Internet Research TechniquesGoogle and Beyond

Pulelehua RuthMarie

Quirk MLS

rmq@hawaii.edu

Fall 2005

Thanks: Joe Barker , John Kupersmith

UC Berkeley

Librarianns

Origins

Finding Information on the Internet: A Tutorial

University of California Berkeley - Teaching Library Internet Workshops

http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/FindInfo.html

Workshop Objectives

Google to the MaxBeyond Google: directoriesother search engines

Focusing YOUR research topic Search strategiesWeb pages selection

What are Search Engines ?

Large databases

Full text of web pagesUse keywords matching words in pages you want

Built by computer robot programs spidersNo selectivity, no evaluation for reliability

Each is different - Minimal standardization

All accept “quotes” to search as phrase

Good ones assume AND between words

How do you measureWeb Search Engine Value ?

1. Size, freshness & unique pagesHow comprehensive are they?

2. Ranking of resultsWhat order are results displayed in?

3. Default search mode effectivenessIntuitive and easy to use?

4. Advanced search optionsCan you perform complex searches?Can you limit by date, type of site, etc?

5. Overall convenience and usefulnessDo you get junk or good stuff?

Why Google?

Biggest web search engine database8+ billion pages

PageRank™ often finds useful pagesWord order, proximity and occurrencePopularity - links to pagesImportance - traffic, quality of pages linking

Many useful features, shortcuts, and special Google databases & services

What’s Googling?

Crafting searches likely to workKnowing how Google “thinks” about your searches

Exploiting Google’s strengths and weaknessesKnowing what Google’s special features and databases can do for you

Agenda

How Google “thinks”Crafting basic Google searches

Exploiting Google’s “FUZZY” search options

Setting limits in Google searches Handy Google tools and shortcuts The best of Google’s family of databases Google Print & Google Scholar

Emerging tools for finding books and articlesTable with search tips

Let’s Try It !

Hands-on exercises

Is Google the best search engine?

8+ billion pages searchable GoogleYahoo 4+ Billion pages fully indexed

First 101 KB of a page, 120kb of pdf

Good rankingGoogle by popularityYahoo! by relevance and popularity; also pay for position sites sprinkled in

Default ANDAdvanced search adequateSometimes a lot of junk

Googling to the Max

What are my choices besides Google and Yahoo?

Look For New, Smart Linguistic Analysis Helps sort out and mine results

Search Engine with Popularity Ranking by SubjectSubject specific popularitySuggests search termsSuggest “expert” pagesUseful results rankingOver 1 billion pages

Can I get a second opinion ?

Statistics say no search engine has it all:Only about 60% of pages in Google are also in other search enginesOnly 50% of pages in any search engine database are also found in all others•www.searchengineshowdown.com/stats/

Use another large search engine

Let’s Try It !

Hands-on exercises

How do I search with peripheral vision ?Look for more specific terms

Collect synonyms, alternative terms

Agency or institution or other source ?

Don’t assume you know what you’re looking for

Strategies for art theft prevention “stolen art” prevention

STOP, Interpol Lyon,other agencies

CoPAT, object-id, other agencies

Directories

Created by humans, not machinesSelected, evaluated, annotatedOrganized into subject categories

Librarians’ Internet Index (lii.org)• By a group of California library professionals

Infomine• By UC consortium of library professionalsAcademic Info• By a librarian in Arizona

How do I find “expert pages” and searchable databases ?

Look in all the directories just mentionedDatabases and “expert page” scattered throughout

In routine searching:If a site calls itself a directory or database, you can search on it

Google: genome database “cell biology” directory

Look for society’s pages with collections of links Google: genome society

Home Page of “International mammalian genome society”

“Resources” button leads to key links on genome research

Let’s Try It !

Hands-on exercises

CRITICAL EVALUATIONWhy Evaluate What You Find on the Web?

Anyone can put up a Web pageabout anything

Many pages not kept up-to-dateNo quality controlmost sites not “peer-reviewed” •less trustworthy than scholarly publications

no selection guidelines for search engines

•Look at the URL - personal page or site ? ~ or % or users or members

•Domain name appropriate for the content ? edu, com, org, net, gov, ca.us, uk, etc.

•Published by an entity that makes sense ? •News from its source?

www.nytimes.com•Advice from valid agency?

www.nih.gov/

Web Evaluation TechniquesWhat do I look for when scanning the perimeter of the page ?

Can you tell who wrote it ?Credentials for the subject matter?Is it recent or current enough ?If no links or other clues...Truncate back the URLhttp://hs.houstonisd.org/hspva/academic/Science/Thinkquest/gail/text/ethics.html

Web Evaluation Techniques

Indicators of quality

Sources documented•links, footnotes, etc.

– As detailed as you expect in print publications ?

•do the links work ?

Information retyped or forged•why not a link to published version instead ?

Links to other resources• biased, slanted ?

Web Evaluation Techniques

What Do Others Say ?

Search the URL in alexa.com

Who links to the site? Who owns the

domain?

Type or paste the URL into the basic

search box

Traffic for top 100,000 sites

See what links are in Google’s Similar

pages

Look up the page author in Google

Web Evaluation Techniques

STEP BACK & ASK: Does it all add up ?

Why was the page put on the Web ?

•inform with facts and data? •explain, persuade? •sell, entice? •share, disclose?•as a parody or satire?

Is it appropriate for your purpose?

Try evaluating some sites...Search a controversial topic in Google:

"nuclear armageddon"prions danger

“stem cells” abortion

Scan the first two pages of resultsVisit one or two sites

try to evaluate their quality and reliabilityUse the worksheet as a guide to techniques

Questions?

Feedback

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