1. Shayna Keces Reference Librarian Intermediate Internet Searching Or How to really find information on the internet

2. Agenda Size of Internet Types of search engines Search strategies Choosing a search engine Interpretation of search results

3. Size of Internet/World Wide Web July 2000 2.1 billion web pages, est. 4 billion pages by early 2001 (Some place much higher if count invisible or deep web) Size of search engine databases Google 2 billion Fast (alltheweb) 625 million AltaVista 550 million Yahoo 2 million catalogued (Google for not catalogued)

4. Search strategies Do nots use search button use a string of keywords without specifying Boolean properties use upper case unless part of strategy use NOT or - unless absolutely sure is necessary elimination of unanticipated pages format is non standardized

5. Search Strategies Do Consider what type of resource will best answer your question and search for that resource (eg. dictionary or certain type of web page) think of a list of keywords that will narrow or broaden your search keeping in mind that with the internet, narrowing your search is usually better Stick to small list of search engines and learn the search syntax for the search engine you’re using

6. Boolean Search Developed by mathematician George Boole Or widens a search AND and AND NOT narrows a search Parentheses used to group operations that have to be done together (Public libraries OR bookstores) AND (Ottawa OR Nepean OR Gloucester OR Goulbourn OR Carp)

7. Public libraries OR bookstores Ottawa OR Nepean OR Gloucester OR Kanata OR Goulbourn OR Carp Group A AND Group B

8. Senators hockey Orange = Senators AND NOT hockey

9. Types of search engines Keyword or robot based (builds a database) Directory based (categories indexed by people rather than computer) Annotated directory-based search engines Meta indexes (can combine searches or allow you to search a variety of engines individually) Specialized search engines

10. Keyword or robot based Search Engines Large database of web pages No human involvement and no quality control Can submit website or will find some on own Searches full text to certain level, does not search deep or invisible web Google (www.google.com)www.google.com Alta Vista (www.altavista.com)www.altavista.com Hotbot (www.hotbot.com)www.hotbot.com Fast (www.alltheweb.com)www.alltheweb.com

11. Google (www.google.com)www.google.com Presently largest database (1.5-2 billion) Very sophisticated placement of results particularly good for popular sites, company sites Advanced search can limit search to title of page or to URL implied AND + for stop words

12. Google (www.google.com) cont. If you want or needs to be expressed in caps not case sensitive no stemming description shows keywords in context cached pages

13. AltaVista (www.altavista.com)www.altavista.com One of larger search engines Particularly good for finding less popular sites Implied “or” probably, often changes Case sensitive when word is in quotations Stemming with * at end or in middle of words Search within these results Sophisticated search of elements, url, text, etc. http://help.altavista.com/adv_search/syntax http://help.altavista.com/adv_search/syntax

14. AltaVista Advanced SearchAdvanced Search Has guided search as well as blank space for true Boolean search using Boolean terms and parenthesis Must use Boolean operators or equivalent symbol (not + and -) No operators implies phrase Has sort by feature which can be used to determine how results are Can specify dates of last modification

15. Directory-based Search Engines Indexed by individuals so subject searches will be more accurate Smaller database than Robot engines Used mainly for finding good site on general topic Yahoo (www.yahoo.com or ca.yahoo.com)www.yahoo.com ca.yahoo.com About (about.com or home.about.com/aboutcanada)about.com home.about.com/aboutcanada Looksmart (www.looksmart.com)www.looksmart.com

16. Yahoo (ca.yahoo.com)ca.yahoo.com Most popular of directory based search engines Many different versions (international have same pages as others but local options are supplied first) Uses Google as search engine Can search by categories and move up and down the category structure by clicking on category and looking at hierarchy

17. About (about.com or home.about.com/aboutcanadaabout.com home.about.com/aboutcanada Another popular directory-based search engine Volunteer guides responsible for finding good websites on appropriate subjects Some guides exist on all version of About but geographic versions have items specific to country

18. Annotated directory-based search engines Because annotated, database is even smaller than Directory-based engine Quality of web pages is better Web pages often rated Librarian’s Index to the Internet (lii.org)lii.org Argus Clearinghouse (www.clearinghouse.net)www.clearinghouse.net

19. Argus Clearinghouse (www.clearinghouse.net)www.clearinghouse.net Topical list of fairly scholarly guides submitted to Argus on a variety of subjects. Can have more than one guide or page on the same subject. Not all are accepted and all are objectively rated by Argus staff and the detailed rating in available. Because Argus does not solicit web pages, coverage is uneven Date of rating is also provided

20. Meta indexes One site searches more than one search engine Results can be separated or combined Sometimes a problem in interpreting question for all search engines Used if not sure which search engine will give you best results and/or obscure topics

21. Meta indexes examples Dogpile (www.dogpile.com)www.dogpile.com Metacrawler (www.metacrawler.com/index.html)www.metacrawler.com/index.html Surfwax (www.surfwax.com)www.surfwax.com All4one Search machine (www.all4one.com)www.all4one.com

22. Specialized Search Engines Geographic based (www.altavistacanada.com, http://www.ottawastart.com/www.altavistacanada.com http://www.ottawastart.com/ Phone directories (canada411.sympatico.ca/, home.infospace.com/)canada411.sympatico.ca home.infospace.com/ Newsgroup searching (groups.google.com)groups.google.com Women’s information (wwwomen.com)wwwomen.com

23. Specialized sites Ottawa Public Library (www.library.ottawa.on.ca)www.library.ottawa.on.ca Reference tools (see library reference sites, eg. lii.org, www.ipl.org/ref)lii.orgwww.ipl.org/ref Encyclopedias (www.britannica.com, Columbia encyclopedia www.bartleby.com/65/www.britannica.com www.bartleby.com/65/ Canadian information (vrl.tpl.toronto.on.ca/, Canadian information by subject www.nlc- bnc.ca/caninfo/ecaninfo.htm, Canadian encyclopedia online, www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/vrl.tpl.toronto.on.ca/www.nlc- bnc.ca/caninfo/ecaninfo.htm www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/

24. Some hints on selecting search strategies For any page on general topic you need an introduction try Directory-based search engine. If do not need specific quality can use address bar search For web page of major company or organization try Google or Alta Vista if more obscure For a specific web page that would not necessarily be popular try Alta Vista.

25. Some hints on selecting search strategies cont. For health topics try health website engine like www.medbroadcast.com or health links on OPL web page.www.medbroadcast.com For very obscure topic topic try Google or Alta Vista or one of meta indexes

26. Interpretation of search results Look at results and reformat search using things like searching within results and adding new keywords Analytically choose which sites to look at in result list Anatomy of URL domain + type of name Do not look through pages and pages of results. If first three pages are not promising redo search

27. Some useful tutorials for searching See “Learning to search” section of Collection of special search engines www.leidenuniv.nl/ub/biv/specials.htm Web searching tips www.searchenginewatch.com/facts/index.htm l www.searchenginewatch.com/facts/index.htm l Net tutor (gateway.lib.ohio- state.edu/tutor/les5/)gateway.lib.ohio- state.edu/tutor/les5/ Check links under Internet, General in OPL adult links (www.library.ottawa.on.ca)www.library.ottawa.on.ca

28. To find more info on search engines Searchenginewatch (www.searchenginewatch.com)www.searchenginewatch.com Searchengineshowdown (www.searchengineshowdown.com)www.searchengineshowdown.com