Web Search

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Web Search Strategies
Where do I find it?
Created by Connie Campbell
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Finding it...
Directories or Search Engines

• Directories
• Maintained by humans
• General or Subject Related
• YahooGeneral
• Elementary Educational Internet ProjectsSubject
  Related

• Search Engines
• Maintained by computer program
• that searches the web and collects
• data
• More inclusive than directory
• Keyword searchable

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Before you search...

• Identify concepts within your topic
• Identify terms related to those concepts
• Consider synonyms and variations of those terms

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Choose your search engine

• Size of the database
• Search features
• Result list features
• Online help screens

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Alta Vista

• Size 31 million URLs
• Simple and advanced searches (Boolean and
  truncation)
• Result ranked by relevancy
• Online instructions

Altavista http//altavista.digital.com/
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Alta Vista

• Boolean and truncation)
• Result ranked by relevancy
• Online instructions

Altavista http//altavista.digital.com/
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Boolean Searching
Boolean (boo le an) Searching allows you to
help refine your search so you can get better
results using three basic operators AND, OR, and
NOT.
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Boolean Searching
and
Returns pages with both terms.
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Boolean Searching
or
Returns pages with either terms.
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Boolean Searching
not
Returns pages with one term but not the other.
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Truncation Searching
Truncation (trun ka shun) searching allows you
to help refine your search using the wildcard
symbol. It provides you the ability to enter part
of a word to make sure you retrieve documents
that contain all parts of that word.
Example teach will yield teach, teacher,
teaching
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Excite

• Size 50 million URLs
• Only Simple options at first screen
• Result ranked by relevancy
• Allows Boolean searches

Excite http//www.excite.com/
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Lycos

• Allows searching for Sounds, Pictures, the Top 5
  (their opinion), books, and personal homepages.
• Result ranked by 10, 15, 20, 30 or 40 per page.
• Provides Boolean searches

Lycos http//www.lycos.com/
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Infoseek

• Size 50 million URLs
• Provides use of double quotations ("-") around
  words that must be searched together or
  capitalize to find a phrase.
• Refines a search with a "Search only these
  results" option.

Infoseek http//www.infoseek.com/
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HotBot

• Size 50 million URLs
• Provides for keyword search by "all the words",
  "any of the words", "exact phrase", "the person",
  "links to this URL" and "Boolean expression".
• Refines advanced queries, like "Date" -
• which limits your search to "last week", "last 2
  weeks, "last month.

HotBot http//www.hotbot.com/
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Parallel Web Search Engines
Parallel Web Search Engines are search engines
that do not maintain their own database, but
search other search engines to bring results.
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Parallel Web Search Engines
Dogpile http//www.dogpile.com Mamma
http//www.mamma.com Ask Jeeves
http//www.askjeeves.com Metacrawler
http//www.metacrawler.com All 4 One
http//www.all4one.com
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Children's Search Engines
These search engines are designed especially for
children Yahooligans http//www.yahooligans.com
Ask Jeeves for Kids http//www.ajkids.com
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Specialized Search Engines

• Translate Speech Alta Vista Translator
• http//babelfish.altavista.digital.com/cgi-bin/tra
  nslate?

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Specialized Search Engines
Software Search Engines Filez http//www.filez.co
m Cnet http//cnet.com/cdoor/0,238,1017,00.html?s
n.cn.fd.lftnav.Downloads Softseek
http//www.softseek.com Shareware
http//www.shareware.com
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Specialized Search Engines
Images and Sounds Search Engines Lycos Multimedia
select pictures or
sounds http//www.lycos.com/lycosmedia.html Filez
Selection made at drop down screen
http//www.filez.com
Search
Windows-All Graphics Wav
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Specialized Search Engines
Visit Daves Virtual Library with links to an
endless variety of search engines and online
reference tools.