Post on 30-Aug-2014
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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
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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
Google Confidential and Proprietary
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
Google Confidential and Proprietary
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/