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Google Confidential and Proprietary 1 So you think you can search? Search engines and information acces on the internet Presenter Name : Stefania Druga Client Logo

Web search lecture september 2011

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Page 1: Web search lecture september 2011

Google Confidential and Proprietary 1

So you think you can search?Search engines and information acces on the internet

Presenter Name :Stefania Druga

Client Logo

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2Google Confidential and Proprietary

Objectives

1 Understand what a search engine is and how information is organised on the internet

2 Be able to find specific information

3 Identify the best source for your needs

4 Compare and evaluate results

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Search enginesOr how the information is organised on the internet

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1: Search Basics

• Some basic terms:

• Web site: a collection of web pages on a web server• Browser: the software you use to view web pages

such as: Internet Explorer (IE), Firefox, Safari, Opera • Query: the terms you send to Google to ask your question• URL: the string that refers to the web page• Plugin: an extra piece of code that plugs into the browser

such as: Quicktime, Flash, SVG, ….

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How to read a single resultTitle

snippet

URL

Yahoo’s

Microsoft’s

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How to read the whole page

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Web pages (the rhetoric of…)

left hand nav

ads

onsite links

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What’s on the search page?

Address bar

Google tool bar

Query boxSearch button

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Tools point #1: Finding a word on a web page

• How do you find something on a long, complicated web page?(like this one…)

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How to FIND on page

• Do you know how to find something on a web page?• Hint: Use the Find command…

o Edit>Find (or Control-F) o Note that works differently on Firefox vs. Internet Explorero (Demo)

[tomatoes] then <gardening>

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How to find-on-this-page (IE)

• Easy reminder…

• NOTE that when you do the find, the computer will scroll the window to that location.

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How to find on a page (Chrome)

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Find on Chrome…

Type into this “find” box

Note how hits are shown in the scroll bar

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Tools point #2: How to use tabs

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2: Knowing about sites

• A website is: o a collection of web pageso a collection of links between the pages o programs that do services (such as lookup things) o tracking services (that watch users as they use the site)

Demo: links / pages http://www.stanford.eduDemo: rollover link to see addressDemo: offsite links (e.g., to YouTube)

www.foo.com

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Sites often have their OWN search

• Sometimes a site’s search tool can be very effective o More up-to-date with latest information o Might index parts of the website not visible to search engineso (And sometimes… not…)

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But…

• Sometimes a site’s own search engine isn’t very effectiveo Their search engine might not be sophisticated o Their search engine might not cover the things you think are in

the web site!

• In such cases, it’s much better to back up and use an external search engine

IMDB is great, but don’t try looking for the actor who won the most Oscars here….

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How the web works…

• Visible web: everything that’s indexed by search engines • Deep web: everything that’s on the web, but not indexed!

o Sometimes called the “invisible web”

**

Demo: http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/surveymost?fi (Bureau of Labor Statistics databases)

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3: How to organize a search

• THINK FOR A SECOND!

– What is it I’m looking for? (think about common keywords)

– How would someone else talk about it? (what words would they use? how would THEY describe it?)

– Which of those terms would be most common?

– Which of those terms would be very specialized to this topic?

– What kind of thing would make me happy? (do I want a single web page, a definition, a collection, an image.... or …

?)

Big tip!

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Great gateway sites:

• www.cia.gov – primarily for international facts, data • www.wikipedia.com – wide-ranging encyclopedia on many

topics • www.reference.com – another encyclopedia• www.about.com – tutorials, articles on many DIY topics,

sports, hobbies, etc.

• Many gateway / background sites exist on particular topics: o Tip: to find gateway sites, include “how-to” or “DIY”

o Try: [ model airplanes how-to ]

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Demonstration: Go to gateway, learn key terms , then search

• Example: o What are the Easter Island statues called?

(What’s the special term?)o [ Easter Island statues ]

• “low frequency” terms don’t occur very often, except in the context of what you’re trying to lookup (that means they’re rare.. and precise!)

• Demo: [ moai ]

• Demo: [ raft ]o “raft” also means something else…

what’s this other stuff on the SERP??

• Try: [ raft water ]

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The Art of Keyword Choice

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Hints to choose keywords…

– Think about what you’re trying to find– Choose words that you think will appear on the page – Put yourself in the mindset of the author of those words

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Keywords: Naming the un-namable

I noticed the other day that everyone has a little indentation on their upper lip.

Question: What’s that thing called?

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Answer

• Start with the simplest search you can think of:

[ upper lip indentation ]

If it’s not right, you can always modify it.

• When I did this, I clicked on the first result, which took me to Yahoo Answers. There’s a nice article there about something called the philtrum.

• Then I double checked on that by doing a [ define:philtrum ]

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DEFINE:

• A very useful thing to have…

• Pattern:

[ DEFINE: <term or phrase> ]

Examples: o [ define:philtrum ] o [ define:paramecium ] o [ define:zero day attack ]

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When you’re choosing search keywords…

• When you eat pig, the meat is called “pork.” When you eat sheep, the meat is called “mutton.” When you eat deer, the meat is called “venison.”

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Exercise: Thinking about synonyms…

• Suppose you visit your cousin in Sydney, Australia and they serve grilled kangaroo. What’s another word for “kangaroo meat”?

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Activity

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Activity

Find a search question. Think about a subject or a person that you would like to know more about.

Got to: http://www.noodletools.com/noodlequest and check the boxes that correspond to your question.

Follow the search strategy.

Present the result!

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Thank You!Resources and materials used from the repository created by Dan

Russell- https://sites.google.com/site/gwebsearcheducation/