Information Literacy: Searching the Internet

Evaluating the Internet:

1. Beware or sites that have a tilde or ~ in the URL address.
2. The best sites are from .edu (university) .gov (government document) sites.
3. Check to see who is sponsoring the site.  Use well known sites with good reputation.
4. Look for advertising on the site.  Make sure the material is not just a carefully disguised advertisement. More scholarly sources will not have advertising.
5. Check for a bias or slant. Make sure the source is not an editorial.
6. The site should site an author. Sometimes the author can be an organization etc.
7. Date last modified. Check for the latest update of the site.  One does not want to use material from a "dead" or non maintained site.

Google

1.     Google-specific search ideas:

• Use the tilde ("~") to find related terms. For instance, a Google search "~recycling" would also include garbage and other similar terms.
• Simple mathematical conversions. A Google search would be phrased this way: 10.5 cm in inches.
• What time is it in Hong Kong? (On an aside, Google normally does not do natural questions very well.)

2.     Remember that Google's pages are ranked by popularity (how many times those pages have been clicked). It has nothing to do with relevancy. That is for you to determine.

3.     If using the Internet, copy and paste the URL for future reference.

4.     Try limiting your search by domain; e.g., .EDU or .GOV.

5.  You can use the Boolean OR (adds every term to your search) but it must be capitalized. Recommended if you need to broaden your search (not finding what you need).

6  Google includes the tilde (see above), hyphen, apostrophe, and asterisk in a search query. (For more on truncation, go back to What If I Don't Find Many Useful Results)

7.  Google allows you to define words (define thesaurus, for instance).

This YouTube clip was posted by GWhizIneedAname on August 30, 2006. 

Remember:

Different sources will use different forms of a journalist's name.

Danny Pearl may be Daniel Pearl.  Don't forget to search Nicknames.

Internet in General

1.     Place a phrase in double quotes to keep it together.

2.     Use more than one search engine. Did you know that 85% of first and second page hits on Google are unique to Google alone? (Source: Information Processing and Management, 2006) That means you need to replicate your search in other search engines.

3.Try using meta-engines instead. Meta-engines search multiple search engines simultaneously. Examples:

• Mahalo - not a true meta-engine; however, it does search the major three engines and present the results side-by-side in a tabbed-format.
• Dogpile
• Clusty

4.     The same principle that is true with databases is true with the Internet. Use the most unique terms possible.

5.     If using the Internet, copy and paste the URL for future reference.

6.     Try limiting your search by domain; e.g., .EDU or .GOV.

7.     Compare items by stating "better than _____" or "reminds me of _____."

8.  For Currency Conversion try phrases like 10 US dollars in Australian money

9. For definitions of words try word +definition.

10.  You can use the Boolean OR (adds every term to your search) but it must be capitalized. Recommended if you need to broaden your search (not finding what you need).

11.  You can search number ranges if you use the ellipse (three periods in a row).

12. Have you tried some of the semantic search engines such as Hakia or Kartoo? Hakia has another separate cite called Credible Hakia. Search engines today use the global keyword method. If you type "dog cat" for your search, today's engines don't know that a poodle is a dog or a calico is a cat. Semantic engines try to correct this problem. These engines are still in the deveopment phase so remember they are not yet perfected.

13. When searching add a plus sign between terms that MUST appear. Example: Paris + Texas