1. Google and Beyond: Finding Information Using Search Engines, & Evaluating Your Results Elizabeth Geesey Holmes, M.A., M.S.L.I.S. Cataloging Services Librarian Alexander Campbell King Law Library University of Georgia School of Law Athens, Georgia March 2006

2. Basics of Search Engines

3. What are search engines? Term “search engine” used generically to describe both Directories and Search Engines Directories (Yahoo, Google’s directory) Links to Web sites organized by hierarchy of topics Created by human editors Cover only a tiny portion of the Web Access via browsing or searching site Meta Search Engines Send searches to multiple Search Engines at one time Search Engines (Focus will be on these) Database created by software programs Search database by keyword to find Web sites Cover larger portion of Web than Directories

4. Why use them for legal research? Material only “published” on the Web E-journals Newsletters Postings to e-discussion groups Search engines = one important tool to locate Web-based resources Useful for general Web searching

5. Meta Search Engines Do not crawl the web themselves to build databases Allow users to search multiple Search Engines at one time with one search Present results from various Search Engines together on one page

6. Dogpile (http:www.dogpile.com) (http:www.dogpile.com)

7. Dogpile sample search

8. Dogpile search results

9. Vivisimo/Clusty (http://clusty.com/) (http://clusty.com/)

10. Clusty search results display

11. Pros and Cons of Meta Search Engines Pros Search a variety of Search Engines with one query Clustering feature on Clusty Comparison tool on Dogpile Cons May time out if search processing takes to long Only retrieve the top 10- 50 hits from each Search Engine Less advanced search features Differing syntax of various Search Engines makes Boolean searching difficult

12. General Search Engines What makes one search engine’s database different from another? Contents Size Currency Ranking/relevance algorithm Three main Search Engines at this time: Google Yahoo! MSN Search

13. Basic Search Tips Use multiple Search Engines [LINK] [LINK] Use advanced search pages Single most efficient way to increase your effectiveness as a searcher Set your options Read search help and additional information pages [LINK] [LINK] Remember: Not all Web information is indexed on these Search Engines

14. The Invisible Web Info not readily indexed by Search Engines Only small portion of info posted on the Internet is indexed by Search Engines. Why? Format that Search Engines don’t recognize Site not submitted to be indexed Search Engine has chosen not to index a site Site has blocked Search Engine’s indexing software Site requires a password Information is in a database that must be queried before data can be retrieved

15. Invisible Web Example: Info in Web-accessible Databases

17. The Invisible Web: Other ways to find information Subject-based Directories Invisible Web portals Complete Planet ProFusion More information in “Sources for Further Learning” section of my paper

18. Unique Tool: Google Scholar http://scholar.google.com/ Agreements with publishers, associations, universities and others allow Google Scholar to index databases that search engine crawlers normally cannot penetrate, Covers “peer-reviewed” papers, theses, books, preprints, abstracts and technical reports.

21. Advanced Search Strategies

22. Advanced Search Pages After choosing a Search Engine go directly to the Advanced Search page [LINK] [LINK] This is the most important strategy you can use Advanced Search pages give you significantly more options Boolean searching Limiting by format, domain or date range No need to remember specific terms and commands

23. Google Advanced Search Page NOTE: YOU CAN MIX AND MATCH THE BOOLEAN SEARCHING AND PHRASE OR AND NOT AND PHRASE OR AND NOT SEARCH: Martha AND Stewart AND trial OR court OR case AND "insider trading" BUT NOT jimmy

24. Modifying a Google Advanced Search

26. Searching By Format Excellent strategy for targeting your search and returning more relevant search results Google -- PowerPoint, Word, Excel, PDF Yahoo! -- PowerPoint, Word, Excel, PDF, RSS/XML and plain text (.txt) files MSN Search – Does not have this feature

27. Searching for a PowerPoint Presentation Use Google to restrict your search to a PowerPoint presentation if you are looking for information such as: Your expert (or the opposition’s) presentation at a conference A hot topic that no one has written about yet, but that someone may have given a recent presentation on Many presentations are created in PowerPoint and posted to the Web

28. PowerPoint search on Google

29. Results of ppt search

30. Google’s HTML and PPT version of first hit

31. Audio and Visual Material: Images All three Search Engines offer image searching I recommend trying Google first Offers an Advanced Search Offers a limit by domain Indexes nearly half a million images Determines image’s content by using surrounding text, accompanying captions and file names, among other criteria

32. Image search example

33. Audio and Visual Material: Multimedia Yahoo! and Google offer video searching. Google’s is still in beta testing It can be found at: http://video.google.comhttp://video.google.com At present it only searches about 20 TV channels and videos uploaded to the site Yahoo!’s search is of video on the Web Select the “Video” tab and then select advanced search – you are taken to a customized search page to enter your search terms.

34. Video search example

35. Video search results

36. Searching for News All three Search Engines offer a News search Google’s News search Collects recent (only covers past 30 days) news stories from sources all over the world Updates continuously throughout the day Sorts results by relevance OR date/time Limit by country/state OR publication Option to use search in News Alert service

37. Getting to Google’s News Search

38. News Search Example

39. News Search Results

40. “Hidden” tools

41. Searching within your results Of the three search engines featured this handy tool is only available on Google Hidden just below visible bottom of page Useful for further narrowing relevant searches

42. Searching within results Example

45. Toolbars Google, Yahoo! MSN Search, Dogpile, and Clusty all offer a toolbar Customizable Easy to download Sit at top of browser window Advanced Searchbar (http://www.advancedsearchbar.com/) (http://www.advancedsearchbar.com/) One toolbar access to over 100 search engines

46. Google’s toolbar Search the Web using Google without going first to their Web site With the click of a button use advanced search techniques such as: Searching within a page Searching within a site Searching Images, News, Google’s Directory or Dictionary Highlight search terms Block pop-ups Fill in forms automatically

47. Highlighting terms using the toolbar

48. Getting to Google’s toolbar (1)

49. Getting to Google’s toolbar (2)

50. Google’s Synonym Feature Search for a word and its common synonyms using Basic search box Advanced Search page “find results with at least one of the words” box Enter the word you want to search preceded by the tilde [~word] ~law This retrieves sites with the words: law, laws, lawyer, lawyers, legal, attorney and regulations

51. Google’s Synonym Feature: Example Time saver!

52. Yahoo! Shortcuts

53. Assessing the Quality of Information on the Internet

54. “ So you ran a web search for it?” “Yes.” “And the word returned hundreds of references, no doubt.” “Thousands.” Kohler said. “Yours, however, contained references to Harvard, Oxford, a reputable publisher, as well as a list of related publications. As a scientist I have come to learn that information is only as valuable as its source. Your credentials seemed authentic.” Excerpt Angels & Demons, Dan Brown

55. Judging Authenticity Look for site documentation About us links View source Web address structure Ask basic questions about the source of information Who is the author?

56. Assessing Information Quality Who said, “Question Authority?” Timothy Leary? Socrates? Unitarian Universalists? Maynard James Keenan Bumper sticker?

57. Assessing Information Quality: Am I in the right place? Searching for Cases Go to the web site for the court that originally published the opinions Searching for Statutes Go to the web site for the state or federal legislature Don’t use secondary sources for material readily available online from the actual source

58. Determine Accuracy Assess objectivity How does it compare with print resources? Check for errors Verify information Check for use of common technical tricks used to make information appear to be something it is not

59. Currency Decide if timeliness is relevant Last updated?

60. Assess Completeness How comprehensive is the resource? Watch for selective fact citation Compare coverage with print resources

61. Conclusion Amount of information on the Web makes it overwhelming to locate relevant sites Learning to use the above mentioned tools and tips will make your search for information on the Web efficient and successful Consult my paper for additional tips! Please contact me with any questions: eholmes@uga.edu 706-542-5082

62. Advanced Search guide has a link to a one page cheat sheet at: www.google.com/help/cheat sheet.html www.google.com/help/cheat sheet.html

63. Clusty Help page Back

64. How to get to the Advanced Search page: Example

65. BACK

66. Google and Yahoo compared http://www.langreiter.com/exec/yahoo-vs-google.html http://www.langreiter.com/exec/yahoo-vs-google.html Back