Internet/e-mail
Week 4 Notes
More on Searching the WWW
q Review from last week
q Remember to spell searches correctly
· use a good dictionary
· try www.m-w.com
·
or start word processor and use
its spell check capabilities
q try another search engine
q Drawbacks of using Address bar or Location bar for searches
q Keyword searches: more hints
· ignore the advertisements
· differentiate between a business and an informational Website
· use quote marks if necessary
· generally use lowercase
· do not include unnecessary words (e.g. the, of, with, a, etc.)
· try synonyms to expand search
· add another word to limit search
·
Advanced searches:
use + sign to include a term, and - sign to exclude a term
q Assignment 4:
http://hightech.redwoods.edu/internet
Web Search Engine Do Not's
q Do not type a URL in the search form if you already know the address.
q Do not type AND, OR, or NOT between words for Google.
q Do not forget to type spaces between words you are searching for.
q Do not type a complete sentence for most search engines.
q Do not type periods, commas, or question marks.
q Do not type where, how, in, the, or other common words.
q In general, do not use the address bar/location bar to conduct your searches. You will almost always get better results with a full-fledged search engine such as Google, Yahoo, AltaVista, Metacrawler, etc.
q Do not type spaces between + or - and the word you want to definitely include or definitely exclude.
q Do not believe everything that you read on the Internet.
q Do not give up if at first you don't succeed.
Web Search Engine Do's
q Know what you are looking for before you start searching. Take a few minutes to write down specific words that describe your topic.
q Be logical: type rhododendrons rather than flowers
q Be specific: type rhododendrons seed price rather than just rhododendrons
q If one word doesn't work, try a word that means the same (synonyms): type rhododendrons photos or try rhododendrons images
q Use quote marks ( " ) to find words together.
q If one search engine doesn't yield results, try another one.
q Realize that different search engines work differently. For example, Google doesn't work with AND, OR, NOT, but Yahoo and AltaVista do.
q It may help to read the help link to understand how the search engine works.
q Practice searching for information. Searching gets easier with experience.
q Realize that not all information is posted on the Web. Sometimes it is easier and faster to simply use a phonebook or the library.
Google > Search Solutions > All about Google > Help and How to Search
q Check out PC World's Find it on the Web Internet search tips.