If you do not have an address or URL to enter in the location box of your browser you must search for the information. Estimates very, but there are over four billion pages of information on the Internet, and it is growing. It is possible to search the Internet by using directories, search engines, or meta-search engines. Although each of these three are generally referred to as "search engines," they are distinct.
Directories are hierarchical subject trees assembled by human editors. They perform much the same role for the Internet that an index does for a book. Directories arrange links to information sources topically, from general to more specific topics. An example would be: science/biology/micro-biology/bacteria/phages.
Search engines use robots to automatically search the Internet and harvest sites for inclusion into their database. We use the search engine's interface to search this database using keywords or phrases. Because they use robot programs rather than human input a search engine will have a larger data base than a directory.
Meta-search engines will search more than one search engine at the same time. This may seem like a good idea at face value but search engines do not all "speak the same language". What this means is that search engines have different operational settings as their default. Different search tools may often interpret questions differently. Metas may not be able to "translate" complex searches across various search engines. Hence Metas are mainly useful for "quick and dirty" searches, over multiple search engines using simple search strategies. Here are some links to Meta-search Engines.
As a rule of thumb, whenever you use a search engine, examine its "help" link. This may take a little time, but the "help" link will try to explain how the search engine works. When selecting keywords for your search try to be specific and unique.
Some basic concepts of online searching involve something called Boolean logic. Boolean logic employs three logical operators: OR, AND, and NOT. Using one of these logical operators with keywords or phrases will refine your search. Use of OR will broaden your search. For example, cats OR felines will retrieve records where either term is present, or both terms are present. AND will limit your search. For example, cats AND dogs will retrieve only the records where both terms are present. NOT will also limit your search. For example, cats NOT dogs will retrieve records where the term cat appears, while omitting those that contain the term dog, even if they also contain the word cat. As a general rule you will retrieve the most comprehensive results if you use all lower case characters (small letters rather than CAPITAL LETTERS) when using Internet search engines. Not every search engine behaves the same. Some are sensative to chages in upper and lower case. Others are not. Some use a Boolean AND as a default setting, and some may use OR, and others may not allow the use of Boolean operators.
If you enter as your search term
chicago bulls
you can assume that the search term acts like the Boolean operator OR, and you will retrieve each page that discusses chicago, and each page that discusses bulls, including farm animals. If you want to indicate that you were looking for a phrase, you must place it in quotation marks. This is called phrase binding. For example:
"chicago bulls"
indicates that you are looking for a phrase, and will retrieve records pertaining to a certain local basketball team. If you wish to indicate that a keyword or phrase must be present in your search results use the + symbol. To indicate that a keyword or phrase must not be present use the -symbol. For example,
+"chicago bulls"
idicates the term must be present while
-"white sox"
would omit the term. Combining these terms in your search works like the Boolean NOT. Records about the basket ball team wold be retrieve, but any references to Michael Jordan's White Sox farm career would be omitted, as well as references to Jerry Reinsdorf's ownership of both teams. The Boolean operator AND can be employed by using the +symbol with more than one keyword. For example +"chicago bulls" +"nba draft" will retrieve records discussing the bulls and the draft.
Some search engines, sometimes referred to as "concept" engines, may go beyond a keyword search and allow what is called a natural language search such as: Where can I find information about the Chicago Bulls and the NBA draft? Not all search engines do this. Concept engines may also automatically search for related words of synonyms. Most search engines also have a list of words that, if searched, provide no results, or are omitted from searches. These are known as stopwords. The word "the" is a common stop word. So are the following four words:
as you like it
They also form the title of one of Shakespeare's plays. Some search engines might recognize this; others may not. Phrase binding may be helpful here. The use of a + sign may also force a search on a stop word.
Most search engines have a "help" page. Reading the help pages will aid you in your efforts to search more efficiently. It is a good idea to familiarize yourself to any "new" search tool that you use by examining the "help" pages. This use of + signs, - signs, and "" marks to enhance searching has at time been termed "search engine math". To find out more about "search engine math" or about power searching techniques at Search Engine Watch.
No one owns or polices the Internet. Anyone at all can create and put up a web page. When searching the Internet, one can retrieve the home page of a sixth grader from Sheboygan just as readily as a page posted by The Center for Disease Control. Consequently, some warnings apply to information found on the Internet. Questions must be asked about any site found; it must be evaluated. Is the site relevant to your needs? Who, for example, is t he author or publisher of the site? Do they manifest an obvious bias or point of view? (Be especially cautious of information from commercial sites.) Can they speak with authority or be considered authorities? Is the information timely or dated? When was the site last updated? These are just a few of the questions that arise.
As an information source, the Internet is not censored, not necessarily reliable, and not comprehensive. Several billion web pages exist. The largest search engines currently in operation, indexes about 3.3 billion of these pages. There is no necessary overlap between the contents of the data bases of different search engines. As a research tool, the Internet is not a substitute for peer-reviewed articles, nor is it necessarily a substitute for traditional reference tools, although it may augment these tools, or provide a different form of access to them. Among the Internet's strong suits are current events and news, consumer and business information, entertainment, and US government information. As a serious scholarly research tool it provides access to 'gray literature', that is, recent scientific research that has not yet been published in a journal. Be aware that unpublished research may soon appear in a peer-reviewed journal, or conversely, may have already been rejected by one or more journals. Some aids in evaluating websites can be found at the Lesley University Library website, at The UCLA College Library, and at New Mexico State University. A single page check list in a .pdf file format can be found at The University of Alberta. These should provide aid to students faced with the task of crtivally evaluating websites.
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