Tips and Tricks to Find Internet Information Quick and Effectively This material was developed for the exclusive use of USD 233 staff. Copies can be made for instructional purposes in USD 233 only. Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without written permission from USD 233

 Virtually any person can publish almost anything on the Internet.  Unlike most print sources, web sources do not have to be professionally accepted and edited to be published.

 Informative pages  Personal web pages  Political/interest group pages  Marketing-oriented or “infomercial” pages  Entertainment pages

 Internet: A global network connecting millions of computers  URL (“Web Address”): Universal Resource Locator  Domain: the part of the URL that identifies and calls up the specific computer on the Web that stores the information you requested  Registered Domain name: the three-letter suffix that is part of a URL.  Keyword: the word(s) or phrase(s) you enter into a search engine's search field

◦.com – commercial use (unrestricted) ◦.net – network associated entities (unrestricted) ◦.org – organizations (unrestricted) ◦.gov – government use ◦.mil – U.S. military ◦.edu – educational institutions ◦.biz – for businesses ◦.info – for informative Web sites ◦.museum – museums ◦.name – for individual or personal websites ◦.pro – professionals ◦.au - country designations are usually country abbreviations

 Search engines ◦ Metasearch engines  Search directories ◦ Invisible web

 Similar to the index in the back of a book  Let you search for specific words and topics from a data base  Use robots known as spiders to search for information.  Sites in database not evaluated

 Google: http//:  KidRex:  Wolfram Alpha:  Clusty:  All the Web:  Bing:

 Sends your search terms to several other search engines at once.  Gives an overview of a topic across the Internet.  Shallow search. Only searches the top 2-3 pages of a search engines database

 Turboscout:  Ixquick:  Yippy:  Surfwax:

 Similar to the table of contents at the front of a book  Allows searching for concepts or subject categories  Go from general to specific.  Sites are evaluated and added by people.

 Kidtopia:  Sweet Search:  Infomine:  Internet Public Library:  Dibdabdoo:  Fact Monster:  Kids Click:

 Search Engine:  lots of information  a specific information need  specific key words  Search Directory:  a general information need  vague idea of key words  finding higher quality information  Noodle Tools: Site that gives information on how to best chose what type of search tool to use. Noodle Tools:

 Before you begin searching create lists of keywords that describe your topic.  Use a thesaurus to stimulate your word choice.  Generate synonyms for the concept.  Use search engines that provide a list of related terms along with the results of your first search.  Sortfix Sortfix

 Use the professional vocabulary of the subject you are investigating to create keywords.  Choose words that are unique and descriptive.  Look in the documents returned by the first query.  Upper and lower case  Spelling

 Some engines give more weight to the first keyword in a query.  Try varying the order of keywords. Example: Which keywords will return the most hits: blues music or music blues

 Hits are returned and ranked according to-- ◦ How many times terms appear on the page ◦ How often terms appear ◦ How close terms are to each other ◦ How near the top of the page the terms are found  The best results will appear on the first page or two of hits  No two search tools are alike. Try another search engine, or rephrase your terms if you don’t get good results.

 A query is made up of the keywords that describe your topic and the arrangement of those keywords using operators that focus the retrieval process. AND Requires all terms to appear somewhere in the document, in any order. Example: curriculum AND high AND school + Requires all terms to appear somewhere in the document, in any order. Example: +curriculum+high+school " Requires all terms within the quotation marks to appear in the order written. Creates a highly specific phrase. Example: "high school curriculum" NOT Excludes documents containing whatever follows it. Example: high school curriculum not.com - Excludes documents containing whatever follows it. Example: high school curriculum-.com OR Includes any page with at least one of the terms. Example: high OR school OR curriculum

Example

“On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog.” The above cartoon by Peter Steiner has been reproduced from page 61 of July 5, 1993 issue of The New Yorker, (Vol.69 (LXIX) no. 20)only for academic discussion, evaluation, research and complies with the copyright law of the United States as defined and stipulated under Title 17 U. S. Code.The New Yorker,

Hypertext Transfer Protocol World Wide Web Tilde symbol indicates this is a personal page Indicates the folder the information is saved in Specific page in directory folder Owner and Domain name

  Based on the domain name in the following addresses, which site that would probably contain the more useful information for an authorative information?

 Currency  Reliability  Authority  Purpose / Point of View

 How recent is the information?  How recently has the website been updated?  Is it current enough for your topic?  Find the history of a site by going to Way Back Machine

 What kind of information is included in the resource?  Is content of the resource primarily opinion? Is it balanced?  Does the creator provide references or sources for data or quotations?

 Who is the creator or author?  What are the credentials?  Who is the published or sponsor?  Are they reputable?  What is the publisher's interest (if any) in this information?  Are there advertisements on the website?  Go to to find publisher of the sitehttp://

 Is this fact or opinion?  Is it biased?  Is the creator/author trying to sell you something?

 Use the best search tool for the job  Read search tool instructions and use the advanced search feature  Use more than one search tool  Choose unique keywords and put your most important terms or words first  Evaluate the source  Know when to look somewhere else