Technology Tip of
the Month
November, 2003: Web Search Tools
Updated version of March, 1996: Web Search Tools
by Deborah Healey
The Information Age is upon us, and we have to figure out how to deal
with finding what we want in very large
amounts of information. This month's Tip gives some hints for Google
searches in particular. Before we start, be sure you understand Boolean
operators. Please take a look at the February, 1996 Tech
Tip if you
are not sure what Boolean operators are.
Most Web search tools ("search engines"), such as Google, AlltheWeb,
and Alta Vista,
use + and - rather than the words AND, OR and NOT to limit or expand a
search. You can put together some quite complex searches if you click on and
follow the instructions in the "Advanced Searches."
Helpful Vocabulary
- A "query" is what you typed in the Search for: box--it's what you
want to find.
A "hit" is
something
that was found that fits the criteria you gave for the search.
- An "entry" is the information you see about each "hit." Entries will be
shown on the Results page of your search.
- A "search engine" is a program that follows certain rules to look
through the World Wide Web and bring back information about places that
fit what you've asked for.
- "Premium placement" is what advertisers pay for. This is an earlier
place on the list of hits. With Google, "premium placement" is at the
top of the page and labeled as premium.
General Tips
You don't need to be Sherlock
Holmes to search
more effectively. Here are some useful ideas for any Web search:
- Put the most important word first if you are using more than one keyword.
- You will see a "score" reported by each of the entries returned.
This is how close the entry fits the criteria. Higher numbers are better.
- Your best hits are generally in the first 20 -- you're better off
trying to refine a search than to look much further than that.
Google
If you use Google, it helps to read the hints. Google does
not use the words
AND and NOT as Boolean operators, but it does Boolean searches in
its own way.
Here are some useful ideas for Google searches:
- Put the most important word first.
- Google treats words next to each other as "and" relationships
first,
then as "or" relationships.
- Search for a phrase by putting " " around the phrase, such as
"peanut butter"
- Using a + sign in front of a required word (peanut +butter)
means that you want only things with both peanut and butter
somewhere in the document.
- You can make a NOT relation by putting a space then a hyphen in
front of a word you don't want. For example,
star -wars
would eliminate documents about Star Wars. Notice that there must be a
space before but not after the hyphen for this to work.
- Use a tilde (~) to get synonyms for the search terms. For example,
~peanut butter might return links to nut butter and cashew butter.
- If you want to search only within a certain site, you can. Type
your search terms, then site: and the name of the site, such as
"English program" site:oregonstate.edu
You can also avoid hits from that site by using -site: in front of the
name of the site.
Practice: 
- How would you search for information about mountain lions (also known as
cougars) in Oregon?
- How can you find previews of recent movies?
- How would you look for a picture of Michael Jackson?
- How would you find information about soccer but not American football?
- How can you find out about the weather in Spain?
Try out your searches. Write down the number of titles that were correct
(what you were
looking for) and incorrect (not really what you wanted) in the first 20.
- 1. Search terms used:
- Number correct/20 _________ Number incorrect/20 _________
- 2. Search terms used:
- Number correct/20 _________ Number incorrect/20 _________
- 3. Search terms used:
- Number correct/20 _________ Number incorrect/20 _________
- 4. Search terms used:
- Number correct/20 _________ Number incorrect/20 _________
- 5. Search terms used:
- Number correct/20 _________ Number incorrect/20 _________
If you have questions, comments, or for more information,
contact Deborah Healey, dhealey AT uoregon DOT edu
https://www.deborahhealey.com/techtips/nov2003.html
Last
updated 26 June, 2009