Effective Internet

Searching
 Why use the Internet
• Search for a question
• Research a topic
• Current research
• Variety of sources, a click away

• What other non-online

resources?
– Encyclopedia, book, dictionary,
Atlas, World Almanac
 Search Engines
• Collects copies of web pages from various host
servers
• Assembled into a data base
• Displayed according to relevancy and rank
• Search engines use a program to search and
retrieve web sites; spiders/crawl the web thru links
• Algorithm to determine rank; company ‘trade secret’
• Google, Ask Jeeves, AOL Search, AltaVista, MSN Search
 Four Search Strategies
• Keyword Searching
• Boolean
• Question
• Advanced
 Keyword Searching
• Enter terms to search
• Use quotation marks to search as a
phrase and keep the words linked together
• Common words are ignored (that, to,
which, a, the, …)
• + and – can be used to include or exclude
a word
 Boolean Searching - AND

president Washington

• Enter words connect with AND - it will include

sites where both words are found
• Uses: joining different topics
(ie. “global warming” AND California
 Boolean Searching - OR

dogs cats

• Enter words connect with OR - requires at least

one of the terms is found
• Uses: join similar or synonymous topics
(ie. “global warming” OR “greenhouse effect”)
 Boolean Searching - NOT

Washington school

• Enter words connect with NOT – searches for the first

term and excludes sites that have the second term
• Uses: join similar or synonymous topics
(ie. Washington NOT school)
 Boolean – (Nesting) and Near
• In a string of searching, terms placed in
parentheses are searched first
• Parentheses must be used to group items
if there is another Boolean operator being
used
• NEAR may be used to require words to be
found within 16 words of each other in the
pages returned
 Question Searching
• A question may be entered in the search
field of a search engine.
• Ask Jeeves is a search engine that
encourages the use of question searching
 Advanced Searching
• Advanced search features are offered on
many engines by going to an “Advanced
Search” page and making selections

• This is effective in narrowing search

returns to a specific topic or phrase
Google Advanced Search
 Steps to make contextualized
online search
1. Identify or choose a topic - if the topic is
not provided and you are free to choose the
content, choose something you are
interested in, new ideas, things, or ares you
talk with your classmates and friends or a
current new item.
2. Topic or task definition - also with the
help of the internet, use the Google search
or Wikipedia or other sources to be able to
define the topic or task
3. Identify methods of search - you can
either perform experiments, explore, or get a
survey of the subject matter and textual
content of the search.
4. Identify resources of your research -
reliable sources are very important to obtain
the rich and accurate information for your
research.
5. Make your research strategies - first, list
down all the keywords or specific topic to
search on the internet.
6. Compiling the research results -
strategies of handling large amount of data
is necessary for you to be able to shift
through them for your final analysis either to
keep or delete them.
7. Evaluate the results of your search - go
through the materials you have researched
and check them for usefulness, relevance to
yur research, reliability and accuracy.
8. Create a list of your reference for citation -
if is a good practice to keep your sources
updated for your footnotes and bibiliography.
 Improving Research Skills
1. Critical Thinking - is a very important
skill to develop in research since the internet
is full of valuable data.
2. Analytical skill - requires the ability to
look, verbalized, conceptualize and gather
data attuned to the context of the subject.
3. Problem solving capability - is the
ability to present solutions or solve problems
by presenting a decision based on the given
information.
4. Organized data mining - is the ability to present
solutions or solve problems by presenting a decision
based on the given information.
5. Research presentation - part of a good research is
writing skills, the ability to present the ideas and draw
conclusions form the research, be able to explain in
writing the purpose.
6. Creativity and developed imagination - is the ability
to look for alternative solutions to the problems needed
to solve in the research and thinking not only within the
context but also beyond the usual approaches to the
research objectives.
7. Computer Literacy - knowledge of the various
computer applications and tools when working with large
amout of data helps the researcher manage these
information.
 Getting’ it – Do you?

Why do search engines return different

results for the same search query?
 Getting’ it – Do you?

• Which Boolean search term broadens a

search?
• Which Boolean search term narrows a
search?
• What built-in tool in most search engines
is helpful in narrowing a search?