Week Five - Using Search Engines

Lecture -

Todays lecture was about search engines. To begin the tute we had to answer a few introductory question about search engines. A few of the question that we had to answer i had no idea about.
firstly we learnt about the different types of web searching.

•The Free, Visible Web.
•The Free, Invisible Web.
•Paid Databases over the Web.

We then went over the main problems we are faced with when using search engines, the main one being the return of too much information. Search engines recognise the keywords typed and bring up basically as many sites that have these keyword on it. These words on the website may not even be together that is why it is vital to keep search engine keywords very specific.
When the return of information is so high it is likely that most of the information on these site will be irrelevant.

We were informed that directories are edited by humans to keep the quality level high. below are a few examples of directories.

Google Directory http://directory.google.com
Yahoo Directory http:// dir.yahoo.com
Look Smart http://www.looksmart.com/

belolw are some useful search tips

1.Use several search tools.
2. Read the search tips or help
information at each search
engine.
3. For keyword searches, use
several words.
4. Guess a location.

I found these usueful as i often find it difficult to find what i am looking for when i am searching the internet.

Tutorial -

In the turtorial today we compared various search engines after doing simple and advanced searches.

The simple search that i entered into google and yahoo was broome bus services. The search engines produced the first four same websites. The websites produces were exactly what i was looking for. Google is a search engine that i use most. I have found that google always produces atleast one or two relevant websites. I have never really used yahoo before but from today it seems fairly easy to use and similar to google. I had no trouble using yahoo.

Below are screen prints of the results of my Yahoo and Google searches.

Yahoo Search Results

Google Search Reesults

For a more comlicated search i chose to use Altavista and Answers.com. I found that on Answers.com i could not select Australia search only, therefore the results of my search were from all over the world and not specific. When using Altavusta i could select australia and the first website that came up was the timetable of the Broome bus service. I found Altavista easier to use and the results returned were relevant to my search keywords.

Below are screen prints of my Altavista and Answers.com search results.

Altavista Search Results

Answers.com Search Results

I found Google and Altavista the easiest to use and they returned the most relevant results. I beleive that these two sites are set out better and are alot clearer when searching.

When Reding throught the website http://www.monash.com/spidap1.html i found four strategies that would help me structure a good search.

1) Better results will come from search directories rather that search engines if the topic being searched is broad

2) If searching a for a topic is narrow use a search engine.

3) Using boolean words such a AND, OR , NEAR help to refine the search and rule out things that may be irrelavant.

4) When searching a person on a search engine try to enter as much information as possible. Include a date of birth, town or something to define their name from another.

Below are the results from my trivia quiz.

I used google to answer all of the questions in this quiz. In each of the questions i selected the main keywords. Onced my results were returned i checked the first site that came up for one of the four answers. All of the results returned were correct as i used the correct search terms.

In this module i learnt many things about search engines. The part i found most useful was using the correct keywords when searching. I found this module useful as the first place i go when i have an assignment is onto google to find ther information i need. I can now search the web effectively without wasting time searching through irrelevant webpages.

Reading 1 -

This article present helpful search tips for finding what we want and knowing that what we find is useful. The article addresses the three types of information found on the web and how to separate the different types. There are many useful tips on this website for searching the net and looking for useful information.

Reading 2 -

This article explains how to find information on the internet using search engines, directories and library catalogues. The reading goes into detail about the different types on engines, directories and catalogues that are accesible by under gradutes and how to utilize the information.