Clarke, R. J (2001) t909-02: 1

Office Automation & Intranets

BUSS 909

Tutorial 2Researching on the

WWW

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Agendaset up the accounts required to access WWW

and other software from the MicroLabs for use in BUSS909- subject login (Labs 1 and 2 only)

define the two types of search engines available from the WWW

identify the two types of search that can be performed: general search for and the more specific within search

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Setup Accounts

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Setup AccountsRequired Information

in order to use the Internet from the Microcomputer Laboratories, you need to have two things:

a University of Wollongong Student (email) Account Userid and password, and

a Microcomputer Laboratories BUSS909 Subject Login

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Setup AccountsPreparation

if you are unsure of the procedure then consult the 2001 MicroComputer Laboratories Online Help if you have problems logging in then see the

attendant at the MicroLabs Office if the PC is off then switch it on; reboot the

machineclick on the application icon- double click on

the Internet Explorer icon

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Search Engines

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Search Engines

search engines are web-sites specifically designed to let users search lists of other web-sites

some engines enable searches of Usenet news groups, and FTP sites

there are two general types of service: web indexes and web guides

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Search EnginesWeb Indexes

web indexes are similar to indexes in books

consist of large databases which reference web pages- information stored includes page title, keywords, and the first phrase or two of the page

the keywords are often created by the web page author

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Search EnginesWeb Indexes

web page information is collected by search robots (the software technology which implements them is referred to as autonomous agents)

these agents move around the Internet cataloguing the content of each encountered Web server

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Search EnginesWeb Guides

web guides consist of lists of channels which are in effect lists of predefined searches

these are constructed by monitoring the type of searches users are frequently requesting

most search engines are both guides and indexes- the more users, the more advertising dollars

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Search EnginesSearch Procedure

enter a keyword into the search engine and press search

a message will be displayed indicating the number of web pages found which match the criteriasometimes no matches are foundhowever the search is more likely to

have produced a large number of ‘hits’

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Search EnginesSearch Procedure

the search results are listed starting from the most relevant sites, in decreasing order of relevance

order of relevance is indicated by a percentage based on the keyword match to the search criteria

sometimes the same web-page is referenced more than once in the search results list

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Search EnginesTypes of Searches

there are several strategies for producing a smaller set of relevant pages for you to study:the first strategy is to use a within search

to argument the more general search for (see following section)

the second strategy is to use a complex search using boolean operators (see next section)

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Search EnginesTypes of Searches

not all search engines support a within search feature

to implement a within search, the search engine is actually helping the user to construct a limited complex search

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Search EnginesExamples

Yahoo

Excite

Lycos

Infoseek

http://www.yahoo.com/

http://home.netscape.com/escapes/search/ntsrchdft-4.html

http://www.excite.com/

http://home.netscape.com/escapes/search/netsearch_1.html?cp=click_from=/escapes/search/netsearch_4.html

http://www.lycos.com/

http://home.netscape.com/escapes/search/netsearch_3.html?cp=click_from=/escapes/search/netsearch_1.html

http://www.infoseek.com/

http://home.netscape.com/escapes/search/netsearch_2.html?cp=click_from=/escapes/search/netsearch_1.html

The direct URL for these search engines are provided first. These search engines are also available from the Netscape Search option, the URLs for which are provided below.

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Search EnginesExamples

Anzwers

LookSmart

WebCrawler

AltaVista

http://www.anzwers.com

http://www.looksmart.com

http://www.webcrawler.com

http://www.altavista.yellowpages.com.au

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Searching Example

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Searching ExampleWithin Search

within searches enable subsequent searches of a list of hits previously requested by the user and found by the search engine

the following example uses the Infoseek engine

select Infoseek indirectly from Netscape Search or directly at http://www.infoseek.com

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Searching ExampleWithin Search

search onsystem failure

within searchesrisks and failure

organisations and information systems

major

australia

pages returned11,297,139

52,402

15,491

2,278

125*

* but, the closest match to the criteria was a page rated at 67% relevant (very poor) which was actually an advertisment for a Data Recovery company located in Canada!

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Searching ExampleWithin Search

2. risks and failure 52,402

1. system failure 11,297,139

3. organisations and information systems 15,491

4. major 2,278

5. australia 125

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Searching Syntax

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Searching Syntax

most Search Engines and Web Guides let you define more than just the keywords for your search

there is a special syntax that can be used to create specific searches using a combination of symbols and Boolean Operators

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Searching SyntaxBoolean Operators & Complex Searches

Boolean operators will be famiar to those who have programmed computers

they include AND, OR, NOTthese operators can be used in

combination together with ( ) to create complex search queries on the WWW

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Searching SyntaxExamples

Italian movies

movies +Italian

movies -Italian

Italian AND movies

Finds sites that contain “Italian OR movies”

Finds sites that contain “Italian”, ie. the results must include “Italian”

Find sites about movies that don’t mention “Italian”, ie. the results must not include “Italian”

Find sites containing “Italian” and “movies”. Differs from the previous option in that the words do not have to be found next to each other

Syntax Interpretation

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Searching SyntaxExamples

movies OR Italian

movies AND NOT Italian

(movies +Italian) AND (Fellini -“La Dolce Vita”) AND Pasolini

movies +Italian AND Fellini -“La Dolce Vita” AND Pasolini

Finds sites containing “movies” or “Italian”, or both. The search may find Italian movies, Italian cooking, Hollywood movies, etc.

see “movies - Italian”

Finds information on Italian movies that made reference to the directors Pasolini and Fellini, but not to Fellini’s film “La Dolce Vita”

Finds sites containing movies that mention Italian and Fellini, but not La Dolce Vita or Pasolini

Syntax Interpretation

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Searching SyntaxOrder of Precedence

search engines recognise an order of precedence for search operators

if a search request is ambiguous the engine will use the order of precedence to complete the search

the order of precedence for operators is: (), AND, OR, NOT.

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Searching SyntaxOrder of Precedence

the symbols + and - are not part of standard Boolean Operators but it has the same meaning as AND and AND NOT respectively.

enclosing a phrase in inverted commas “like this” is also not a standard Boolean Operator but it has the same meaning as ().

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Class Exercise

use the search engines to get URLs about the Office Automation

use the bookmark feature to store sites you might find useful (eg. those which describe actual OA systems)

appropriate URLs should be written on the Useful Links page provided by the Lecturer