ITIS 1210 Introduction to Web-Based Information Systems

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ITIS 1210Introduction to Web-Based Information
Systems

• Internet Research Four
• Finding Specialty Information

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Introduction

• What if you need very specific information?
• Addresses
• Telephone numbers
• Definition of a word
• Web site for a business

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Introduction

• May be stored in an online database
• Usually not indexed by search engines
• Specialty Web sites include
• Telephone directories
• Maps
• Periodicals
• Government sites
• Mailing lists/newsgroups

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Introduction

• Usually must visit each site independently to
  find information
• Now can use intelligent agents to search for you

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Specialty Information

• Search engines know about the visible Web
• What about the invisible (deep) Web?
• Online databases not indexed by search engines
• Usually require direct access
• May require username/password
• May be dynamically generated based on a specific
  query

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Specialty Information
Deep Web
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Specialty Information

• How to find specialty information?
• Search via a specialty Web site
• May require subscription
• Libraries are good resources
• ProQuest
• EBSCOHost

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Specialty Information

• Scope or focus
• Tends to be narrow
• Higher quality for specific purpose
• May find overlap with multiple sites on the same
  general subject

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Specialty Information

• Free or pay?
• General information may be free
• Details you have to pay for
• May require registration
• Name, address, email, credit card
• Often a means to spam you
• Current information may be free
• Archived information requires subscription/fee
• Review privacy policies

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Specialty Information

• Incomplete coverage
• Up-to-date information hard to come by
• Valuable
• May have to pay for it
• Access may be restricted by owner
• Corporate information
• Trade secrets
• Inventory database
• Employee directories

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Finding People or Places

• Search by
• Name
• Phone number
• Street address
• Email address
• Not necessarily comprehensive
• Individuals may opt out
• People move

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Finding People or Places

• Where to go for people?
• Yahoo people search
• WhoWhere
• Switchboard
• WhitePages
• US Search

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Finding People or Places

• Where to go for maps?
• MapQuest
• Yahoo Maps
• WhereIs
• EarthCam
• Google Maps
• Strange map
• Dig a Hole

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Finding Businesses

• Yellow Pages
• Yellow.com
• YellowPages.com
• InfoSpace.com
• AnyWho
• International
• Europages

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Finding Businesses

• Reverse lookups
• ReversePhoneDirectory.com
• AnyWho.com
• InfoSpace.com

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Searching Periodicals

• Periodical databases include
• Popular magazines
• Newspapers
• Scholarly journals
• Some may be online only
• Salon.com
• May not carry same stories as print version

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Searching Periodicals

• Subscription databases
• Proquest
• InfoTrac
• Searchable
• MagPortal.com
• FindArticles

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Government Information

• Portals are common
• FedWorld.gov
• FirstGov.gov
• Government Printing Office

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Online Reference

• Lots of kinds
• Almanacs
• Dictionaries
• Encyclopedias
• Directories
• May be licensed for patron use only
• May be able to access from home

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Online Reference

• Resources
• FILExt.com File extensions
• Netiquette Online etiquette
• Wikipedia.org Encyclopedia
• Webopedia.com - Encyclopedia
• m-w.com Dictionary

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Mailing Lists Newsgroups

• Web is not just information
• Communication and Interaction
• Mailing lists (listserv)
• Automatically email all subscribers
• Newsgroups (Usenet)
• Virtual bulletin boards
• Messages posted
• Can read and respond

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Mailing Lists Newsgroups

• Mailing list resources
• LSoft
• coollist
• Mailman
• Newsgroup resources
• newzbot.com
• Usenet Portal
• Google Groups

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Intelligent Agents

• As Internet grows, finding the right information
  becomes harder and harder
• New tools evolving intelligent search agent
• Software that automates searches
• Knows how to query parts of deep Web
• Can rank sort results

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Intelligent Agents

• Resources
• AgentLand
• BotSpot
• 123bots
• Popup-busters
• Intelligent Agents