Week Nine - Using Search Engines 04/05/07

Lecture
There are two main types of search tools which are search engines and directories. Search engines are web based applications. They create indexes for websites and the searched results are indexed through keywords. Some types of search engines are Google, Yahoo!, AltaVista, AlltheWeb, Ask Jeeves, Excite, Turbo10, Lycos, Dogpile, Kartoo, MSN Search, HotBot, Teoma, Clusty, SearchEdu, Vivisimo, Web Wombat, Wisenut, Go Network and Zapmeta. The problem with search engines is the result because there is too many, some topics are not related to the searched keywords, includes broken links in the result list and incorrect information. Search engine interfaces display the URL links, a cached version of the websites and a link to similar pages to the web sites. There are four types of queries which are keyword, phrase, Boolean and advanced/engine features.

Workshop
Four strategies for a good search will be keyword searching, refining your search, relevancy ranking and Meta tags. Keyword searching is the most common way of searching on the web. Did a twenty questions quiz on http://www.siteseen.co.uk/ questions/generalknowledgehard/ which was about on getting information from search engines like google to answer the questions in the quiz.
I used a variety of search engines and they were Google, Yahoo!, AltaVista, AlltheWeb, Ask Jeeves, Excite, Turbo10, Lycos, Dogpile, Kartoo, MSN Search, HotBot, Teoma, Clusty, SearchEdu, Vivisimo, Web Wombat, Wisenut, Go Network and Zapmeta. They all have helped in the search for the correct answer in some way. Narrowing the information down is the most important because if the information is not narrowed down the result of the queried word might be too broad.

Readings
The website Internet Search Tips and Strategies by Robert Harris is about types of information on the internet like the visible web, the invisible web and paid web. The search tool types are search engines and directories. It tells us about keyword search, phrase search and Boolean operator.
The website Search Engine Tutorial by Danny Sullivan is about how to use search engines and it provides a guide on how to search resources on the web better.
The website Chapter Four: Search Engines by Richard T. Griffiths is about the history of the World Wide Web, finding information on the web, directories, search engines, databases and library catalogues.
The website the Spider’s Apprentice by Linda Barlow is about helping users understand and use search engines. The site tell users how it works, explains the results of the search, which search engine are the most useful and how to improve searches.

Summary
I listed four strategies on searching information on search engines. I completed the online quiz on researching the correct answer. Explained what search engines I used for this week workshop. Explained what I have learnt on this module. And summarised the readings for this week on using search engines.