Searching the Web

The World Wide Web has search engines and directories to help you look for information. Search Engines are "robots," software programmed to roam the Net and dump pages in a database. Factors that influence results given by search engines are:

• size of database
• currency
• interface
• help provided
• search logic
• results displays

Subject directories are organized by individuals. A person categorizes the information and decides what to include in the directory. Subject Guides are an excellent place to start your browsing. If you are not looking for something specific, but just want to know what is available on a subject, use a subject directory. Most of these services are free and allow key word and/or boolean searching.

The best way to benefit from the Internet is to get familiar with

at least three different search engines.

Watch out for new features in existing searching tools. Go to V.V. Library page to link to some of the best search engines.

Follow these tips when doing your searches:

• Check for misspelled words.
• Most search engines are NOT case sensitive; but change your choice to case sensitive if you are looking for a proper name.
• Limit your search to a few unique terms that are likely to be in the document you want.
• Enter your unique and important terms first. Avoid common words (example: in, of, the, an...)
• Try synonyms and variations of terms.
• If you have the option, use the Boolean operators "AND," "OR," "NOT," "NEAR" to narrow or broaden your search.
• If you have the option, truncate the search terms. For example, chop off the endings "ing" or "ed". This will give you more hits.
• Read a search engine's help screens.
• When entering a phrase, try putting the terms between quotation marks.
• Find out whether you can limit your search by fields, such as the title of a document.
• Understand what is the scope of the search tool.
• Use specific search sites whenever possible. Use catalogs and specialized resources first.
• If all else fails, try another search site.
• If your search produces no results, BROADEN your query.
• If your search produces too many results, try to be more specific; NARROW your query.
• If you get and Error, Page/File not found message, double check your URL.
• Practice builds precision. Use the + (to include) and - (to exclude).
• If you do not get what you want on the first two pages, change search strategy.
• Try more than one search engine. Search engines are NOT alike.
• Finally, do NOT assume everything is on the Internet.

Many search engines allow you to combine search terms. The most popular of these operators are the terms AND, OR, NOT. For example, if you are doing a search on teenagers' nutrition and their habit of eating snacks:

AND [+]

The AND operator will look for documents that have both "cats" and "dogs."

OR

The OR operator will look for documents that have either "cats" or "dogs."

If you do not want to include sodas as part of your research:

NOT [-]

The NOT operator will look for documents that contain "cats" but not "dogs."

Remember: Not all the search engines accept Boolean terminology. Read the HELP screen to determine what kind of advanced search you can use.

 

PowerPoint Presentation on Search Engines

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Last Updated: July 2007

Created and maintained by Sahyly Martinez

Send Your Comments to: askalib

URL: http:/www.epcc.edu/vvlib/handouts/search engines.htm