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WEB SEARCHING

Instructor: Kathleen Scheaffer Content: Adopted from Gwen Harris http://plc.fis.utoronto.ca/courses/gharris/FIS/Workshop/ - unless otherwise noted

Agenda

  Introduction   Definition of Search Engine, Invisible Web, Subject

Directory and Portals   Major Search Engines   How Search Engines Work   Web Searching Strategies   Comparison of Search Engines   Trends and Issues with Search Engines

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Search Engine

  Search engines are huge databases of web page files that have been assembled automatically.

  There are two types of search engines: 1. Individual/General: compile their own searchable

databases on the web. 2. Meta: do not compile databases. you submit

keywords in its search box, and it transmits your search simultaneously to several individual search engines and their databases of web pages.

Major Search Engines

  Google – www.google.com   Live Search – www.search.live.com   Yahoo Search – www.search.yahoo.com   Ask – www.ask.com

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Major Meta-Search Engines

  Dogpile – www.dogpile.com   Clusty – www.clusty.com

Clusty

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Web Directories

  There are two ways to use subject directories: you may browse or search.

1. Browse: follow the hierarchy of categories deeper and deeper, until you find the match to your question. Browsing often turns up serendipitous finds.

2. Search: look for the key words in the name of the category and/or the name of the site.

  Yahoo Directory   Google Directory   InfoMine   About.com   Librarian’s Internet Index

Portals

  Portals are gateways to many services   Yahoo*   Google

 *http://www.searchengineshowdown.com/features/yahoo/review.html

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Invisible/Deep Web

www.youtube.com/watch?v+LPUgxQd88&feature=related

How Search Engines Work

  Trawl the Web (spiders, crawlers, robots…)   Collect Records   Index Records   Search Index   Present Results

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How Search Engines Rank

  Popularity Ranking

  Relevancy Ranking Factors:   Title Tag

  Anchor Text of Links

  Keyword in Text

  Accessibility

  Links to Document from Site-Internal Pages

  Primary Subject Matter of Site

  External Links

  Link Popularity

*http://www.e-bc.ca/media/ebizguides/Handouts/top-10-seo-factors.pdf

Searcher

  Define the Question   Choose the Appropriate Search Engine   Choose the Appropriate Search Strategy   Correct Syntax   Assess the Results   Refine the Search (if necessary)   Assess the Results

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Search Mechanisms

  Keywords and phrases   Boolean Operators   Proximity Searches   Field Searching   Stop Words   Limiters

Google

  History   How Google works   Implied AND   Stop words : the, is, on, or, of, how, why, as well as

certain single digits and single letters   Case insensitive   “ “ , site: , - , * , + , ~   Can use the operator OR   site: , allintitle: , intitle: , intext: , allinurl:, inurl:

filetype: ,

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Google Search Features

  Weather   Stock Quotes   Times   Scores   Calculator   Translation   Spell Checker   Unit Conversion

 http://www.google.ca/intl/en/help/features.html

Google’s Strengths and Weaknesses

Strengths   Size and breadth of content   Language and regional versions.   Several personal search services - Web history Weaknesses   No nesting and limited Boolean   May search for variants

*http://www.searchengineshowdown.com/features/google/review.html

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Google Exercises

1.  You want to find results with ischool in the URL. Additionally, you only want documents that are pdfs. What are two ways to search?

2.  You are interested in finding information on Chun Wei Choo; however, you only want results from the Faculty of Information’s website. How do you search for him via Google search?

3.  You are interested in what the weather is like in Berlin. What should you type in the search box?

4.  You are not sure the conversion of liters to quarts?

Yahoo

  History   How Yahoo Ranks Results   Implied AND   - , +, OR, “ “   site: , link: , url: , inurl:, intitle: originurlextention:

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Yahoo Shortcuts

  Map   Weather   Define   News   Zip code   Calculator   Airport Information

*http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/search/basics/basics-05.html

Yahoo Strengths and Weaknesses

Strengths   Search Assist for exploring concepts   Second largest database   Good shortcuts   Site Explorer for getting more information about links

and sites (specialty use) Weaknesses   File type search uses originurlextension: rather than

filetype:*   Yahoo Answers are included in search results (Junk) *http://www.searchengineshowdown.com/features/yahoo/review.html

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Yahoo Exercises

  Search for universities that are in Ontario, Canada? What are some things to consider?

  You want the definition of zeitgiest. How do you go about finding one?

  Search for France in the url. How many results did you get? Go back to Advance Search, limit your search to pages written in English, pages updated within the past 3 months and the country to United States. How many results did you get?

Live Search

  History   Case insensitive   OR, NOT, “ “, -, +,   Intitle:, site:, contains:wma, filetype:, loc:, prefer:,

feed:, url:

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Live Search Instant Answers

  Conversions   Definitions   Weather   Financial Quotes   Statistical Information

*http://help.live/help.aspx?project=wl_searchv1&market=en-us

Live Search Strengths and Weaknesses

Strengths   Large   Cached copies of web pages   Automatic local search options Weaknesses   Limited to 150 characters in a query   Advanced search is awkward   Help section not very helpful *http://www.searchengineshowdown.com/features/live/review.html

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Live Search Exercises

1.  Keyword search ischool and limit results with utoronto as the domain. What was your syntax?

2.  Repeat the search above, but limit your search to Canada as the country and English as the language? Did your results vary?

3.  Go back to basic search interface. How would you search for HIV information in a pdf?

Ask.com

  History   OR, -, “” , intitle:, site:, country:, inurl:, filetype:   + doesn’t have an effect   Automatic Truncation

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Ask.com Features

  Maps   Dictionary   Conversions   Movie Show times   Weather   Stock Quotes   Binocular Site View

*http://help.ask.com/en/docs/about/site_features_a11.shtml#smartanswer

Ask.com Strengths and Weaknesses

Strengths   Features – Binoculars   Date Restriction   Ask Eraser   Revise Advance Search Weaknesses   Smaller Database   No URL Submission   No cached copies of pages

*www.searchengineshowdown.com/features/ask/review.html

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Ask.com Exercises

  Search for information on the bird flu. Exclude the United States and limit your search to pages that were updated in the last 2 years.

  Get a definition for syntax.

Comparison of results

  Open a tab for each of the search engines discussed   Search for Joe Cox   Compare results   Repeat the search with Canada selected as the country.   Now repeat the search; however, this time limit to

utoronto.ca as the domain.   Which search engine results do you prefer? Which

search engine has the highest recall?

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Discussion

  Which search engine do you prefer? Why? What is the most useful feature of this search engine?

  How many of you have used the advance search interface before? Now having engaged with it do you believe that you will, if you do not regularly, utilize it?

  When a search engine suggests other searchers is that useful?

Search Engine Trends

  Google Zeitgeist: http://www.google.com/intl/en/press/zeitgeist/index.html

  Yahoo Buzz: http://buzz.yahoo.com/   Ask IQ: http://about.ask.com/en/docs/iq/iq.shtml   Which engine is the most popular:

 http://www.hitwise.com/press-center/hitwiseHS2004/google-searches-jan-09.php

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Search Engine Issues

  Authority, credibility, currency, advertising   Many users are only keyword searching   Commercialization   Lack of transparency   Privacy Concerns

 How long are they storing our information?  Who are they selling our information to?

  How the search results influence how we think, articulate and assess the concepts we are exploring

ANY COMMENTS OR QUESTIONS?

Feel free to contact me: kathleen.scheaffer@utoronto.ca