Searching the Web
The web is full of information - billions of pages. How do you find anything?

Search Engines

Search engines are sites that index  information on web sites. They have different methods of exploring the web. Some require that sites register with them. Others use a variety of techniques to find web information.

If you click on the Search button on the Netscape Navigator Navigation bar. You go to Netscape's page of search engines. There are MANY search engines. Many try to carve out a special niche. Some organize information by topic (Directories),  some by searching several search engines at one time (Metasearch tools), and others which are single search engines or search engines in very specific subject areas. NO Search Engine is Best. Learn to use several for different purposes.
P. 101 - 103 in your text shows the popular search engines by category. New Search Engines appear  weekly.

Top Rated Search Tools all on one page from Berkeley
Great Place to send kids - Filtered Searches For Kids at http://www.minot.k12.nd.us/searching.html
Ruth MacKinnon's Search Engine Collection - all sorts of general and specialized searches - try Canada Post, Canada411, Inference Find, Canadiana, Ask an Expert Page, Gateway to Educational Materials, and Bartleby.
Ron MacKinnon's Basic Reference Sheet contains information about Search Engines as well as many other important reference sites.
*Search Engine Showdown gives all sorts of statistics at http://www.notess.com/search/

Search Strategies

You must analyze your subject. Is it broad or specific? Are there definite keywords you can use in your search?

  1. Use the search engine best suited for the topic to enter your search criteria.
  2. If your search does not yield results, try other keywords or another search engine

  3. University of California, Berkeley Library Five Step Search Strategy Guide

    Seven Steps to Better Searching is an easy way to remember strategy - use with kids to teach them how to search - at http://edweb.sdsu.edu/WebQuest/searching/sevensteps.html

    Search Tools Chart lists many engines and their rules at http://www.infopeople.org/src/chart.html

 Finding information by topic or subject trees

Yahoo! is one of the perennial favorites to internet information by topic. such as Blue Whales. There is also a Yahoo for kids called Yahooligans which will return kidsafe sites only and a Yahoo Canada

Often if you just type in words and do a search you end up with millions of hits most site Most sites offer an advanced search such as Yahoo's advanced search it will often help you narrow down the list. Each one of the sights have a different syntax for their advanced searches.
 

Searching by keyword. Most of the web search engines are the keyword search variety. This takes less effort than subject trees. Two of the more useful search engines are Altavista and Inference Find


  1. Read chapter 4, Pp. 91 -111 by Wednesday, January 24, 2001 (Chinese New Year - this being Year of the Snake)
  2. Assignment# 1  Due Monday, January 29, 2001
The purpose of this assignment is to have you  use a number of different search engines in order to compare their effectiveness for  a specific search. Use a good search string to find lesson plans in your particular teachable. ( example: "grade 5 math lesson plans" ) Put this exact search criteria into all of he following search engines and evaluate the effectiveness of the various search engines in getting good reliable and relevant results:
Google, Fast, IxQuick, Metacrawler, Yahoo, Altavista, Infoseek, Northern Lights, and Infomine
In a message to the class listserv ed467@cleopatra.stfx.ca report the following:

The exact search string used in all searches
The name of each search engine above followed by the number of hits resulting
Discuss: Which 2 search engines in your opinion resulted in the best results considering the following criteria:



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by Ruth MacKinnon