Internet Search

Internet Search

Lecture # 3

What is Internet Search

A Web search engine is a tool designed to search for information on the World Wide Web

.

Browsing the Internet for information with the use of a search engine like Yahoo or Google.

Commonly used internet terminology

Bandwidth

How much stuff you can send through a connection.

Binary

Information consisting entirely of ones and zeros. Also, commonly used to refer to files that are not simply text files, e.g. images.

Blog

-- (

weB

LOG) A blog is basically a journal that is available on the

web

. The activity of updating a blog is "blogging" and someone who keeps a blog is a "blogger." Blogs are typically updated daily using software that allows people with little or no technical background to update and maintain the blog.

Download

Transferring data (usually a file) from a another computer to the computer you are using. The opposite of

upload

.

Email

FAQ

JPEG

-- (Joint Photographic Experts Group) JPEG is most commonly mentioned as a format for image files.

Network

Any time you connect 2 or more computers together so that they can share resources, you have a computer network

Portal

Usually used as a marketing term to described a Web site that is or is intended to be the first place people see when using the Web. Typically a "Portal site" has a catalog of web sites, a search engine, or both.

Literature Search & Internet Browser

SSRN

Science Direct

Emerald

Jstor

Scribd

Internet browser is used to get information about different topics.

How to Search the Internet Effectively

Search

Engines

Internet search sites can search enormous databases of Web pages, using titles, keywords or text

.

The challenge is to ask your question the right way, so that you don't end up overwhelmed with too many search results, underwhelmed with too few, or simply unable to locate the material that you need.

Getting Started

Before doing a search, it's important to define your topic as completely and succinctly as possible

.

Write down exactly what information you're looking

for

why you're looking for

it

and what you're

not

looking for

.

This will help you to discover the best keywords for your search.

Keywords

most

search engines work

best if you provide them with several keywords

.

So how do you determine which keywords will work best

?

Most users submit 1.5 keywords per search, which is not enough for an effective query - the recommended maximum is 6 to 8 carefully chosen words, preferably nouns and objects

.

Avoid verbs, and use modifiers only when they help to define your object more

precisely

Now you have your keywords. How do you enter them into the search engine?

Use of Phrases

Your most powerful keyword combination is the phrase

.

Phrases are combinations of two or more words that must be found in the documents you're searching for in the EXACT order shown

.

To be exact you can use quotation marks

, Some searches provide specific options for phrases, while others don't allow them at all; but most will allow you to enter a phrase in quotation marks.

Boolean Basics

"Boolean" searching (named after George Boole, the 19th-century mathematician who founded the field of symbolic logic) is a powerful technique that can narrow your search to a reasonable number of results, and increase the chance of those results being useful. 

The three most commonly used Boolean commands (or "operators") are

AND, OR

and

AND

NOT

.

AND

means "I want only documents that contain both/all words

.

For instance, the search "London" AND "Big Ben" AND "Buckingham Palace" AND "Trafalgar Square" would return only documents that contained all four keywords or phrases

.

AND is the most frequently used Boolean command.

OR

means "I want documents that contain either word; I don't care which."

The query "London" OR "Big Ben" OR "Buckingham Palace" OR "Trafalgar Square" would return all documents that contained even one of these four keywords or phrases.

AND NOT

means "I want documents that contain this word, but not if the document also contains another word

.“

The query "London" AND "Big Ben" AND NOT "Buckingham Palace" would return documents that include London and Big Ben, but not those that also include Buckingham Palace.

Formulating The Search Strategy

Planning the search

Regardless of the search tool being used, the development of an effective search strategy is essential if one hopes to obtain satisfactory results.

Formulation of the research question and its scope

Identification of important concepts within the question

Identification of search terms to describe those concepts

Consideration of synonyms and variation of those terms

Preparation of the search logic

The

most productive searches are those where the information seeker has spent time working out a search strategy

before

going online.

Work out your specific information need and identify the different major concepts and alternatives. For example, the topic

inorganic fertilizers

divides into two main concepts:

Inorganic fertilizers

Soil fertilization

Put ideas on paper in natural lang.

Examine each concept to find out as many synonyms and terms as you can think of

Evaluating Web Site: Criteria and Tools

The most important when evaluating Web sites is your search, your needs.

What are you using the Web for?

Entertainment?

Academic work?

Scholarly sources are traditionally very

strongly text-based