1	Searching the World Wide Web
2	Our Goals Quick Look: What is the World Wide Web? Overview: Subject lists, portals, search engines What is a search engine, and how do they work? Using Google for Web searches Tips and Tricks – Getting the most from your searches
3	Quick Look: World Wide Web? Collection of hypertext documents Linked pages for easy movement (“click here”) WWW publishing a popular new medium Use browsers for ‘surfing’ the Web
4	A Little History Subject list/directory Yahoo! Is born in 1994 Search engines followed (first was “Gopher”) Search engines and Yahoo! transform into portals in the late ‘90s.
5	Three Methods of Searching WWW Subject List (or Directory) WWW Portal WWW Search Engine < Today’s focus
6	Subject Lists Subject lists are organized indexes that allow you to browse through lists of Web sites by subject or topic. Subject lists are created by people, like librarians or indexers.
7	Subject Lists Excellent for browsing Like visiting a library, like San Diego Public Library Clearly defined subjects like “art” or “geography”
8	Who Creates Subject Lists? Libraries Nonprofit organizations Dot-Com businesses but they are probably portals, too Researchers Students People like you
9	A Sample of Subject Lists Internet Public Library http://www.ipl.org/ Open Directory Project http://www.dmoz.org/ Librarian’s Index to the Internet http://www.lii.org/ Limits In general, do not search beyond their user-defined databases -- if they search at all Some don’t allow advanced search strategies Sometimes contain dead links if not maintained and regularly updated
10	Portals Portals offer a “one-stop” site look. Portals include e-mail, chat, auctions, news, weather, horoscopes, stock info, and more. Portals want to be YOUR starting point or “home page” Update: Portals declining, Excite, About.com, etc.
11	A Current Portal
12	A Sample of “Portals” Yahoo! : http://www.yahoo.com/ Lycos: http://www.lycos.com/ Go: http://www.go.com/ < Now minor AltaVista: http://www.altavista.com/ My “AOL”: http://my.aol.com/
13	For Finding & Searching… We Will Need a Search Engine…
14	Web Search Engines Search engines allow users to find words or subjects on a Web-wide scale. They search billions or millions of Web documents for your keywords through a computer-created database. They allow advanced searching techniques. They help you find ‘what’s out there’ (WWW)
15	Search Area of a Search Engine
16	Sample - Search Area of a Search Engine
17	How do the engines work? Search Engine Spiders/Crawlers Visit Web pages weekly or monthly to check for changes and new content Sometimes daily or hourly, like for “news” updates Allow people to submit sites to be added to their index Small computer programs or codes Some do not go as deep as others. First 100 or so keywords The entire full text (of a page or site) The top level of a site (which may have many levels) Graphics are usually not examined; but, Google and Alta Vista do index images
18	What Happens When I Search? Rankings and Results Search engines return a list of results. Name of the page URL (Web address) Some words from page Date or file size or type Rankings are determined by each engine. In results, highlighted link. One “click” takes you there (to the Web site or page).
19	A Sample Result List
20	Getting Started Learn about the various engines including help files and FAQ files. Use search strategies -- “build” your search. Try more than one search engine. Get comfort-level with your engine (practice).
21	Main Google Site
22	Search Engine Leaders The largest Search Engines on the Web are: 1. Google (46.5%) 2. Yahoo (20.6%) 3. MSN Search (7.8%) 4. Alta Vista (6.4%) 5. Terra Lycos (4.6%) 6. Ixquick (2.4%) 7. AOL Search (1.6%) Source: http://www.onestat.com/html/aboutus_pressbox3.html
23	Hands-On Practice on Google… Try out the searches on the next screen Open your browsers to http://www.google.com/ Questions – raise your hand Learn “one new thing” about Google today…
24	Trial “Hands-On” Search Questions Where is the USS Missouri stationed? What are the National Education Goals? Results 1 - 10 of about 16,600 vs. 1,540,000 What is the zip code for La Jolla, CA? What’s the address for the Hank Williams Jr. Fan Club?
25	Tips and Tricks – Getting the most from your searches Use quotes “word” to find exact phrases Use Google Advanced Search when having problems or want more control Re-try if too many results Watch word order – it makes a difference; put most important keyword first “Drill down” – follow the links
26	Special Googles… Main Web – http://www.google.com/ Images - http://images.google.com/ Newsgroups - http://groups.google.com/ Directory - http://directory.google.com/ (based on “Open Directory” data) News - http://www.google.com/news/ About - http://www.google.com/about.html Help - http://www.google.com/help/index.html
27	Trial “Hands-On” Special Google Search Questions Find an image of Robert Blake… Anything in newsgroups about origin of chicken parmesan? Find a directory listing for the Quail Botantical Gardens? What’s the news on the German shooting?
28	Have a Good Search Strategy What is your question? Write it out… What are the keywords? Nouns best… Input the terms. Important term first… Examine the results. Too many? Drill down… Keywords found? re-search. Try again if needed.
29	Specialized Searching People: http://www.switchboard.com/ Businesses: http://www.superpages.com/ Movies: http://us.imdb.com/ Government: http://www.usa.gov/ Newsgroup discussions: http://groups.google.com/ Metasearch engines search multiple search sites: http://www.dogpile.com/ http://www.northernlight.com/ San Diego Public Library’s leased databases
30	Summary The ever growing and changing Web offers subject lists/directories, portals, and search engines. Search engines keep changing, too. Google is one of the best search engines available today. Practice using it… Learning about search features and practice will make you a Search Master!