1. Searching the Internet

2. Why Yahoo!Today? All search engines are not created equal All search engines They index different contents They have different featuresfeatures They generate different results

3. Why Boolean Operators? - AND, OR, “”, site: Natural Language vs. Boolean Operators “Why college textbooks are so expensive?” vs. Textbooks AND (college OR university) site:edu Precise Effective Efficient Educational So, Why Not? ------------------------------------------------------------------------

4. Start with Good Keywords Use background information and read between lines If your research topic is E-85 ▫ E-85 ▫ Alternative Fuel ▫ Green Energy Green Energy Alternative Fuel E-85

5. AND Narrow search results – yield less results Sample Searches ▫ cost - 2,150,000,000 Results cost  Cost of living, online shopping mall eCost, COST (Stock Ticker), ….. ▫ textbooks - 254,000,000 Results textbooks  Cheap Textbooks, Online Bookstores… ▫ cost AND textbooks - 27,300,000 Results cost AND textbooks  Textbook costs in Higher Ed, Make Textbooks affordable…

6. OR Broaden search results – yield more results Always use Parentheses () with OR Sample Searches ▫ cost AND textbooks AND college cost AND textbooks AND college - 9,140,000 Results ▫ cost AND textbooks AND (college OR university) cost AND textbooks AND (college OR university) - 10,700,000 Results ▫ (college OR university) added more search results (college OR university)

7. Phrase Search “” Searches the exact phrase Sample Searches ▫college Student - 742,000,000 Resultscollege Student ▫“college Student” - 38,800,000 Results“college Student” ▫cost of textbooks - 25,100,000 Resultscost of textbooks ▫“cost of textbooks” - 175,000 Results“cost of textbooks” Consider replacing prepositions with AND unless it is a part of proper noun such as “University of Nebraska,” “Gone with Wind.”

8. Tip: Prepositions … of … … on … … in … … to… … with … Sample Searches ▫ “cost of textbooks”- 175,000 Results “cost of textbooks” ▫ cost of textbooks- 25,100,000 Results cost of textbooks ▫ cost AND textbooks- 27,300,0000 Results cost AND textbooks

9. site: Limit to a specific domain ▫ site:edu, site:gov, site:org, site:com, site:mo.us Limit to a specific site ▫ site:nwmissouri.edu Sample Searches ▫ scholarships site:edu scholarships site:edu 32,300,000 Results ▫ scholarships site:nwmissouri.edu scholarships site:nwmissouri.edu 1,260 Results

10. Summary of Searching Techniques Quotation Marks " " ▫ Enclose a phrase of two or more words AND ▫ Combine two topics to narrow a search OR ▫ Connect synonyms to broaden a search Parentheses ( ) ▫ Always use to enclose synonyms connected with OR site:edu ▫ Retrieves only pages with the domain.edu