Using Internet Search Engines to Find Web Sites

Web sites can be very useful sources of information. Use Web sites for

• background information
• current information
• images or multimedia information
• information from special interest groups, associations and local and national organizations
• international information
• popular information
• statistics

What Are Search Engines?

Internet search engines are used to find all types of information and media on the Internet. Search engines provide lists of Web sites. Each engine searches differently and finds different information. No search engine will search the entire Internet. Use several engines if you are doing research.

There are hundreds of Internet search engines available. Lists of search engines can be found on the Web from from Yahoo. Detailed lists and analysis of search engines can be found at Traffick.com, Search Engine Watch, and InfoPeople Best Search Tools.

How To Search in Search Engines

It's worth knowing a little about how search engines work in order to understand why you get different results from different search engines. When you use a search engine it seems like you are directly searching the whole Web, but that's not really what happens. You are really searching a database or index of URL links. You can only find links to sites that are included in the search engine's index. These links may have been collected by a program called a "Web crawler" or by a human evaluator. Quite often links are displayed because someone paid a fee to have their Web site included.

There are generally two ways to search an engine, a directory search or a keyword search.

Directory Search:

Using categories, like those in Yahoo, or Google, a searcher follows logical links by clicking on narrower and narrower topics, without entering anything in a search box or form. For example if you wanted to find information about Saturn cars in Google, you would select "more >>", then click on Directory and look for the broadest category related to your topic. Continue to select narrower categories in the directory until your subject is reached. The categories you would probably select would be:

• Business
• > Automotive
• > Saturn

The main advantages of using a category or directory search include:

• It often results in a more controlled search with fewer results/hits
• Sites may be selected by human editors rather than computer programs
• Usually the results will be more relevant
• You won't waste time looking through unrelated sites about the planet Saturn

TIP: Try using Google's other search options:

• Select "Images" to find pictures on the Web
• Select "Groups" to access Web discussion groups (remember these were discussed in Module 1)
• Select "News" to read and search for news stories and events, this is similar to CNN

Keyword Search

Select a search engine and enter keywords of your choosing into the search box. The search engine retrieves the Web sites that match the keyword(s) you have entered. Often hundreds or thousands of sites will be retrieved. The more words added, the fewer results are retrieved. Most search engines allow use of search techniques, such as Boolean logic and truncation, to create effective search statements. Most search engines allow for more complex searches by linking to pop down menus or "Advanced Search" or "Power Search" or "Help" from the search engine home page. Each search engine provides detailed help information from its home page. Always look for and read these help pages when first using a search engine.

To improve your results from any search engine, you can indicate how you want your search words handled by using some basic symbols. Most search engines (except Google) also allow Boolean logic, but these may only be available in advanced searches.

TIP: You can combine these symbols when you conduct a search for a more specific search.

How Search Engines Work

When you enter your search statement into a search engine, the engine's program will:

• analyze your search terms
• compare them to the Web sites contained in its index
• select the ones that match your search statement
• and finally display the URLs in some kind of ranked order

Search engines rank sites in different ways:

• some engines list sites by how many times your keywords appear. The more often a keyword is found, the higher the rank
• some engines rank sites by counting how many other sites are linked to them
• some engines put paid listings on top

Programmers are constantly trying to find new ways to make search engines easier to use. For example, the Ask Jeeves search engine uses natural language search statements so you can ask a question as if you were speaking. A computer program then tries to analyze the search terms to find intent of the question.

TIP: There are many things on the Web that search engines can't find. For example, they usually won't find:

• the contents of a library catalog
• articles listed in an article database
• postings to an online newsgroup
• individual newspaper articles
• definitions in an online thesaurus and so on.

Search engines index the Web.

Exercise

• Choose at least two keywords relating to your research topic
• Using your keywords, create an appropriate search statement. Remember to use help links from the search engine's home page for tips on searching
• Enter your keyword(s) into the search box
• Find Web sites on your topic
• Notice if the items ranked at the top are paid listings
• Try doing the same search using Google Directory and compare your results
• Bookmark (or use Favorites) to save useful URL's (Web site address).
• Print, save or email information as needed