Effective Internet Search Strategies: Search Engines & Directories Wendy E. Moore, M.S. in L.S. Acquisitions/Serials Librarian University of Georgia School of Law Library Internet Legal Research – ICLE May 8, 2003

Searching the Web… Choosing the RIGHT tool for your SPECIFIC information need… To become an effective searcher, look at:  Basic Concepts and Terms  Major Categories of Search Tools, including the BEST available tools for each

What is a “search engine?” “search engine” is often used as a generic term describing both:  Directories – “human powered”  Search Engines – “computer software powered”

Directories…  alphabetical hierarchy of topics with links to web sites  created by human editors – who select web sites and classify them into categories and subcategories  cover only a TINY portion of the Web  sometimes include reviews/ratings of web sites  access via browsing menu categories or keyword search  record limited info about web site – NOT full-text indexing of sites  useful for finding high-quality, human reviewed web sites on broad, general topics

Search Engines…  created by computer software programs called: crawlers, robots, spiders, and worms  moves from one site to another, scanning each site it visits and recording the contents in its database  users search its database by keyword to locate web sites  cover MANY more web sites than a directory can  less consistent quality of sites than a directory  useful when you are are seeking web sites about narrow, specific topics or that mention obscure words or phrases

DIRECTORIES Organize web sites into topical categories that can be browsed easily  General Directories, both commercial and non-commercial  Legal Directories, specializing in law related topics

General Directories Commercial The one name to know in commercial directories is:YAHOO!  most popular  longevity

Yahoo!

Yahoo!

Yahoo!  Yahoo has become a good-example of a “Hybrid Search Tool”

General Directories Non-Commercial What makes non-commercial directories different?  authority of content  quality over quantity  provide access to high-quality web-based information for serious researchers

Open Directory Project  best known  content used for other directories on hundreds of sites and search engines  volunteer editors  classed over 3.8 million web sites

Librarians’ Index to the Internet  annotated subject directory  11,000 resources  can browse or search

Legal Directories Why use a specialized legal directory?  limited scope makes them easier to search than general directories or search engines  more depth of coverage  authoritative sources and editors

Legal Information Institute  non-profit, dedicated to free legal content on the Web  famed for US Supreme Court Cases  links to many resources

FindLaw  very popular – “Yahoo!” of Legal web sites  subdivisions and topics  commercial site from Thomson-West  searchable

WashLaw WEB  non-profit service to legal community  alphabetical  nearly 200 topics  practical topics  “Subject Index”

Hieros Gamos  international focus  non-profit from Lex Mundi  clear categories subdivided into topics  translated into French, German, Italian, and Spanish

AllLaw  small, practice oriented  broad divisions  “Legal Topics”  commercial site

JURIST  non-profit  topics in left side bar  “Legal Research” subdivisions  “World Law”

SEARCH ENGINES What makes one search engine different from another? Remember you are NOT searching the Web directly – instead you are searching a DATABASE of info gathered by the search engine’s crawler  SIZE – how many web pages have been scanned and recorded in its database  UP-TO-DATE – how well does the database reflect the constantly changing Web

Google  top choice  “Google it”  over 3 billion web pages  refreshed monthly  first stop when search the Web  relevance ranking based on link analysis

Google

All the Web  excellent back-up search engine  up-to-date coverage  over 2 billion web pages  refreshed 1-2 weeks  FAST search technology

Alta Vista  third option when no luck with other sites  oldest crawler-based search engine (1995)  “Google” of its day  lagged behind in size and freshness of database  Babel Fish translator

How to search a “search engine”… TIP #1 – Use more than one search engine  no search engine covers more than 20% of the Web  missing 80% of current web sites  remarkably very little overlap between search engine databases  many web sites found by only one search engine

TIP #2 – Use the “Advanced Search” page  features allow you to construct a precisely-targeted search – just like you can in Westlaw or LexisNexis  learning the specific syntax and codes to execute detailed searches can be time-consuming  bypass the introductory search page and go straight to the alternative search page – called “Advanced Search” in Google, All the Web, and AltaVista

How NOT to search a “search engine”… META-SEARCHERS/META-INDEXES  pass your search on to several search engines  better in theory than in reality  retrieves fewer results from each search engine  do not allow for “Advanced Search” features  less effective than learning a few good search engines  Ixquick, MetaCrawler, and DogPile

Legal Search Engines  created by crawling only certain sites, domains, or types of files  aim to improve relevancy over a general search engine  Look at two legal search engines:  LawCrawler  Meta-Index for U.S. Legal Research

LawCrawler

Meta-Index for U.S. Legal Research

Resources for Further Learning  Search Engine Showdown  Search Engine Watch  LLRX  The Virtual Chase: Teaching Legal Professionals How To Do Research

Finally… Learning and applying a few of the search tools mentioned will make your search for information on the Web more successful!