Searching the World Wide Web
Before we go any further, let’s get our terminology straight. Is the Internet the same thing as the Web? The Web, short for World Wide Web, is part of the Internet, which is a network of interconnected computers that transmit data and carry various forms of information. The World Wide Web is a collection of websites (web pages), each having a unique URL (Uniform Resource Locator), connected together with hyperlinks.
There is almost a billion websites on the Internet now. Finding the information you need is getting more and more difficult. A simple search can return up to 10,000 hits. You’ll need several lifetimes to find the answers to your questions… unless you organize your search. To organize your search means making it simple and precise.While Google is the most popular search engine and has the largest database, it is certainly not the only search engine. Other popular search engines that use different algorithms to accomplish the same task are: Ask.com, Yahoo.com, Live.com, Clusty.com.
Note that most instructors get do not allow using results from web search engines. Can you guess why? Save your answer for our class on Monday. Some that do, ask that students carefully evaluate the websites they use. How do you evaluate information on the web? http://library.stfranciscollege.edu/evaluating.htm
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/Evaluate.html
Boolean Operators
Click on the links below to read the tutorials. Don’t let the term “boolean” make you nervous. The term is named after the British 19th Century mathematician George Boole. Boolean logic is the base of digital electronics. You don’t need to know the details and intricacies of Boolean logic; but you should definitely learn the basics of using Boolean operators. All of the electronic article databases the library owns support Boolean searching. Knowing how to use Boolean operators properly will make your life much easier in your academic future.
Unfortunately, most Internet search engines do not support full Boolean. Yahoo.com and Live.com (to some extent) are the only two exceptions. There are many small search engines — AltaVista, AllTheWeb, etc. that do support some Boolean logic, but they use either Yahoo.com or Google’s databases. For your research I recommend using Google.com, Yahoo.com (search.yahoo.com), Ask. com, and Clusty.com (metasearch engine).
Click on the two links below to read the tutorials on Boolean searching.
http://www.internettutorials.net/boolean.html
http://www.biomed.lib.umn.edu/inst/boolean.pdf
Now you should know how to use IMPLIED BOOLEAN OPERATORS (- or +), AND, OR, NOT (if NOT doesn’t work, try AND NOT), and NESTING (parentheses).
ASSIGNMENTS
But first, some hints:
1. You don’t need to capitalize words or letters;
2. Don’t put full sentences in the search box – only relevant keywords;
3. When using phrases (“bill clinton”) always put quotation marks around them, otherwise the search engine will look for “bill” and “clinton” separately.
4. You don’t need to put quotation marks around a single word.
ASSIGNMENT #1:
Using NESTING (parentheses) search for CRIME IN CHICAGO OR CRIME IN BROOKLYN on Yahoo.com (http://search.yahoo.com). Print out the results page so I can see the words you used in the search box. (Note: Google doesn’t support NESTING).
Using IMPLIED BOOLEAN OPERATORS find results that have Bill Clinton but not Monica Lewinsky (Do not use ADVANCED Google page). Print out the first page of results so I can see your search string in the search box.
Google Special Syntaxes
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intitle: |
This syntax restricts a search to titles of Web sites; it can be effectively combined with other syntaxes to customize a search. An alternative syntax, allintitle: looks for all the words in the title of a Web site; allintitle: does not mix well with other syntaxes. |
Example: intitle:”bob marley” “popular music” |
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inurl: |
This syntax restricts a search to the URLs of Web sites. It can be an effective way to find sites from within a domain, directory or path; it can also be effectively combined with other syntaxes to customize a search. See site: below. |
Example: intitle:”civil liberties” terrorism inurl:cnn |
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site: |
This syntax allows you to limit a search to a site or a top level domain. It is similar to inurl: but will not search for a site within a subdirectory (i.e., anything beyond the /). Some advantages to using inurl: over site: are: |
Example: intitle:”hate crimes” site:gov |
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intext: |
This syntax searches for words in only the text of a Web site. It ignores link text, URLs and titles which makes it a useful syntax for finding search words that are commonly used in URLs or links. It can be effectively combined with other syntaxes to customize a search. |
Example: intext:html site:edu |
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inanchor: |
This syntax searches for text in a Web site’s link anchors (i.e., the text you click on get to a Web site). Since the anchor text for a link is usually descriptive of the page it links to, the inanchor: syntax can be a useful way to limit a search to relevant sites. It can be effectively combined with other syntaxes to customize a search. |
Example: inanchor:”Google Help” For a fun experiment, try typing your name as a phrase with the inanchor: syntax! |
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link: |
This syntax returns a list of Web sites linking to a specific URL. The link: syntax can not be combined with another syntax. |
Example: link:www.linccweb.org |
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daterange: |
This syntax allows you to limit a search to a specific date or range of dates that a site was indexed by Google (this is not the same as the date the site was created.) The only drawback to this syntax is that it works with the Julian Calendar, not the Gregorian Calendar (the one we use). To use daterange: first go to the Julian Date Converter at the U.S. Naval Observatory (http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/JulianDate.html). |
Example: intitle:”george bush” daterange:2452389-2452389 |
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filetype: |
This syntax searches for specific filename extensions. Google searches for PowerPoint (.ppt), Excel (.xls), and Word (.doc) documents as well as Adobe Acrobat (.pdf), Adobe Postscript (.ps) and Rich Text Format (.rtf). |
Example: intitle:”hate crimes” filetype:pdf |
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related: |
This syntax searches for Web sites related or similar to a specified URL. This is a good way to retrieve categories or types of Web sites. |
Example: related:google.com |
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info: |
This syntax provides a page of links to more information about a specified URL including a link to the page’s cache, a list of Web sites that link to the specified URL, a list of Web sites related to the specified URL and Web sites that contain the specified URL. |
Example: info:cnn.com |
Sample Search on the Role of Women in Ancient Greece
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Results |
Search Strategies |
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women ancient greece |
24,300,000 |
Default Boolean AND search. |
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women “ancient greece” |
4,710,000 |
Default Boolean AND and phrase search. |
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(women OR woman) “ancient greece” |
5,170,000 |
Boolean OR, default Boolean AND and phrase search. |
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~women “ancient greece” |
4,800,000 |
Synonymous terms for women and phrase search |
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“role +of women” “ancient greece” |
299,000 |
Two phrases with forced stop word and Boolean AND search. |
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intitle:women “ancient greece” |
60,100 |
Women must be in the title, Boolean AND and phrase search.. |
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women “ancient greece” inurl:pbs |
124 |
Site must be from PBS. |
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women “ancient greece” site:edu |
204,000 |
Site must be from an educational institution. |
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“role +of women” “ancient greece” site:org |
703 |
Site must be from an organization. |
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women “ancient greece” site:edu filetype:ppt |
87 |
Site must be a PowerPoint presentation from an education institution. |
Assignment #2:
Using Google syntax search for the phrase “evaluating a website”. The phrase has to appear in the title and be part of an educational institution’s website.
Print out the first page of results so I can see your search string in the search box.
See you Monday.
Prof. K.
