Searching

There's a big difference between using search engines (like Hotbot, Excite, Google) on the web and searching bibliographic databases for scholarly articles. This might seem obvious, but these differences are easy to forget if you don't use these tools very often.

• Search engines and directories are used to search freely accessible World Wide Web sites.
• Bibliographic databases (Eric, Medline) search indexes and abstracts of scholarly articles and books.

General Web Search Strategies

There are two basic kinds of Web searching. Search sites often provide both options, but it's important to know the difference:

• Computer-generated indexing (like Google), which means that a machine surfs the Web and makes indexes from the words on the pages it finds. Google currently claims over one billion sites in its index.
• Human-indexed directories, like Yahoo, consist of Web links chosen on content by real people. As a result, these directories are a lot smaller, but they make up for it by being more selective. Most search engine sites (now often called portals), now include both a directory and and an index. There are three main directories: Yahoo, LookSmart, and Open Directory. Aside from Yahoo, just about all these directories are derived from LookSmart and Open Directory.

Some Basic Tips

• Even the best search engine doesn't index the whole Web. If you don't find what you need, use more than one.
• Also use more than one kind of query. If a site that supports a Boolean search (AltaVista Advanced Search, for example) doesn't work, use one that ranks relevance (like Google or Hotbot).
• You can even use metasearch engines (like Dogpile or Metacrawler), which combine searches from other engines. But each engine processes requests differently, so you have more control if you search each site separately.
• You might be searching the same database under different names. This is not necessarily a bad thing, since the results will come back in a different order. But you ought to be careful not to waste your time with unnecessary duplication. Search Engine Watch lists all the major search sites and the engines they use.

Boolean Searching

Boolean syntax is a kind of search engine logic. Most search engines support at least some Boolean logic. The most common examples of Boolean search terms are the words "and," "or" and "not." "And" is used to join necessary words, "or" to join alternate words, and "not" to exclude words. You can also use quotation marks to search for phrases. Boolean searching is a powerful technique of narrowing a search. For more on this technique, look at Search Engine Watch's Search Engine Math.

Relevance Ranking

Search Engine Tutorials

Search Engine Tutorials

an excellent resource on using search engines. Anything you ever wanted to know about the technical aspects of searching is here. Search Engine Watch keeps up to date with the constant changes in this area, and they also offer a free newsletter to keep you informed of these changes.

Internet Search Tutorial (UC Berkeley)

a general tutorial to using and searching the Web. It has an excellent section on which search engines to use for what purpose, as well as tips on how to evaluate web pages. (Also see their Resource Evaluation Page.)

Internet Tutorials (University of Albany)

lists strategies for finding information on the Web. It includes information on which search engines to use for which type of information, as well as how to evaluate resources once you've found them.

To Humanities 347 Pathfinders Homepage

This page created by Christopher Ryland 25 August 2000. Last updated 28 July 2002.