page that is about the Lone
Ranger, and you suspect that you would get more accurate results
by looking only within the title. Search for:
Example: title: lone ranger
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Wildcard searches: If you don't want to exclude terms that
end with s, ing, etc, use a wildcard search by truncating the search
term with a *
Example: Tex* gets Texas, Texan (but watch out: it will
also get textile and text, and so forth)
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Phrase searching: To find exact terms, use quotation marks.
Example: "Blue Suede Shoes"
Boolean Searches
In the nineteenth century, the British mathematician George
Boole developed a new algebra of logic that has become fundamental
to the design of digital circuits--and to sophisticated web searching.
You can use Boolean logic and other strategies to perform more exact
searches. Do keep in mind that not every search engine will support
the features mentioned below; check Search Engine Features for Searchers for a quick overview of which
search engine supports what.
For an explanation of Boolean logic, see the primer provided by the University of Albany Library. Note: On some search engines,
Boolean terms (AND, OR, NOT) must be CAPITALIZED or they may be excluded
from the search.
Let's try out Boolean searching on HotBot (http://hotbot.lycos.com/).
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Match any (OR): Retrieves records in which at least one
search term is present. Use this search when several related terms
are relevant to your research topic. Say that you want to find everything
you can about dogs, but you know they are also called canines.
Example: dog OR canine
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Match all (AND): Retrieves records in which both search
terms are present. Use this method when you want to examine the
relationship between ideas. In many Boolean search engines, you
can use + rather than AND. Say that you want to find out about George
Bush in Texas
Example: Bush AND Texas
or Bush + Texas
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Exclude (NOT): Excludes specified term from the search.
For instance, you could search on "cowboy NOT football" if you wanted
to exclude the Dallas Cowboys football team from your search. In
many Boolean search engines, you can use - rather than NOT. Say
that you want to find out about the Texas Rangers, but not the baseball
team
Example: "Texas Rangers" NOT baseball
or "Texas Rangers" -baseball
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Combinations: You can combine the search strategies. Say
you're searching for information on Star Trek, but not those newer
shows:
Example: "star trek" -voyager -"deep space nine" -"next
generation"
Advanced Search Engines If this Boolean business seems too complicated, try using the "advanced"
option offered by many search engines.
Let's look at some features of advanced (or "Power") searches:
General Hints:
- Define what you are searching for.
Before you rush into a complex search, it's not a bad idea to jot
down what it is you are searching for. Draw key words from your
notes as you set up your search.
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Narrow down your search by using specific terms
Perhaps the most important principle is be specific. If
you want to look for information about the Love Bug computer virus,
don't just search for "love" or "bug" or "virus": try out all of
the terms. Nouns usually get better results than verbs; prepositions
and articles are typically dropped out of searches altogether, unless
you they are in a quoted phrase.
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Word variations
Internet searching rewards good spelling. If you're not sure how
a word is spelled, or if it's spelled different ways in different
cultures, try variants: "color" and "colour." Speaking of variations,
try searching for synonyms: "blue" for a general term, "cyan" and
"azure" to get more specific.
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The Find Command: To quickly judge the relevance of a page,
jump to the key word for which you searched. Once you call up the
page in the browser, go to the file menu, select find, and enter
the term that you are looking for (alternatively, you can hit control
f and follow the same process).
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Opening new windows: Have you ever followed the long trail
of links through a site, only to realize that you have to hit the
"back" button a half million times to return to your search results?
Avoid this annoyance by opening up a new window when you call up
one of the links you discovered through your search. If you are
using a PC, right click on the link, then choose "Open in a New
Window"; if you are using a Mac, hold down the mouse button and
pull over the "Open in a New Window" menu option.
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Finding top level pages: If you land in the middle of a
web site and want to find your way to the home page, chop off part
of the web address. For instance, you can go from
http://www.rice.edu/Fondren/ETC/about.html/ to
http://www.rice.edu/
to discover the top level Rice page.
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Follow the links. Often sites will feature links to other
useful sites. By following the links, you can discover resources
that you didn't even know you were looking for...
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Learn from your searches. Ask yourself how you can modify
your search based upon what you learned from your initial results.
If you don't get what you are looking for, try entering more or
different terms. If you find a site that is relevant, try to cull
some key words from it to use in new searches.
Do keep in mind that searching is not necessarily a science; embrace
the uncertainty, and see what you find.
Evaluating Internet Resources
Note: This section of the document is taken directly
from Fondren Library's Internet Searching Strategies (http://www.rice.edu/Fondren/Netguides/strategies.html).
- Look at the URL to determine what type of organization produced
the site.
- .com is a commercial site.
- .edu is an academic site.
- .gov is a government site.
- .org is usually a non-profit organization.
- .net is a networked service provider.
- .mil is a military site.
Country/Region-Specific Domain names:
- A list of various domains such as .uk (United Kingdom) and .de
(Germany) are available from NORID (http://www.uninett.no/navn/domreg.html)
Remember that a page's country/region of origin does not imply
that the page is about that country/region or that it is written
in the native language(s) of that country/region.
- Look at the URL to determine who produced the site (or who posted
it, at least).
- ~name is usually someone's name, or part of their name.
- You can try to look them up by partial name and institution
in WhoWhere? (www.whowhere.com).
- Consider the following questions.
- Is an author listed?
- What are the credentials of the author?
- Is there a bias or a commercial interest?
- Who is the intended audience of the page?
- How current is the information?
- Are references, citations, or links to other resources included?
The challenge:
Ready to apply what we've learned? You've heard that Lycos compiles a
list of the top fifty web searches conducted on its site. What is number
1 on this list?
Hints: Try the search out on a couple of different search engines.
Start out just using a couple of terms, then experiment with adding
more terms, using quotation marks, and employing Boolean logic. Does
it matter if you use "50" instead of "fifty"?
Hints II: If you're having no luck, try adding a few more words.
You recall sort of vaguely that the name of the person who compiles
the listing of the top 50 is Aaron Schatz.
Use one of the following search engines:
Know everything there is to know about web searching now? Play the
Who Wants to be a Super Searcher? game (http://websearch.about.com/internet/websearch/library/weekly/aa081500a.htm).
References
Many of the strategies and examples in this lesson have been drawn
from two sources:
