User:Mookanah/Workshop 7: Online Information Gathering/Search Tools

Search Engines Recommended Search Engines

Activity: Using a Search Engine
A new search

a) Launch any of the following websites:

http://www.alltheWeb.com

http://www.google.com

b) Fill in a search query in the search bar and press the SEARCH button.

The information related to your search term(s) will be gathered and arranged on a search results.

From the search results page, you can narrow your search by either clicking on a search term associated with your query; or clicking on “Search within your results” link next to the search box at the bottom of your results page.

c) To save information found you may:

-	Add to favourites

-	Save as… (note URL somewhere for future reference)

-	Copy/paste into a word document

d) Click on the search tabs just above the search box to see News, Pictures, Video and Audio files related to your query.

e) To save images, right click and save picture as.

A dialog box will appear giving options of where to save your pictures or images.

f) Give your picture/image a name and click save

Searching for a whole phrase

a) Enter a phrase e.g. Audio Visual, in a search query and click “SEARCH”.

How many search results do you get?

b) Now enclose your query in quotation marks. How many do you get this time? Why?

Advanced Web Search

a) Launch the website http://www.alltheweb.com.

b) CLICK on “ADVANCED SEARCH” button

c) ENTER a query of what you wish to “search for” in the QUERY BOX.

Advanced search allows you to search for ALL the words, ANY of the words, or an EXACT phrase

d) SELECT the type of search, one at a time, and click SEARCH. State your observations.

Using Boolean Operators
Boolean Operators (AND, OR NOT), double quotes can help you to narrow or broaden your search.

a) CLICK on the radio button for BOOLEAN.

b) FILL IN a query using Boolean operators AND, OR and NOT, one at a time. For example Audio AND Visual, Audio OR Visual, and Audi NOT Visual


 * State the number of search results in each case.
 * Do you notice any difference when you use the Boolean Operators. Please explain

Advanced Search also enables you to search for


 * written in a certain language
 * created in a certain file format
 * that have been updated within a certain period of time
 * that contain numbers within a certain range
 * within a certain domain, or website
 * that don't contain "adult" material

You may go through these different filters to execute a more accurate search.

Important…
 * you are NOT searching the entire web as it exists at this moment.
 * You are actually searching a portion of the web, captured in a fixed index created at an earlier date.
 * Each search has different search procedures and will bring different results

Web Directories

Subject Gateways

What is a subject gateway?

Subject gateways and portals

Online Database

Online database - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

--Mookanah 09:18, 20 March 2009 (UTC)