2007 WICSEC Conference September 30th - October 4th, 2007 Internet Research Techniques Moderator: Michael Samal Presenters: Tamera Cleveland & Matthew Bobo September 30th - October 4th, 2007 Internet Research Techniques Moderator: Michael Samal Presenters: Tamera Cleveland & Matthew Bobo

Topics for Discussion Useful research sites Use of “keywords” –What keywords to use –Use of multiple keywords –Not giving up! Basic Search Commands Using “cached” and “highlighter” –Finding exactly what you are looking for –Speeding up your searching ability Searching Groups and Blogs Free useful tools on the internet Questions

Useful Research Sites The following sites could be valuable tools for daily work: Search Engines – – – (performs searches on top 10 internet search engines simultaneously) – Find Businesses/Phone numbers – – – – (Better Business Bureau) – – –

Useful Research Sites Find Industry Related Information: – (Medicaid/Medicare) – – (Child Support) Find State Policy/Procedures/Laws – (US Dept of Labor) – – – Find Social Security Resources – – – Find Healthcare Providers – s/default.asphttp:// s/default.asp – p&langpref=en&site_id=docfindhttp:// p&langpref=en&site_id=docfind –

Useful Research Sites Find Locations – – – Miscellaneous Resources

Use of “keywords” When using Keywords specifics is everything, for example: –If you are searching for men’s handmade Italian leather shoes don’t just search for shoes, or leather shoes. Shoes is way too general and it will take you forever to find what you’re looking for. –Try keywords in different orders and use different phrases with the same meaning, for example if you are searching for “professional golfers” and it does not yield the results you want then try “PGA golfers” or “expert golfers” and this may find what you are looking for Don’t give up! –Sometimes you will find what you are looking for immediately; other times it may take you 45 minutes. 99% of the time you can find what you are looking for if you just take your time and READ or try different keywords.

Basic Search Commands Techniques for narrowing down your search –If you are searching for terms with multiple words such as: Internet Service Provider this phrase should be put in “ “ so that the search engine doesn’t search on all 3 words separately. –If you want to search for a one word term along with a multiple word term your search should look like this: Idaho “Internet Service Provider” –If you want to have definitely one term and one of two or more other terms, you group them with parentheses, like this: Idaho (Boise or “Internet Service Provider”) –If you want to specify that a query item must not appear in your results, use a -.(minus sign or dash) such as: Idaho “Internet Service Provider” - Boise

Basic Search Commands Intitle: –This command restricts your search to the titles of web pages for example: intitle:”health insurance” will bring up all web pages with the word “Health Insurance” in the title. Inurl: –This command restricts your search to the Uniform Resource Locator (URL’s) of web pages for example: inurl:”Health Insurance” will bring up all web addresses with the word “Health Insurance” in the URL Site: –This command allows you to narrow your search by either a site or a top-level domain examples of this would be: site:org, site:edu, site:ak.gov, site:id.us –You can also use site to exclude certain domains from your search such as: bill gates -site:microsoft.com

Basic Search Commands Filetype: –This command searches the suffixes or filename extensions such as: “the war of 1812” filetype:pdf Define: –This command will define any word that follows it such as: define:amphibians Numrange –If you want to search for a range of numbers then you can use two dots (without spaces) to represent a range of numbers for example: “world series champions” Safesearch –This word before a search will exclude any adult-content that might result in that search

Basic Search Commands Other cool functions –There are a few other things that may come in handy at times, neat functions that your main search engines will perform (mostly Microsoft search or Google) things such as: You can ask: how many cups in a gallon You can ask: how many feet in a mile You can ask: how many inches in a yard You can ask: how many megabytes in a gigabyte –You can also have the search engine perform complex mathematical calculations such as: (((8 * 9) + 15) * 145) / 3

Using “Cached” and “Highlighter” The Cached function when doing searches comes in handy because it takes you directly to where on the website the keyword(s) were located. Highlighter gives you the ability to highlight all keywords on a webpage you are currently viewing. Highlighter also lets you search for one keyword out of multiple keywords searched on, similar to the “Find Next” function in most Microsoft Office software.

Searching Groups and Blogs Groups and Weblogs or “Blogs” can also yield useful information –Groups are message boards where users can have posted discussions on any topic they would like. –Blogs are free websites that people can post information, pictures, links, etc…on any topic(s) they would like Searching Groups and Blogs: –Google and Yahoo have the biggest group message boards on the web and are usually the best to search through –Google (Blogger), Yahoo (GeoCities) and Microsoft (Spaces) have the biggest Blog sites and are used all over the world

Other Useful Free Internet Tools Google Toolbar: –Very useful tool that enables you to search a term you run across while on any webpage Google Desktop Search: –This tool will index your entire desktop all files on your PC and any file you’ve viewed and the location of it on your network as well as all s in your Outlook including archived s Google Web Accelerator: –If you have a slow web browser this tool will help speed it up If for some reason you think these tools would be useful to you and you do not have access to load them onto your computer let your supervisor know.

Questions Any Questions?