AES: ESL 382: Computer Applications

• There are two basic types of search tools on the World Wide Web:
  1. Directory - You search for your topic by clicking on a list of topics/categories which are supplied by the index. The Web sites are chosen by real people.
  2. Search Engines - You search for your topic by entering a keyword(s) plus some symbol. The Web site results are chosen by a computer.
     (NOTE: These days, many Search tools have both a Directory and a Search Engine)
     
     
• After finding pages on your topic, use the "Find" button in the browser tool bar to locate your search term in the document. This can be *very* helpful because some Web pages are *very* long.

The problem with search engines is they return *too many* results. Google is my favorite search engine because the Web sites it finds and puts first on the list are usually what I am looking for. Google knows how many links there are to a particular Web site. If a site has many links to it, it is probably a high quality site, so Google puts this site at the top of the search results list. Pretty cool! I also like Google because the page is very plain to look at (I don't get confused) and easy to use. Google now has an Images tab, so you can easily search for images. There is also now a Google Directory for those who prefer to search by category. Here are some of the basic rules for using Google:

1. Type your search terms in the box and press "Return." Google only finds Web sites that include *all* of your search terms. So, to make your search more specific, just add more search terms.
Example 1: hawaii vacation
Example 2 : hawaii vacation hotels
Example 3: hawaii vacation hotels honolulu

So, if you are looking for a hotel to stay in while vacationing in Honolulu, Hawaii, Example 3 would be a logical search.

2. You don't need to put "and" between your search words. Google will automatically find pages with all of your search terms.

3. Google is smart and often knows if you want words to come together. For example, if you type back street boys, Google knows you want sites about the music group. If you want to be sure that Google finds words as a group, use quotation marks. Example: "back street boys"

4. You can exclude a word in Google, using the minus (-) sign. For example, if you want to know about a bass (the fish), but not a bass (the musical instrument), you can search for bass -instrument -music
(leave a space between the search term and the minus sign). You'll get information on fishing and not on music!

5. Google will first look for Web pages that have your search terms in the title of the Web page. If the search terms are not in the title, Google gives you a sentence or two from the Web site that contains your search words. Reading these sentences will help you know if it is a good site for you.

6. If you want to know the importance of each item in a Google search result, click here.

7. If you would like to read more about the basics of searching with Google, click here. Want to know about advanced searches? Click here.

Do you have a specific type of information you are looking for? Here is a site that has links to different search engines for special purposes.

 Yahoo is one of the oldest and perhaps the most popular directory. You choose a category which is on your search topic. Continue moving through links until you find sites that meet your needs. See Yahoo Advanced search help for complete instructions.

Alta Vista is a very popular search engine. Some of the search rules for Alta Vista are listed below. See Alta Vista help for complete instructions.

• Required and Prohibited Search Words

  Attaching one of the following operators will either require or prohibit words from appearing in the search results.

  + Attaching a + to a word requires that the word be found in all of the search results.
  compare: police versus police +sting

  - Attaching a - in front of a word requires that the word not be found in any of the search results.
  compare: python versus python -monty

• Phrase Matching (" ")

  Putting quotes around a set of words will only find results that match the words in that exact sequence. compare: great barrier reef versus "great barrier reef" "great barrier reef" will only find documents with these words appearing together.

   

If using basic search terms provides you with too many results, you may want to refine your search using Boolean search terms.

• Required and Prohibited Search Words

  AND Finds only documents containing all of the specified words or phrases. Mary AND lamb finds documents with both the word Mary and the word lamb.

  OR Finds documents containing at least one of the specified words or phrases. Mary OR lamb finds documents containing either Mary or lamb. The found documents could contain both, but do not have to.

  NOT Excludes documents containing the specified word or phrase. Mary AND NOT lamb finds documents with Mary but not containing lamb. NOT cannot stand alone--use it with another operator, like AND. For example, Alta Vista does not accept Mary NOT lamb; instead, specify Mary AND NOT lamb.

  NEAR Finds documents containing both specified words or phrases within 10 words of each other. Mary NEAR lamb would find the nursery rhyme, but likely not religious or Christmas-related documents.

• Further limits available
  
  In Alta Vista, you can further limit the number of results by specifying particular dates or searching only for documents in a particular language (English please!).

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1. To Bookmark (Make a Favorite) for a Site and Save to Your Disk:
   
   
   1. You must be on the Web page you want to bookmark.
   2. Next to the location box (where you type URL's), there is an icon for a bookmark.
   3. Drag the bookmark icon onto your disk and it will be copied.
      

   To Return to a Bookmarked (Favorite) Site:

   1. Double click the bookmark icon on your disk.
   2. If your browser is open, you will go directly to the site. If not, the browser will load and open to the bookmarked page.

   To Save a Graphics File
   Here are sites where you can find images. Many are copyright-free and you don't need permission to use them.

   1. When you see an image you want to download, click on it and hold the mouse button down for a second or two.
   2. A dialog box will appear in your browser. Choose "Download Image to Disk (for Internet Explorer) or "Save this image as" (for Netscape) to download the file.
   3. Navigate to your disk. Click "Save".
   4. NOTE: Remember that you must request permission to use image files unless images are copyright - free (instructions for this are also in your textbook). If you are not sure if you need to get permission, ask your teacher.

Return to ESL 382 home page.

Created by: krauss@lclark.edu
Updated: 10/15/06