Searching the Internet

1. Searching the Internet or

2. What happens when you search the Internet? • Frustration – can’t find the right stuff • Feeling of being overwhelmed – too much, too difficult to read. • Getting bogged down – opening site after site and finding the same information over and over

3. Some tricks to help you use the Internet more effectively • Understand the meaning of the URL • Get to know one good search engine well • Have a good search technique • Use other search tools

4. What is a URL? • The Uniform Resource Locator is the computer “address” of every site, file and user on the Internet. • A World Wide Web address can be easier to understand if you break down the parts.

5. Domain Names Nowadays, not every web site has the www • http://www.hillbrook.qld.edu.au • http = This tells you the site is part the World Wide Web. Everything on the internet is not part of the Web. E.g. e-mail www.hillbrook.qld.edu.au = domain name . This name finds the server machine on the Internet. Domain names read from right to left - from the highest level to the lowest.

6. Parts of the domain name: • au = country code. All countries have a code except United States where most files originally came from. • edu = type of institution or functional zone where the server is located. Other types include com (commercial); gov (government); org (non-profit organisation); net (media network) asn (association) • www.hillbrook.qld = the individual computer and its parent organisation

7. Therefore: • http://www.hillbrook.qld.edu.au means : The computer which stores the file you want to access on the WWW is located at in Australia at an educational site called Hillbrook in Queensland.

8. What’s this mean?? http://www.hillbrook.qld.edu.au/page_frame.cfm Any parts after the Domain name are the location of particular files at that site. Looking at the URL can sometimes help you work out how useful a site might be and how to get back to its source.

9. Who cares and why? • Understanding the URL and how it works can help you find more information • Look at this: You are looking for information about Enoggera and find http://www.ourbrisbane.com/suburbs/enoggera

10. Then… • Your friend wants information about Kelvin Grove • You can use this URL to find information about another Brisbane suburb by taking the URL back • http://www.ourbrisbane.com/suburbs/enoggera http://www.ourbrisbane.com/suburbs http://www.ourbrisbane.com/suburbs/kelvin-grove • Take the URL back one step further and what do you get?

12. Using a Search engine • Google http://www.google.com

13. Let’s take a look at Google • At the moment, Google is supposed to be the most comprehensive search engine available. • If you use Google the chances are better that you will find the first pages on the hit list are useful to you. However, you can make sure your search is more productive if you follow some simple steps. • Go to Google http://www.google.com.au

18. Types of search tools: metasearch engines • Meta-Search Engines quickly search several individual search engines at once and return results compiled into a more convenient format. BUT: • They only catch about 10% of search results in any of the search engines they visit. • Dogpilehttp://www.dogpile.com

19. Which search engine? • Natural Language - Ask Jeeves http://www.askjeeves.com (simply ask a question) • Reference sources - Xrefer http://www.xrefer.com • Australian Information - ANZWERS http://www.anzwers.com.au

20. More search tools: • Specialist search engines. (This site lists a huge range of different, smaller, specialist search tools.) http://www.leidenuniv.nl/ub/biv/specials.htm Including • Toolkit for the expert web searcher: http://www.lita.org/committe/toptech/toolkit.htm

22. Search Engines ComparedBy Diana Botluk • This is a good article that compares various search engines http://www.llrx.com/features/engine3.htm The table at the end compares the various ways different engines use Boolean operators to construct complex searches.

23. Basics of Boolean searching • There is an excellent basic outline of the workings of Boolean logic, used to construct complex searches available from Pierce College library at: http://www.pierce.ctc.edu/Library/quicktips/boolean.html

26. Recommended search strategy • ANALYZE your topic to decide where to begin. • Pick the right starting place • Learn as you go & VARY your approach with what you learn • Don't bog down in any strategy that doesn't work • Return to previous strategies better informed

27. Other types of Search Tools • Directories and Subject Directories – • Hand-selected sites • Picked by editors • Organized into subject categories. • Often annotated with descriptions. • A user can browse subject categories or search using broad, general terms. • For example: Librarians' Index: http://lii.org/

28. And: • Subject guides- Web pages of collections of hypertext links on a subject. • Compiled by "expert" subject specialists, agencies, associations, and hobbyists. • Locate through special guides or sometimes among search engine keyword search results • For example: Argus Clearinghousehttp://www.clearinghouse.net/

29. Types of search tools - search engines • Search by keyword or category , trying to match exactly the words in the pages to the search query. • Search the full-text of selected Web pages in their database • “Hit” lists are compiled by "spiders" (computer-robot programs) without much use of selection or evaluation criteria. • Search-Engine size ranges from small and specialized some which scan 90+ percent of the indexable Web