Internet search tools

1
Internet search tools techniques

• Hilda Kruger, Ben Fouché Jerall Toi
• www.knowlead.co.za
• Released under a Creative Commons license
• See http//creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2
  .5/

2
Introduction

• Do you feel like you'll never keep up with all
  the great resources available on the Internet?
  I've got news for you you won't. But that's
  okay. There are so many great resources on the
  Internet that you don't have to keep up with
  absolutely everything.
• (Tara Calishain, 2004 online Available from
  www.researchbuzz.com/sevenways.pdf)

3
Information trends...(OCLC, 2004 Available from
www.oclc.org/info/2004trends)

• The rapid unbundling of content from
  traditional containers such as books, journals
  and CDs ? information consumer format agnostic
• Access provided on an as-needed basis to the
  information consumer ? micro-payment for
  micro-content
• Content created, published and shared outside of
  the traditional structure of the library

4
The classic model of information retrieval

• Essentially, a user, driven by an information
  need, constructs a query in some query language.
  The query is submitted to a system that selects
  from a collection of documents (corpus), those
  documents that match the query as indicated by
  certain matching rules. A query refinement
  process might be used to create new queries
  and/or to refine the results.(Broder, 2001)

5
Browsersthe tool used to explore the WWW

• Firefox
• http//www.mozilla.com/firefox/
• See also Extensions Add-Ons
• Microsoft Internet Explorer
• http//www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/default.mspx
• Netscape
• http//browser.netscape.com/ns8/
• More information on Web browsers
  _at_http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_browser

A Web browser is an application used to access
information on the WWW
6
Bookmarklets

• Bookmarklets are a special kind of a bookmark
  (or favorite). A standard bookmark consists of
  two parts a URL and a bookmark name. Instead of
  a standard URL, a bookmarklet uses JavaScript to
  become a type of mini-program. These brief
  programs can do a variety of actions such as
  providing a pop-up calculator, changing the
  display characteristics of the current page, or
  taking selected text on the page and passing it
  off to some search engine.
• (Notess, 2003 online Available from
  http//www.infotoday.com/online/jul03/OnTheNet.sht
  ml)

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Useful tools for information retrieval personal
information management
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Useful tools social softwareExample
http//del.icio.us
del.icio.us is a social bookmarks manager. It
allows you to easily add sites you like to your
personal collection of links, to categorize those
sites with keywords, and to share your collection
not only between your own browsers and machines,
but also with others.
Social bookmarking is an activity performed over
a computer network that allows users to save and
categorize a personal collection of bookmarks and
share them with others. (http//en.wikipedia.org/w
iki/Social_bookmarking)
NEW http//www.google.com/bookmarks/
9
Useful tools search toolbars

• Google Toolbar Internet Explorer Firefox
  versions
• http//toolbar.google.com/
• http//toolbar.google.com/firefox/index.html
• Groowe Toolbar
• http//www.groowe.com/
• MSN Toolbar
• http//toolbar.msn.com
• Beware! Installs desktop searchwith toolbar

A toolbar is a row, column, or block of onscreen
buttons or icons that, when clicked, activate
certain functions of the program.
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Useful tools desktop search tools
A desktop search program is a piece of software
that lets you search your own hard drive, your
emails and the web from the same search
form. (www.pandia.com)

• Google Desktop
• http//desktop.google.com/
• MSN Desktop Search
• http//desktop.msn.com/
• Copernic Desktop Search
• http//www.copernic.com/en/products/desktop-search
  /index.html
• More information on desktop search tools
  _at_http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desktop_search

11
Useful tools alerts
Google Alerts is a service offered by search
engine company Google which notifies you (by
email) about the latest web and news pages of
your choice. (wikipedia)

• Google Alerts
• http//www.google.com/alerts
• necessary to register with Google first
• Yahoo! News Alerts
• http//beta.alerts.yahoo.com
• necessary to register with Yahoo! first

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Useful toolspersonal archiving software

• Furl
• http//www.furl.net/index.jsp
• Google Notebook
• http//www.google.com/notebook
• See also Bloglines Clippings
• See also Firefox extension Scrapbook
• http//amb.vis.ne.jp/mozilla/scrapbook/index.php?l
  angen

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Creating a search strategy
14
Creating a search strategydeveloping an
information-seeking routine
Think!

• Identify a search topic? start with a natural
  language question
• Isolate keywords from your sentence
• Consider alternates for keywords
• Abbreviations? Acronyms? Phrases? Synonyms?
  Variant spellings? Equivalent terms? Multiple
  meanings? Broader terms? Narrower terms?
• Combine this information into a search query ?
  syntax
• Evaluate search results
• (Friesen online Available from
  http//www.learningspaces.org/n/searchaide/)

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Creating a search strategyusing Web reference
sources

• Thesaurus.com also Dictionary.com
• http//thesaurus.reference.com/
• Web WordNet
• http//wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn
• More information _at_ http//wordnet.princeton.edu/
• Acronyma
• http//www.acronyma.com/
• Wikipedia
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
• see also A9 Reference search

16
Web search engines syntax
Syntax The rules governing the construction of
search expressions in search tools.
www.webliminal.com/internet-today/it-gloss.html
17
Google quiz!How do you

• Restrict your search results to those with all of
  your query words in the title?
• allintitle
• Restrict your search results to those with your
  query words in the URL of the Web page?
• allinurl
• Specify that you want to see a list of Web pages
  similar to a page youve specified?
• related
• Restrict your results to Web sites in a specific
  domain?
• site

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Google quiz!How do you

• Tell Google to search for synonyms of your query
  words?
• Specify that you want a list of Web pages that
  link to a specific Web page?
• link
• Find a definition in Google?
• define
• Restrict your results to those with a specific
  filetype, e.g. pdf
• filetype
• More information on Google search syntax _at_
  http//www.google.com/help/basics.html
  http//www.google.com/help/refinesearch.html

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More, more, more ... http//books.google.com/ http
//scholar.google.com/ http//answers.google.com/a
nswers/ http//www.google.com/dirhp http//pages.g
oogle.com http//labs.google.com/
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More Web search engines

• MSN search
• http//search.msn.com/
• Yahoo
• http//www.yahoo.com/
• A9
• http//a9.com
• More information on search engines _at_
  http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_enginehttp//
  computer.howstuffworks.com/search-engine.htm/print
  able

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Meta-search engines
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What are meta-search engines?
... and why usemetasearch engines?

• Meta-search engines do not crawl the web
  compiling their own searchable databases.
  Instead, they search the databases of multiple
  sets of individual search engines simultaneously,
  from a single site and using the same interface.
  Meta-searchers provide a quick way of finding out
  which engines are retrieving the best results for
  you in your search.
• ?More information on meta-search engines _at_ Bare
  Bones 101 online http//www.sc.edu/beaufort/libr
  ary/pages/bones/lesson2.shtml
• Meta-search searches multiple search engines.
  Using more search engines means a better overall
  coverage of the Web.
• (MetaCrawler)

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What makes a good meta-search engine?

• Accept complex queries every search tool has its
  own syntax a meta-search engine should translate
  its own syntax into the syntax of every source it
  searches
• Integrate results and eliminate duplicates many
  search engines results will include the same
  website a meta-search engine should remove
  duplicates, and rank results higher that appear
  in more engines

Limitation Certain search engines do not allow
meta-search engines to include it
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Examples of meta-search engines

• Clusty
• http//clusty.com
• Ixquick
• http//www.ixquick.com
• Jux2
• http//www.jux2.com/
• Mamma
• http//www.mamma.com
• Dogpile
• http//www.dogpile.com
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metasearch_engine

Rollyo ?Roll Your Own? http//rollyo.com/index.htm
l
More information on meta-search engines _at_
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The living Web
The living web is composed of sites that update
on a daily basis.
www.daypop.com/info/about.htm
Bernstein online Available from
http//www.alistapart.com/articles/writeliving/
Some parts of the web are finished, unchanging
creations as polished and as fixed as books or
posters. But many parts change all the time
26
What comprises the living Web?

• News sites bring up-to-the-minute developments,
  ranging from breaking news and sports scores to
  reports on specific industries, markets, and
  technical fields
• Weblogs also called Blogs, journals, and other
  personal sites provide a window on the interests
  and opinions of their creators
• Corporate weblogs, wikis, knowledge banks,
  community sites, and workgroup journals provide
  shared news and knowledge among co-workers and
  supply-chain stakeholders
• (Bernstein online Available from
  http//www.alistapart.com/articles/writeliving/)

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The living Web

• Newsmap
• http//www.marumushi.com/apps/newsmap
• 10x10
• http//tenbyten.org/10x10.html
• Wikipedia
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
• Weblogs Compendium
• http//www.lights.com/weblogs/
• Blogger
• http//www.blogger.com/start

Newssites
Wikis
Blogs
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Finding blogs newsfeeds

• Google Blog Search
• http//blogsearch.google.com/
• Technorati
• http//www.technorati.com/
• Feedster
• http//www.feedster.com/
• Ask Blogs Feeds
• http//www.ask.com/?toolbls

More information on blogs _at_ http//en.wikipedia.o
rg/wiki/Blog
29
Syndication Aggregators
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Example of an entry in a feed(Nottingham, 2005)

• Earth Invaded
• http//news.example.com/2004/12/17/invasio
  n
• The earth was attacked by an
  invasion fleet
• from halfway across the galaxy luckily, a
  fatal
• miscalculation of scale resulted in the entire
  armada
• being eaten by a small dog.

31
Syndication Aggregators

• Syndication means that when you publish your
  blog, a machine-readable representation of your
  blog that can be picked up and displayed on other
  web sites and information aggregation tools is
  automatically generated
• Special pieces of software called Newsreaders (or
  Aggregators) can scan these feeds, automatically
  letting you know when the sites have updated
• Various Newsreaders/Aggregators are listed at
• http//www.atomenabled.org/everyone/atomenabled/in
  dex.php?c5

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Syndication Aggregators

• Sage
• http//sage.mozdev.org/
• Bloglines
• http//www.bloglines.com/
• Google Reader
• http//www.google.com/reader/
• Firefox Live Bookmarks

33
Fee versus free
34
Free versus feeOn the Net versus Via the Net

• The vast majority of workers seek free
  information on the Internet. But many important
  business sources are not available for free on
  the Web. And because searches on the Web cannot
  be aggregated, finding useful information is
  difficult and time consuming. The free
  information on the Internet actually comes at a
  substantial cost to the enterprise. (Factiva,
  2002)
• Content consumers will tolerate some costs for
  content they value but that value is increasingly
  related to control over the content delivery
  options, filtering, personalization and
  convenience. (OCLC Marketing staff)

35
Requirements for an effectiveonline information
source(http//www.factiva.com/collateral/files/wh
itepaper_feevsfree_0504.pdf)

• Advanced search features
• Reliability authority information on which
  decisions are based must come from authoritative,
  reviewed edited sources
• Updated archived must provide timely access to
  the most up-to-date information extensive
  archives
• Aggregated information sources should be
  aggregated searchable within a single
  interface(Bates, 2004)

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Requirements for an effectiveonline information
source (Bates, 2004 http//www.factiva.com/collat
eral/files/whitepaper_feevsfree_0504.pdf)

• Full selection of information e.g. newswires,
  industry newsletters, daily business press, trade
  journals, industry analysts reports, historical
  financials
• Ready-to-download information information in a
  format that is easy to download/email/print
• Updating feature electronic clipping services /
  alerts
• Auditable payment within parameters of company
  purchasing processes(Bates, 2004)

37
Advanced search features

• Boolean operators ? operators that help you
  narrow or broaden your search
• Field searching e.g. AU author, KW keywords,
  SU subject, TI title
• Truncation the process of removing prefixes and
  suffixes from query terms e.g. econom will find
  economy, economics, economical, economist etc.

38
Advanced search features

• Wildcards special characters used to represent
  either any single character or any number of
  characters e.g. organi?ation will find
  organisation and organization
• Phrase searching typically, when a phrase is
  enclosed by double quotations marks, the exact
  phrase is searched e.g. knowledge management
• Limiters let you narrow the focus of your search
  so that the information retrieved from the
  databases you search is limited according to the
  values you select

39
Advanced search features
Always look for a Search tips option

• Expanders let you broaden the scope of
  yoursearch. They do this by widening your search
  toinclude words related to your keywords or
  including the actual text of the full text
  results in your search
• Thesaurus a controlled vocabulary of terms that
  assists in more effectively searching the
  database
• Proximity searches use a proximity search to
  search for two or more words that occur within a
  specified number of words (or fewer) of each
  other in the databases e.g. Near Operator (N) -
  N5 finds the words if they are within five words
  of one another regardless of the order in which
  they appear

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Open contentgood quality content is leaking out
of its containersand making its way to the open
Web (OCLC, 2004)

• Open content, coined by analogy with "open
  source," (though technically it is actually
  share-alike) describes any kind of creative work
  including articles, pictures, audio, and video
  that is published in a format that explicitly
  allows the copying of the information. Content
  can be either in the public domain or under a
  license like the GNU Free Documentation License.
  "Open content" is also sometimes used to describe
  content that can be modified by anyone there is
  no closed group like a commercial encyclopedia
  publisher responsible for all the editing.
• (Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia online
  Available from http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_c
  ontent)

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Creative Commons Licenses
Seehttp//creativecommons.org/http//search.cre
ativecommons.org/
42
Open content open archiving
initiatives

• Social Science Research Network
• http//www.ssrn.com/
• OAIster
• http//oaister.umdl.umich.edu/o/oaister/
• Networked Digital Library of Theses and
  Dissertations
• http//www.ndltd.org/
• Wikipedia
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
• DARE
• http//www.darenet.nl/en/page/language.view/search
  .page

43
Internet subject directories / guides
44
Internet subject directories / guides

• A subject directory is a catalog of sites
  collected and organized by humans. (Flanagan,
  c2003)
• A website that categorises Web documents
  according to subjects, or categories and
  subcategories. (Behrens, 2000)
• Directories classify Web documents into a
  arbitrary subject classification scheme.
  (CompletePlanet)
• Involve human intervention in selecting and
  organising resources ? cover fewer resources but
  provide more focus and guidance for topics they
  cover (ALA, 2004)

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Example of selection criteriaThe Internet Scout
Project

• Content
• What is the scope of the content? Who is the
  intended audience? What is its purpose? Is it up
  to date? Is it accurate (as far as we can
  determine)?
• Authority
• Who is the author (this is crucial, in that we
  rarely select anonymous pages)? Is the author
  likely to be authoritative (as far as we can
  tell)?
• Presentation
• How is the site organized? Is it easy to
  navigate? Does it depend on graphics, and if so
  does the provider maintain a separate, text-only
  version?

46
Example of selection criteriaThe Internet Scout
Project

• Information maintenance
• Is the site "alive ? is it maintained/updated on
  a regular basis (exception designated archives)
• Availability
• Do links at a site work (We check the main page
  of each site for availability at least three
  times in the days before the Scout Report is
  released)
• Cost
• Free or fee?
• (http//scout.wisc.edu/Reports/selection.php)

47
Internet subject directories / guides
Best of the Web Subject guide/s

• Open Directory Project
• http//www.dmoz.org
• Infomine
• http//infomine.ucr.edu/
• Resource Discovery Network
• http//www.rdn.ac.uk/
• BUBL LINK Catalogue of Internet Resources
• http//bubl.ac.uk/
• Librarians Internet Index
• http//lii.org/
• Yahoo! Directory
• http//dir.yahoo.com

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The invisible Web ? The opaque Web
What's invisible today may become visible
tomorrow. (Dennis O'Connor)
49
The invisible Web

• Also called the Deep Web or Hidden Web
• What is it?The Visible Web is what you see in
  the results pages from general Web search
  engines. Its also what you see in almost all
  subject directories. The Invisible Web is what
  you cannot retrieve in the search results and
  other links contained in these types of
  tools(UC Berkeley tutorial, 2004 online
  Available from http//www.lib.berkeley.edu/Teachin
  gLib/Guides/Internet/InvisibleWeb.html)

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Types of invisibility

• Private Web technically indexable pages that
  have deliberately been excluded from search
  engines by Web page designers ? Robot Exclusion
  Protocol
• Proprietary Web only accessible to people who
  have agreed to special terms in exchange for
  seeing the content ? often involves fees to get
  access e.g. fee-based commercial databases
• Truly Invisible Web dynamically-generated Web
  pages, created on-the-fly ? contents dont exist
  until you search for the information

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Searching the invisible Web
Think of it as being able to reach the front
doors of a bookstore, but not being able to look
inside at the books (Schlein, 2002)

• ProFusion
• http//www.profusion.com/index.htm
• CompletePlanet
• http//aip.completeplanet.com
• Your subject database or archive or repository
  or E.g. intitlelaw repository OR
  intitlelaw database OR

Findmore!
52
Keeping up to date with searchtools techniques
53
Good places to start
Join the mailing lists!
Subscribe to the blogs!

• http//www.pandia.com
• http//searchenginewatch.com/
• http//www.batesinfo.com/tip.html
• http//www.researchbuzz.com
• http//battellemedia.com/
• http//www.resourceshelf.com/
• Use your search skills!
• E.g. dmoz ? Computers ? Internet ? Searching

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Evaluating Web resources
55
Evaluating Web resources

• The Internet is a mass of information (that is
  the nature of the beast) - statistics, stories,
  pictures, research, and unfortunately, myths and
  lies. Everything is given 'equal billing', there
  is no five-star rating system that tells us that
  information on Web site A is of more value or
  credence than Web site B. It is up to us as the
  consumers of information to reflect and assess
  what is right and true ... to develop
  information literacy(Lewis, 2002 online
  Available from http//www.firstmonday.org/issues/
  issue7_8/lewis/index.htmll3)

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Evaluating Web resources(Trit, 2002 online
Available from http//www.library.auckland.ac.nz/
instruct/evaluate.htm)

• Who is responsible for providing the information
  contained in a resource?
• If you can't find out who the creator of a
  resource is, this may, in itself, be a reason to
  reject it.
• Why has the information been published on the
  Internet?
• Motivation ? Advertising? Entertainment? Hoax?
  ?
• Where was the information published?
• Part of a Web site or a bigger resource? ? Logo?
  URL?
• When was the resource published or updated?
• Maintenance?
• How accurate is the content?
• How free from error is the information? Can the
  information be verified against other sources?

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Citing Web resources
58
Citation tools

• Landmarks Citation Machine
• http//citationmachine.net/index.php
• 21st Century Information Fluency Project Portal
• http//21cif.imsa.edu/tools/citation/
• Style Sheets for Citing Resources available _at_
• http//www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Int
  ernet/Style.html
• How will you find more information on citing
  specific resources?
• Search! E.g. citation style guides
• Exercise Create a citation for the following Web
  resource using the Harvard method of referencing
  http//www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue8_12/veale/
  index.html

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Thank you!

• hk_at_knowlead.co.za bf_at_knowlead.co.za