Slide No. 1 Searching the Web H Search engines and directories H Locating these resources H Using these resources H Interpreting results H Locating specific text on a Web page H Extras

Slide No. 2 Challenge n The Web contains millions of pages on just about any topic. n Hundreds of new pages appear each day n Need to sift through information n Use the Web tools call search engines and directories

Slide No. 3 Search Engines and Directories n Are actually Web pages n been designed for helping you find what your looking for n A search engine uses a bottom-up strategy n A directory uses a top-down approach n A directory is also called a navigational guide

Slide No. 4 Search Engines n Rely on you to provide the search parameters n begin with a specific word or phrase

Slide No. 5 New Problem for Search Engines n Now many pages are created dynamically – how can you catalog these pages n All the new multimedia formats and cataloging these

Slide No. 6 Directories n Provide a number of topics from which to choose. n Select a top-level category and work through sub-menus until you find your specific requirements n Great many directories, some limited to a particular topic, some cover the entire Internet

Slide No. 7 Finding Search Engines n Click the flashlight on the browser’s tool bar n In Netscape this page is called the Netscape Net Search page n There are a number of search services listed on this page

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Slide No. 9 Using the Search Engines n You can perform a search directly from the Net Search page using any of the search services display on the tabs. n Alternatively, you can jump directly to the home page of any of these services using the links provided by Netscape

Slide No. 10 Using Infoseek n Most search engines are functionally very similar, so once you learned to use one, learning others will be a easy. n Most search engines provide a tutorial. Infoseek’ s page has a hyperlink Tips that will help with the syntax used by Infoseek.

Slide No. 11 Searching Example n Search for job opportunities in your field n Typed employment in the Infoseek field on the Net Search page. n Hit the Seek button n Searches for the word “employment” among the Web pages currently indexed in its database (this changes daily)

Slide No. 12 Searching Example n Generally, the header, description, and body of documents are searched. n Different search engines perform the searches differently. n Searches can result in hundreds or hundreds of thousand of “hits”. n Because employment is a fairly common word - ~ 400,000 matches

Slide No. 13 Searching Example n The results page displays the first ten documents on that list. n A text link near the top and bottom of search results pages that allows you view the next ten (or the previous ten). n Percentage-based relevance ranking beside each hit.

Slide No. 14 Smart Searches n Use more search words n Use quotes to enclose phrases n Capitalize names and titles n Exclude words n Learn basic Boolean

Slide No. 15 Use More Search Words n Say you wanted pictures of Jupiter n then your search words should at least include pictures and Jupiter n use: n Jupiter AND planets AND pictures n (since Jupiter was also a Roman god and want to eliminate these pages)

Slide No. 16 Use Quotes to Enclose Phrases n When you are searching for a phrase such as solar system, enclose the entire phrase in double (not single) quotation marks. n Forces the engine to find words adjacent to each other.

Slide No. 17 Capitalize Names and Titles n When you are searching for people and places or titles of movies or books, capitalize them. n Most search engines interpret capital letters as a request for an exact case match. Other wise treated like any group of words. - rock hudson would find rock climbing, rock music, Hudson river, etc.

Slide No. 18 Exclude Words n You can exclude a word from a query with a - (minus) sign or NOT command. n A query such as cats NOT dogs, ignores pages where both animals are mentioned.

Slide No. 19 Learn Basic Boolean n A Boolean search is a query with multiple words separated by AND, OR and NOT. n When entering searching such as medieval superstition, actually creating a Boolean query, since most engines invisibly add the OR operator as they comb their databases

Slide No. 20 Learn Basic Boolean n OR returns pages with either of the keywords n And returns only those pages that include both keywords n Not returns those pages that does not include the keyword

Slide No. 21 A Directory Example n Use Excite n Excite qualifies as both a search engine and directory (so is Infoseek) n looking for job opportunities n Select Business topic n Select Jobs from Business subtopics n Select Job Banks from Jobs subtopics

Slide No. 22 Searching for Text on a Web Page n After a search and following several links, end up with screens full of information n You can scroll through the entire page and skim the text or you can use the find tool.

Slide No. 23 Using Find n Click Find button (binoculars) on the browser’s toolbar or on the Edit menu n Type the word or phrase in the Find what text box. n Click the Down radio button to search the document from the insertion point to the end of the document. n Click the Find Next for more n Click the Cancel to close the dialog box

Slide No. 24 Using the History Log n Netscape tracks the URL of every Web page you visit on the Go menu. n The history log is a list of sites that you have visited since launching Netscape. n From the history log you can jump to a visited URL. n Easier than clicking the Back button

Slide No. 25 Other “Focused” Searches n Lycos’ PeopleFind n Inside of PeopleFind, Reverse Find, n enter a phone number, tells you who it belongs to

Slide No. 26 Generated and Human Lists n Those lists of massive matches are normally generated by a computer program. A program goes through the Web and determines if the words in your search are on a Web page. n Yahoo works differently

Slide No. 27 Yahoo Index n Every Web page which is included in the Yahoo index is added by a human. n Each Web pages is humanly read and classified under a category. n Thus Yahoo search will be more discriminating but also incomplete in that the newest pages are probably not classified yet.

Slide No. 28 Questions