Searching the Web

1. Searching the Web

2. Internet quandaries • How can I find the information I need? • Where do I start? • Will the information I find be valid (true) or not?

3. Web content • Web pages • Billions of pages on thousands of servers • How do sort through all of these pages?

4. Internet spiders • Special software robots • Build lists words found on Web sites • Web crawling • Begin with popular site • Indexes words on its pages • Number of times word is used on page • Where word occurs on page (title, heading, paragraph) • Beginning of page vs. end of page • Follows every link within the site

5. Search engines • Software program • Searches web pages for specified keywords • Returns list of pages where keywords were found • Google, Yahoo!, Bing, Dog Pile, Ask, Alta Vista

6. Search engines A9 Amazon books, Live results  Abcsearchengine Index based, fairly small About Lots of articles on lots of things Accoona Excellent for news, good for focussed searching Acronymfinder Find acronyms Aftervote Social search engine Ajaxwhois Great for site statistics searches Alexa Good for background information on a site AllPlus Good meta engine, lots of options Alltheweb Part of the Yahoo family Altavista Oldie, but still a goodie, suprising enough     Answers Good for factual information AOL Search Google in a different guise Archive, Internet Good for older versions of a site Ask One of the big four Azoos Painfully bright yellow index engine Beaucoup Index based, not impressed Better Who Is Information about a website owner etc Blinkx Multimedia search engine     Brainboost Part of the Answers family Buzzle Index based, not impressed ChaCha Search with a human guide Clusty Good all rounder Collarity Personalised search engine. Very good. Complete Planet Excellent for hidden/invisible web Country Search Engines 4,000 country search engines Digital-librarian Collection of links from a librarian     DMOZ (Open Directory Project) Good index/directory   Dogpile Multisearch GYMA     Draze Compare GYM on one screen   bingbong Social search, lets users rate results.  Eurekster Good for building your own engine   ExaleadSuperb functionality, good advanced options   ExciteDoes anyone still use that any more?   Factbites Factual information    FaganFinder Superb collection of engines  Fazzle Good all round meta search engine   FeedsterFindsounds Audio/sound search engine   FinQoo Multi search engine, doesn't say what the sources are   Freesearch UK based engine, global scope   Galaxy Index based  Google Do I need to say anything about this one?  Google Blogsearch Best blog search engine going   Google Directory Same as DMOZ   Google Groups Good for obscure information  Google Images Yahoo image search is superior   Google Local Local to the UK that is. Google News Adequate. Good for email alerts  Google Personalised Tailor results to your interests   Google Scholar Good(ish) for academic stuff   Google Trends Who is looking for what?   Healia Excellent medical search engine  Hotbot Blast from the past!   IAF People search Searches for people! US biased.   iBoogie Multi search engine, strong on clustering   Icerocket Good for blog searching   Illumirate Index based    InfoMine For scholarly internet resource collections    Infopeople People search  Infoservice Index based, bizarre collection of headings Intute Superb directory, very authoritative   Irazoo Social search engine, vote for results   Ixquick Excellent meta search engine Jayde Business to business         Jux2 Excellent meta search & compare results  Kartoo Visual search engine, good reputation   Kazazz Free text search engine, not particularly exciting   KidsclickChildren's search engine   Librarians Internet Index Superb resource Linkopedia Index based, not citing   Live Search One of the big 4  Lycos Almost lost in the midst of time, but still trying   Mahalo Social search engine, some like it, I don't   MammaMulti meta search engine that's been around for years   Mastersite Calls itself #1 though I can't work out why   Metacrawler Meta search engine   Monstercrawler Meta search engine  Mooter Visual search engine  MsDewey Microsoft folly; annoying and pointless   Oaister Emphasis on hidden web academic material   Omnimedicalsearch Excellent medical search engine  Peerbot Very unusual engine, as it searches for favicons   Pepesearch Does not stand out   Pinakes Superb collection of Virtual Libraries   Questfinder Selective web directory    Quintura First rate, uses clouds of terms. Recommended   RedZee Visual search. Awful. Used to be excellent   Re-quest Index/Directory web search engine  Scandoo accurately indicates a level of trustworthiness    Scirus Scientific search of web and selected journals   Scrubtheweb Nothing to recommend it   Search-beat Uses Google's database   Searchbug Search for people and companies in the US         Search.com Metasearch engine   Searchhippo Metasearch engine, unimpressed    Searchy Personalised search   Searchmash Google test bed   Search Medica Excellent medical search engine  Searchthe.net Meta search engine   Searchtheweb Index/Directory  Selectsurf Selective web directory   Similicio.us Find similar sites  Silobreaker Superb news resource  Slider Full text search engine that searches DMOZ  Smartlinks Index/Directory  SMEALSearch Academic authoritative content  Sproose Social search engine  Sunsteam Index/Directory   Supercrawler Index/Directory Technorati Excellent weblog search engine   Thenet1 Index/Directory  Thunderstone Index/Directory  Trooker Superb video search engine  Turbo 10 Great for hidden/invisible web  TurboScout Very good multi search engine  Ujiko Visual search engine   Web Brain Visual search engine  Webcrawler Meta search engine for GYMA   Web-search Meta search engine, one at a time   Webworldindex Index/Directory   Whatuseek Web/Index based, not worth the trouble   Windseek Meta search engine   WWW Virtual Library Second only to Pinakes  Yahoo! One of the big 4  Yahoo Buzz What's going on?  Yahoo Directory Yahoo as it used to be  Yahooligans For children         Yahoo Local Local information   Yahoo Mindset Emphasis research or shopping   YouTube Video engine. Use Trooker instead   Zapmeta Allows for various methods of re-ranking Zensearch Uses the Google database

7. Categories of search engines • Directories • Indexes

8. Directories • Good at identifying general information • Results of search = list of websites related to search term • Usually compiled by human editors

9. Indexes • Identify more specific information • Finds individual pages that match search criteria • Wade through a lot of irrelevant information • Compiled by robots http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0xUHykOPtY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8aYoVpdz8o&feature=related

10. Internet Information Fact or Fiction

11. Let the reader beware! • Just because document appears online doesn't mean it contains valid information • Online information demands close scrutiny

12. Why is accurate information important? Avoid • Embarrassment • Serious results that come from following medical or legal advice posted in newsgroups or on websites

13. Evaluate web information Five questions to ask yourself to determine if website information is valid-- • Who is the author? • Who is the publisher? • What is the point of view? • Are there references to other sources? • How current is the information?