Copyright © Texas Education Agency, All rights reserved.1 Web Technologies Using Online Search Tools to Locate Information

What Are Search Engines A search engine is just an online database of websites. Each webpage is indexed. Information about the webpage is stored. Some search engines index every work on the page, others may index only specified keywords. 2Copyright © Texas Education Agency, All rights reserved.

How Are Pages Indexed? Search Engines use programs called spiders. Spiders go from web page to web page recording information about the page. Spiders follow the links on the web page to locate new pages to index. 3Copyright © Texas Education Agency, All rights reserved.

Searching for Information To search for information using an online search engine, enter your search query in the search field. 4Copyright © Texas Education Agency, All rights reserved.

Searching for Information The search query are the instructions to the search engine on what it should look for. Most online search engines have billions of web pages in their database and a search can sometimes return millions of results. Knowing how to eliminate the irrelevant pages makes finding your information much faster and easier. 5Copyright © Texas Education Agency, All rights reserved.

Search Strategies There are basically two types of searches Keyword Returns web pages with or without specific words. The order of the words does not matter so long as the words are included or excluded. Phrase Returns web pages with an exact of phrase. 6Copyright © Texas Education Agency, All rights reserved.

Keyword Searching Basic Keyword Searching This is the broadest search. Any page with the entered word would be returned. Generally it is best to filter your searching by eliminating pages that are not what you are looking for. 7Copyright © Texas Education Agency, All rights reserved.

Keyword Searching Boolean Search Specifies specific words to include or exclude AND, OR, NOT (upper case) Example: Business AND Ethics Will include web pages with both Business and Ethics Example: Business NOT Ethics Will include web pages that include Business and do not include the word Ethics. 8Copyright © Texas Education Agency, All rights reserved.

Keyword Searching Boolean with the plus (+) and minus (-) sign. Some search engines use the plus and minus sign instead of AND, OR, and NOT. The plus (+) sign represents AND. The minus (-) sign represents NOT. 9Copyright © Texas Education Agency, All rights reserved.

Keyword Searching Using the + and – signs When searching you can require specific words to be included in the search results preceding the word with the + sign. To eliminate page with a specific word, precede the word with the – sign. 10 +Business +Ethics +Business -Ethics Copyright © Texas Education Agency, All rights reserved.

Keyword Searching Some allow you to search for specific file types on a particular subject. Use the filetype: keyword in your search query followed by the type of file you want. Example 11 Cars filetype: pdf Copyright © Texas Education Agency, All rights reserved.

Phrase Searching Phrase searching will return pages with a specific phrase. The search engine will return pages that include the exact phrase in the search query. To conduct a phrase search, place the phrase within quotes in the search query. 12 “Business Ethics” Copyright © Texas Education Agency, All rights reserved.

File Type Searching Sometimes you may want to find a specific type of file, such as a presentation, or PDF file. The filetype: operator will limit returns to only the file type you specify. The filetype: operator should be placed at the beginning of the search query followed by the keyworks Example: 13 filetype: pdf cars Copyright © Texas Education Agency, All rights reserved.

Quick Information Most search engines will allow you to quickly locate common data such as: Definitions of words Calculations Currency conversions 14Copyright © Texas Education Agency, All rights reserved.

Quick Information Word Definitions To get a word definition use the define command in the search query. The search definition will be returned in the results. 15 Copyright © Texas Education Agency, All rights reserved.

Quick Information Calculations Most search engines allow you to enter an calculation in the search field. The search engine will attempt to perform the calculation. The calculation should be entered in the form of a single line with an equal sign at the end. 16 9(4/5)= Copyright © Texas Education Agency, All rights reserved.

Quick Information Currency Conversions Most search engines will allow you to quickly see the exchange rate for currency. Enter the amount you want to convert and the currency you want it converted to: dollars to rubles $25 to rubles Copyright © Texas Education Agency, All rights reserved.

Evaluating Information Many websites contain inaccurate, outdated, or simply wrong information. Search Engines do not check for accuracy of information on the pages they return. The more critical the information you are looking for, the more important it becomes to evaluate the accuracy of the information you find online. Example: Medical, financial, investment, etc. 18Copyright © Texas Education Agency, All rights reserved.

Evaluating Information Check the Author Just because someone published some information online, does not mean they are qualified to provide such information. Does the author have experience/education/training related to the information? Does the author have any certifications related to the information they are providing? Is there any reason to believe the author might be biased? What is the authors motivation for providing the information? 19Copyright © Texas Education Agency, All rights reserved.

Evaluating Information Consider the type of website where you are getting your information: Personal Website: Can contain anything. Usually the information is unverified. Special Interest Site: Usually special interest sites are trying to persuade the reader to support a cause. Professional Sites: The information may be verified, depending on who the site is associated with. 20Copyright © Texas Education Agency, All rights reserved.

Evaluating Information Commercial Sites: Generally commercial sites exist to sell a product or service. By their nature, the information provided may be designed to support a particular product. News Sites: Many news agencies are politically swayed. Consider the reputation of the sites and agencies. It’s usually best to see how the information differs among similar sites. 21Copyright © Texas Education Agency, All rights reserved.