| Smart
Internet Searching
Tips to Help You Find What You Want on the Web
· Search
more than one search tool. Search engines search
the Web for individual sites - Northern Light;
Google; Alta Vista; HotBot
www.northernlight.com
www.google.com
www.altavista.net
www.hotbot.com
Meta search engines search all the search engines
for sites-Metacrawler; Dogpile
www.metacrawler.com
www.dogpile.com
Search directories index
Web sites into general subject or topic areas-Yahoo!;
Excite
www.yahoo.com
www.excite.com
· Try more than one way to word a search
query. Use synonyms or phrases to express the
same search. Ex. (1st search) dolphins;
(2nd search) porpoises; (3rd search) "ocean
mammals" (The more specific your
keywords, the more relevant the hits will be.)
· Put quotation marks around a phrase
to keep the words from being searched as separate
words.
Ex. "gulf of mexico"; "memphis
visitors bureau"
· Use a + (plus sign) to indicate that
the word must appear in the results of the search.
Ex. dolphins porpoises "ocean
mammals" +training
· Use a - (minus sign) to exclude the
word from a search.
Ex. dolphins porpoises "ocean
mammals" -books; dolphins -football
· Use nested searches to deliver very
specific results.
Ex. (chinese or japanese) cooking
+recipes -restaurants
· Use the back button located on the
left side of the top tool bar to return one Web
site at a time.
· Do not accept everything on the Web
as valid. Evaluate the information:
Is there an author listed?
Is the author an authority or expert on the topic?
Is the date the information was created or last
updated given?
What is the URL of the "home page" Web
site? (Who is responsible for posting the information
on the Web?)
What is the domain designation?
| .com
= commercial |
.edu
= educational institution |
| .org
= organization |
.net
= network |
| .gov
= government |
.mil
= military |
Is there a way to contact the author or publisher
of the information?
|