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Improving Searching on the World Wide Web |
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Imagine you are searching for information in the world's largest library,
where the books and journals (stripped of their covers and title pages) are
shelved in no particular order, and without reference to a central catalogue.
A researcher's nightmare? Without question. The World Wide Web defined? Not
exactly. Instead of a central catalogue, the Web offers the choice of dozens
of different search tools, each with its own database, command language,
search capabilities, and method of displaying results. |
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Search Engines |
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This is an Internet tool which will search for Internet sites containing the
words that you designate as a search term. Search engines DO NOT search the
Internet itself, but search databases of information which the company
hosting
the search engine has developed. One of the largest search engines is Google. http://www.google.com
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SUBJECT DIRECTORIES: organize the Internet sites by subjects. This lets the
user choose a subject and then browse a list of resources in that category.
Subject directories are built by humans (rather than computer programs) and
they are smaller than search engine databases. Directories depend on the
descriptors provided by the company. If these are not specific enough, your
search might be unsuccessful. As a result, directories can be good for
finding general information, but not too successful in locating
specifics."YAHOO" is the most common subject directory, others include
"ABOUT," "INFOMINE," "LOOKSMART," "WEBGEMS," and "WWW VIRTUAL LIBRARY." http://vlib.org/
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META SEARCH ENGINES: are search tools that do not have databases of their
own,
but search many other search engines. "Metacrawler" searchs all the
following: Lycos, Webcrawler, Excite, AltaVista, and Yahoo. Using meta
search
engines will make your search more comprehensive, but slower to obtain. Some
good meta search engines are Dogpile, Ixquick, Metacrawler, Profusion,
Surfwax. http://www.metacrawler.com
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ART AND IMAGE DIRECTORIES: Ditto.com is the world's leading visual search
engine. It allows people to search the Internet using images, because it is
easier for people to find what they're looking for when they're looking at it. http://www.ditto.com
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ASK JEEVES: this is a meta search engine that allows you to ask a question
about what you want to know and Jeeves will list web pages pertaining to your
question. Excellent homework and research helper. http://www.askjeeves.com
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Photos on the Web- Although this site offers photography for sale,Foto
Search is still a great educational resource, as it allows users to search
and view photos from more than fifty quality graphics vendors at one site!
There are over 700,000 images available, including photos, clipart pictures,
royalty-free illustrations, royalty-free motion stock video clips, royalty
free vector maps, and background clip art imagery. http://www.fotosearch.com/
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Digital Library http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/index.cfm
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Soople - easy search google and advanced calculator http://www.soople.com/
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Searchmash http://www.searchmash.com/
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What is the most effective search strategy? |
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Decide whether a search engine or a subject directory is the best vehicle for
the information you need. The more specific the information needed, the more
likely you will want to use a search engine or a meta search engine. The
amount of information on the Internet can be overwhelming. to narrow your
search results, use a search engine that allows boolean operators (and, not,
or) and enter as many keywords as possible.
Get used to more than one search engine. Read the "tips" provided by them
and
you will be surprised how easier searching becomes. For example, AltaVista
allows using the + sign instead of writing out AND.
HAPPY SEARCHING!!!! |
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Last Modified: Wednesday November 29 2006
© 2001-2008 TeacherWeb, Inc.
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