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Beyond Google:. Getting the Most Out of Searching the Internet. A free workshop sponsored by The Chapel Hill Public Library & UNC’s School of Information & Library Science. Web Search Tools. Search Engines: Google, AltaVista, AlltheWeb MetaSearch Engines: HotBot, Ixquick
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Beyond Google: Getting the Most Out of Searching the Internet A free workshop sponsored by The Chapel Hill Public Library & UNC’s School of Information & Library Science
Web Search Tools • Search Engines: • Google, AltaVista, AlltheWeb • MetaSearch Engines: • HotBot, Ixquick • Directories: • Yahoo • Portals (Super Directories): • Excite, MSN, Netscape
Deep Web Search Tools • Gateways • Internet Public Library • Infomine • Digital Librarian • Librarians' Index to the Internet • Databases • WebMD (health information) • Expedia (travel) • Roller Coaster Database (roller coasters) • MySimon (comparison shopping)
But how do they work? • Crawler-based Search Engines • Listings are generated automatically using software (spiders) that “crawl” the web and index sites. • Google • Human Powered Directories • Humans index the sites into various categories • Yahoo (kind of)
MetaTags <HEAD> <TITLE>My World</TITLE> <META name="description" content="Everything you wanted to know about my world."> <META name="keywords" content=“me, myself, I, my name, my address, my dog, my family, my hobbies”> </HEAD> Intended to help searchers identify relevant pages
Creating a Search: Two Approaches • Do you want to: • Browse around ? • Locate specific information ? • Learn as much as you can on the subject ? • Solve your own mystery: • What, Where, When, How, Why
Let’s Solve a Mystery! • Julia works in downtown Chapel Hill. While on her lunch break one fine spring day, she sees a flash in the sky! She looks up to see a bird about the size of a crow diving at high speed after what looks to be a pigeon. The bird then swoops out of sight. Julia is captivated by the gray and white bird with a crooked black and yellow beak.
What do we know? • Who/what ? gray and white bird, size of a crow, crooked black and yellow beak • Where ? downtown buildings, town of Chapel Hill, NC • When ? Daytime in the Spring • How ? Fast-flying, possibly hunting pigeons as prey • Why ? Never seen it before. Is it migrating? Is it lost?
Jack Kerouac said, “Be concrete like a street.” • Bird • Crow • Beak • Chapel Hill • Spring • Hunter • Pigeon • Migration The best queries start with concrete, things, objects, nouns.
Consider Your Terms • I want to know more about a bird • One term: bird • I want to know more about a bird that hunts • Two terms: bird, hunter • I want to know what birds that hunt live in the Southeast • Three terms: bird, hunter, Southeast
Bird that hunts Bird of prey Hawk Eagle Owl Falcon Southeast Southern North Carolina Chapel Hill Think like a Thesaurus
String Terms Together into Phrases Try these searches in Google: bird of prey = 353,000 “bird of prey” = 67,200 “bird of prey” “North Carolina” = 1,800 “bird of prey” “North Carolina” spring= 453
Boolean! • AND + Falcon +migrate +spring • OR Falcon (grey OR gray OR yellow) • NOT – Falcon (grey OR gray) “North Carolina” –car –miami –shoe
Tricks of the Trade:Try These… • Exact quotes “North Carolina Falconers Guild” • Nesting Falcon (grey OR gray OR yellow) “North Carolina” (falcon OR falcons) • Truncation Bird* • Advanced Search
Searching is Organic • Review words and phrases found on relevant pages and use them to focus your search • Click on the “Similar Pages” link