Tips for Searching the Internet for Research Purposes

“Imagine you are searching for information in the world's largest library, where the books and journals (stripped of their covers and title pages) are shelved in no particular order, and without reference to a central catalogue. A researcher's nightmare? Without question. The World Wide Web defined? Not exactly. Instead of a central catalog, the Web offers the choice of dozens of different search tools, each with its own database, command language, search capabilities, and method of displaying results.”

Search Strategy    Simple Rules      Operators    Pointers

Search Strategy

             Regardless of the search tool being used, the ability to effectively search is necessary if you wish to get satisfactory results. An easy search strategy might consist of the following steps:

1.      What information or question exactly are you trying to find?

2.      What are some of the keywords in your question?

3.      Consider synonyms and various spellings of your keywords

4.      Prepare your search logic (Boolean Search)

5.      Choose a search engine, subject directory or database to best find your information

            This strategy should be applied to a search of any electronic information tool, including library catalogs and CD-ROM databases. However, a well-planned search strategy is of great importance when the database under consideration is one as large as the World Wide Web.

Step 1  What are you looking for?

            What is your topic?  Think about some possible questions you need to answer about your topic. Getting a good handle on what exactly you need to find will help you with actually finding the information you want.

Step 2   Keywords

            First you need to know what is meant by the word “Keywords”.  Say you are looking for information such as this question, “What were the effects of World War II on the economy in the United States ?”  Your keywords might be effects, World War II, economy and United States .  Keywords in general are words that if you took them out of your question it would totally change the answer to the question.  Keywords also help narrow down what you are looking for.

Step 3   Synonyms or Various Spellings

            Look at your keywords, are there any synonyms or various spellings that you could use when starting your search?  In place of the word effects you might use result, consequence, or outcome.  The words World War II and United States could be typed or abbreviated, such as, WWII or US or USA . 

Step 4    Search logic or Boolean Search

            This step will help you in narrowing down the amount of information that you might get when starting your search.  The basic Boolean search operators are the words AND, OR and NOT.  When using the word AND between two keywords your search will give you a list of all the articles or information that has those two words in it.  For example, if you typed Economy AND United States you would get all the information which had both words included in the articles or web pages.

When using the word OR between two keywords your search will give you a list of all the articles or information that has either of those two words in it.  For example, if you typed Economy OR United States you would get all the articles or web pages that either word in them.

O R
	Economy   United States

When using the word NOT between two keywords your search will give you a list of all the articles or web pages that has one word but not the word in it.  For example, if you typed Economy NOT United States you would get only the articles that had Economy but not the United States .

NOT
	Economy  United States

Step 5   Choosing a Search Engine or Subject Directory

Finding the appropriate of 'best' search engine for you particular information you need can be frustrating. There are three basic types of search engines. Choosing the type of search to meet your specific needs is the first step to finding valid information.

Simple Rules

These are rules that apply to just about every search engine.

1. Make sure your spelling is correct! If you are not finding what you are looking for, try using an alternate spelling (e.g. theater and theatre).

2. Be aware of how your search engine works! If you are not sure how a specific search engine works the “Help” or “About” links will give you information that will help you with your search.

3. Putting quotation marks around two or more words returns only Web pages that contain all of the words in the order in which you entered them. For example "tennis elbow" will return pages with information about the medical condition tennis elbow.

If you are going to use quotations, keep in mind you will only find pages that contain all of the words in the order in which you typed them.

4. Names should also be in quotation marks. "George Washington" will give you pages that contain information about him and will eliminate pages that contain only information on Washington state or Washington D.C. (which is what George Washington would give you — all of the pages that contain the word George OR Washington OR both names).

5. Capitalize proper nouns. If you are looking for information on a city, try entering it with the state name (e.g. " Springfield , OR ").

Operators

Operators are ways for you to force a word to be in (or omitted from) the page that is returned to you. Excite uses the + (requires the word) and - (omits the word) symbols to accomplish this. Searching for two words without using either of these symbols returns pages with either word, but not necessarily with both words. (Note: When using the +/- symbols, there is not a space immediately following the +/-.) Google works the same way, but the + symbol is not required.

For example, in Excite, +recipe +crab will return pages that contain both words somewhere on the page, although they won't necessarily be next to one another ("The main ingredient in the recipe is imitation crab meat.").

The - symbol is handy for omitting words from the search (e.g. +habitat +bird -owl will return Web pages that contain the words "bird" and "habitat," however any page that has the word "owl" in it will not be returned).

You can also use both " " and + in a single search such as +"gourmet recipe" +vegetarian will return pages that contain the phrase gourmet recipe and the word "vegetarian" ("This book of gourmet recipes contains many options for the vegetarian diner.")

Pointers when searching the web 

1.      The same search on different search engines will produce different results. 

2.      Scanning down your result list before actually opening the first one is recommended. 

3.      The results at the top of the list are not always the best information, it depends on the search engine or directory and how they display results… 

4.      Check the URL (the address of the site) Note the ending before the first /.  It should be one of the following:

a.       .com - this is a company and may be biased toward their product

b.      .edu  - this is an educational institution like schools or universities but if it has a ~ in the address it could be a student or teacher personal web page at that institution

c.       .gov – this is a governmental agency

d.      .org -  this is an organization, usually nonprofit and they also may be biased

e.       .net – this is usually an internet service provider or a person who is a customer

If you take note of the URL it will help you in determining whether the site is possibly accurate or done by someone who knows what they are talking about.

5.      Also check whether the person creating the page is actually knowledgeable on the subject and if there is a way you can contact the person but still you never know.

If you follow the steps outlined, know how different search engines work, how to use Boolean Operators and remember the pointers you should be able to find some good web pages which have the information you are looking for.