Internet search strategies
Goal and Objectives Goal □ Locate information using information search strategies on the Internet. Objectives
□ Apply strategies for an effective search in the □ Internet. □ Understand the strategies of an Internet search.
Planning for the search process Before starting a search, the following is essential: Set the search objective Decide which strategies to use Decide which tools to use Know the size and content of the databases chosen Know the possibilities offered by the different search tools; not all work the same way
Planning for the search process Search design: Set the search objective Analyze the topic(s) before starting Design a suitable search profile; You must use keywords, thesaurus, dictionaries, synonyms, related terms, English terms, phrases, combine words or concepts (AND, NOT, OR), parentheses, truncate words (* ,?), domain, URL, name pictures
Planning for the search process • Analyze the search strategies • Utilize search engines • Use thematic or specialized indexes • Use meta search engines
Search Strategies □ Keywords □ Eg: education □ Three key words □ Eg: vitamins interaction drugs □ Phrases "in quotes" □ "Paris Treaty"
□ Upper or lower case □ New York □ bridge
Search Strategies Natural language A quick way is to simply pose the search in simple language terms.
Truncated Identify key terms When we forget the term Similar sites
It incorporates the related function that searches for pages similar to the localized one. [results] [local related]
Search Strategies Boolean - are existing logical relationships or propositions (AND, OR, NOT). (OR) is used to search for synonymous terms or concepts and to retrieve unique records that contain one of the terms, the other, or both. (AND) to search for the words that are present in the same document (NOT) excludes records or records from search results
Search Strategies The Boolean AND and NOT search engines can be replaced by the mathematical operators + and - respectively and when something is not specified it is understood that it corresponds to the OR operator.
Limited Boolean options Some search engines offer limited Boolean logic with choice buttons or drop-down menus Eg: documents must include "All terms" (equivalent to using the (AND, OR) operator between all terms).
Search Strategies â–Ą (NEAR) specifies that the words must be sought
and found if they are near approximately ten (10) words of separation
ď‚Ą (ADJ) retrieves two terms that must appear adjacent on the same page (SAME) finds words in the same field (FBY) followed by
Search Strategies Date By specific time intervals and/or creation date Use international directory to locate search engines by country http://www.searchenginecolossus.com/
Search Strategies Specific parts of the electronic document Title Eg title: In my old San Juan Host Eg host: www.suagm.edu Domain Eg edu Url Eg eduteka.org Links Eg link: www.ala.org
Search Strategies Specific Medium □ Audio □ Video □ Images □ Java □ VRML
Search Strategies Limit of 32 keywords Format pdf, ps, ppt, swf, text, ps, lwp, mw, xls, doc, wps, wks, wdb, wku, wkl, wri, rtf, ans and txt. Phone number Question What is a podcast? Films movie: Lord of the ring
Search Strategies Combine searches inurl: apollo + moon + site: nasa.gov Financial information Stocks: SUNW
Answers Puerto Rico measures 100 x 35 Synonyms discover OR find
Quotes "To be or not to be"
Search Strategies Safe place or information safesearch: breasts Number range inventions 1850..1899
Mixing Syntax title: plants site: ucla.edu inurl: database To find lyric of a song "Love story" lyrics
Search Strategies □ Currency exchange □
5 USD in Yen □ $10 Australian money in Italian money
□ Adding electronic sources □ word site:pbs.org □ word site:gov
□ Maps □ Search streets □
maps: international drive
Search Engines
www.attentiongrabbers.co.uk
What makes a good search engine? Parts of a Search Engine
Variables
Web database
Database size Document types Speed and consistency Current (up to date)
Capacities
Basic search options and limitations Advanced search options and limitations General limitations and characteristics
Display of results
Range Collapsed pages from the same site
Other characteristics
Search engine is designed to deal with other functions and services
Search engines Simple They compile their own searchable databases on the net.
Recommendations
Check the instructions for use of the search engine
Write down the most important
Start with a specific search
Use more than one search engine use of lowercase words
Explore the search options that are available such as: language, format type, image, text, video, domain, etc.
Search engines Metasearch Engines They are engines that simultaneously search databases of multiple groups of individual search engines from a single site.
Recommendations
Review the instructions for use of the search engine Useful for general searches
Use lowercase words
Search easily (one or two words, phrases in quotation marks, or a term or phrase in quotation marks)
Translate terms, perform simple searches, (one or two words, phrases in quotes or a term or phrase in quotes) into English
These are useful when in trouble
Search engines Specialized These greatly facilitate the search, because all your records refer to the same main topic, and also classify your records into categories and sub-categories.
Recommendations ď‚Ą Valuable for academic research.
ď‚Ą They are guides for a specific field, topic or discipline.
Search engines Indices □ They are organized by categories of themes. They use broad and general terms. The topics are not standardized and vary according to the scope of each index.
Recommendations They are valuable for academic research They are guides for a specific field, topic or discipline
Search engines
Directories They are valuable for research.
Recommendations Browse through categories and subcategories Uses more than one directory Use the search box if available
Search engines Invisible Network
Information that cannot be retrieved with common search mechanisms is called an invisible network. This is larger but grows faster.
Recommendations
Check the instructions for use of the search engine
Use capital letters
Valuable for academic research
Valuable for searching information in real time
Useful to search by discipline, subject, geographic region, statistics and sub-group.
Valuable for searching information in specialized magazines
Useful for searching collections of images, sounds, manuscripts, etc.
Use it when search engines on the shallow Web are exhausted
Search in search engines, metasearch engines, directories, guides, tutorials and in advanced search engines.
References Miller, S. (2003). Web searching strategies: an introductory curriculum for students and teachers. Eugene, Oregon: ISTE. Serrano Cinca, C. (2003). "Encontrar informaciĂłn en el World Wide Web“. 5campus.org, Sistemas Informativos Contables. Recuperado el 9 de enero de 2009 de http://www.5campus.org/leccion/buscar