John Cox

1
The Search for Quality productive Web
searching

• John Cox
• James Hardiman Library
• NUI, Galway

2
The Problem

• 7.3 million new Web pages daily
• Quality varies, mainly due to ease of publication
  and lack of checks
• Quality is in the eye of the beholder
• Over-dependence on general search engines
• Simplistic use of search tools

3
Some Usage Findings

• NUI, Galway Library survey, March 2000
• Search engines cited by 79 out of 167 respondents
  
• Exclusively used for, eg Nazism, defamation law,
  hepatitis C
• Less than 50 satisfied
• Other surveys show very simplistic use
• 33 users enter one word only
• Further 33 users enter two words only
• UK survey indicates 80 searchers waste some time
• US survey shows search rage within 12 minutes

4
Key Question

• How much better than users are information staff
  at finding high-quality information on the Web
  and what leadership do we provide?
• 5 key actions needed

5
5 Key Actions

• Get the best from the search engines
• Go vertical subject-specific sources
• Take time to experiment, eg helper software
• Exploit the invisible Web
• Actively promote quality searching

6
1 Get the Best from the Search Engines

• Understand how they work
• Know their limitations
• Use advanced features
• Search more than one
• Know when not to use them

7
Search Engine Components

• Crawler follows links
• Indexer builds database
• Query processor lets us search

8
Common Limitations

• Profit-oriented
• Paid entries listed at top
• Out of date
• Partial site indexing
• Technically must exclude many sites, eg
• Password-protected
• Registration needed
• Database-driven
• Hidden search facilities

9
Understanding Google

• Strengths
• Coverage
• Cached pages
• File types, eg PDF,.doc,.ppt
• Relevance link popularity
• Beyond pages images, newsgroups

• Weaknesses
• Poor Boolean support
• No truncation
• Limited date searching
• Invisible search facilities
• Two pages per site displayed by default

10
Google coverage
11
Google search modes
Basic
Advanced
12
Google file types
13
Google newsgroup search
14
Google cached pages 1
15
Google cached pages 2
16
Google Boolean limitations 1
Correct syntax medline OR embase
17
Google Boolean limitations 2
Correct syntax medline embase (or use Advanced
Search)
18
Google no truncation
Use clinton (tax OR taxes OR taxation)
19
Google few date limits
20
Google hidden features 1
Discovered at www.searchengineshowdown.com
(buried in Google help)
21
Google hidden features 2
Partial URL v Specific Site Search Not possible
on Advanced Search despite Domains limit
22
Other Search Engines

• Always worth searching more than one, eg
• All the Web (FAST)
• AltaVista
• Lycos/HotBot
• Northern Light (?)
• Overlap may be limited
• Different ranking criteria

23
2. Go Vertical specific tools
24
Horses for Courses 1
25
Horses for Courses 2
26
Horses for Courses 3
27
3. Experimentation

• Try out add-on search software, eg
• BullsEye Pro
• Copernic
• Copernic Summariser

28
BullsEye Pro searching
29
BullsEye Pro Webliographies
30
Copernic
31
Copernic Summariser
32
4 Explore the Invisible Web

• Material, often of high quality, that general
  search engines cant or wont index
• Unlinked pages
• Non-HTML file types, eg audio, video, PDF
• Authenticated sites
• Databases
• Much greater in size than visible Web

33
invisibleweb.com
34
invisible-web.net
35
WebData
36
Librarians Index to the Internet
37
5. Promote Quality Searching

• Old sources
• Old habits
• New media

38
Old Sources
39
Old Habits
Concept analysis
Search strategy formulation
Critical source selection
Patience
Flexibility
Critical appraisal of search hits
40
New Media
Library Web Site
E-newsletter
http//www.hw.ac.uk/libWWW/irn/irn.html
Weblog
41
Towards a Brighter Future

• Automatically-generated, accurate metadata
• Smarter search engines
• More quality-sensitive
• More penetrative
• XML structured data

42
References

• Sherman, Chris and Price, Gary The invisible Web
  uncovering information sources search engines
  can't see. Medford, N.J. Information Today,
  2001. ISBN 091096551X. (accompanying database at
  http//invisible-web.net)
• Search Engine Watch http//www.searchenginewatch.
  com
• Search Engine Showdown www.searchengineshowdown.c
  om