Introduction to Web Browsers and Basic Search Strategies Using Search Engines

1. Introduction to Web Browsers and Basic Search Strategies Using Search Engines Davina Pruitt-Mentle EDUC 698M

2. Outline • History (WWW & Internet) • Search tools • Search Engines vs. Subject Directory • Meta search Engines • Steps for Searching • Effective Strategies • Narrow or broaden a search? • Wildcards Davina Pruitt-Mentle

3. Internet History • Internet made up of thousands of networks worldwide • No one in charge of Internet - No governing body • Internet backbone owned by private companies Davina Pruitt-Mentle

4. Looking at the Net Taken from: http://www.cio.com/WebMaster/sem2_net.html Davina Pruitt-Mentle

5. Understanding the Map • Computers use TCP/IP to communicate (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) • Computers use client/server architecture Davina Pruitt-Mentle

6. Internet Providers: • Research and Educational Institutions • Government and Military Entities • Businesses • Private Organizations • Commercial Providers Davina Pruitt-Mentle

7. Internet Protocols • Email (Simple Mail Transport Protocol) • Telnet (Login to remote host computer) • FTP (File Transfer Protocol) - transfers files between server and client • HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol) Davina Pruitt-Mentle

8. History • WWW or Web or W3 includes all information, text, images, audio, video, and computational services that are accessible from the internet • July 8, 1999 Nature - approximately 800 million pages of publicly accessible information(1) • Web continues to grow, tripling in size over the past two years(2) (1) Steve Lawrence & C. Lee Giles, “Accessibility of Information on the Web,” Nature 400 (July 8, 1999), 107 (2) OCLC Office of Research, “June 1999 Web Statistics” Web Characterization Project Davina Pruitt-Mentle

9. WWW • System of Internet servers that support hypertext to access several Internet protocols on a single interface • Almost all protocols accessible on Internet are accessible on web (email - FTP - Telnet - etc) • In addition, WWW own protocol: HyperText Transfer Protocol Davina Pruitt-Mentle

10. HTTP • Hypertext - means of information retreival • Contains links that connect to other documents • Links selected by user • Virtual “web” of connections Davina Pruitt-Mentle

11. HTTP (cont) • Produce HTTP through HTML • HyperText Markup Language • Way of writing or creating with “tags” added to tell information • i.e. <b> Bold </b> yields Bold Davina Pruitt-Mentle

12. More History • Internet initially conceived in 1989 by Tim Berners-Lee at CERN (European Particle Physics Lab in Switzerland) • Needed a wide variety of information to be shared and distributed to many different computers and platforms • “Universal readership” Davina Pruitt-Mentle

13. Web Popular Because: • Easy to use • Easy to navigate • Combines words, graphics, sound, video • Easy to Publish • Plethora of information • Reach larger audience Davina Pruitt-Mentle

14. Summary: Web vs. Internet • What is the relationship between the web and the Internet? • The Internet contains physical components • computers • networks • services Davina Pruitt-Mentle

15. Web vs. Internet • The Internet connects thousands of computers across the world, but it is the web that allows communication to occur • Web - abstraction and common set of services on top of the Internet • Web - set of protocols and tools that let us share information with each other Davina Pruitt-Mentle

16. Directed Search Strategies Davina Pruitt-Mentle July Design Institute July 20, 2000

17. How Do I Find Information on the Internet? • Join an email discussion or USENET newsgroup • Go directly to a site if you have the address • Browse • Explore subject directory • Conduct Search Davina Pruitt-Mentle

18. How Does Information Get Indexed by the Search Tools • A publisher of a web page can register the site with the search engine or directory • Database collects data autonomously Davina Pruitt-Mentle

19. Browsers • Netscape Navigator (Communicator) • Product of Netscape (Now owned by AOL) • Originally was dominant • Multi-platform (all operating systems) • Internet Explorer • Product of Microsoft • Current Dominant Browser • Not available for all operating systems • Browser compatibility problems can cause web page problems Davina Pruitt-Mentle

20. Netscape Search Davina Pruitt-Mentle

21. Netscape Search • 1: Access to different search engines • 2. Type words or phrases into text entry box • 3. Click Button • 4. Preserve favorite search engine Davina Pruitt-Mentle

22. Internet Explorer Search • Separate Panel In Browser • Uses MicroSoft Network search Davina Pruitt-Mentle

23. Internet Explorer Search • Direct access to only Microsoft Network’s search engines • Allows easy access to different types of search • Web pages • People • Businesses • Maps Davina Pruitt-Mentle

24. Internet Keywords • Type straight in location bar of Netscape/Explorer • Simple words instead of URL (uniform resource location) • Words tie to websites • Can be tied to language preference • Example: Typing in maryland converts to http://www.state.md.us/ Davina Pruitt-Mentle

25. Know your URL’s • “Address” of a file on the Internet • Contains type of protocol followed by the computer name, directory and file name • Examples • http://www.capecod.net/Wixon/wixon.htm • gopher://gopher.boombox.micro/ • ftp:// wuarchive.wustl.edu/pub/windows/psp3.zip • mailto:kschrock@capecod.net Davina Pruitt-Mentle

26. Anatomy of a Web Address • protocol://host/path/filename See handout “Anatomy of a Web Address” Davina Pruitt-Mentle

27. Two Basic Approaches to Searching(although not really “basic”) • Search Engines • Subject Directories Davina Pruitt-Mentle

28. Search Engines Computer built index of information on web More inclusive Used to find specific resources Searchable by keyword Excessive “hits” Every page of a Website is indexed Better for general searches, but can be used to find specific information Directories Human aided, organized list May be general or subject-specific May be able to “search” directory Google - general NetTech Educational Technology Coordinator Website - subject specific User has control of browsing Fixed vocabulary Links go to Website home pages only Better at general searches Search Engines vs. Directories Davina Pruitt-Mentle

29. What are Search Engines? • Designed to assist you in searching through the enormous amount of information on the Web • No single search tool has everything • Each engine is a large database which utilizes different search techniques and tools (spiders or robots) to build indexes to the Internet (some also utilize submissions and administration) Davina Pruitt-Mentle

30. Which Search Engine? • Yahoo • Altavista • Excite • Google • NorthernLights • Hotbot • Infoseek See Handout - “The Little Search Engine that Could” Davina Pruitt-Mentle

31. How to Choose Consider • Size of the database (# of URLs) • Currency of the database (updates) • Search interface • Help screens • Search features • Results listed (# of documents retrieved) • Relevance of results Davina Pruitt-Mentle

32. More About Search Engines • Searches for matching terms (keywords or several keywords) • Results “ranked” by relevancy (for some) • Can search by • subject or category • keyword • Learn about each search engine’s description, options, and rules and restrictions Davina Pruitt-Mentle

33. GO TO http://www.google.com/help.html Davina Pruitt-Mentle

34. Searches for exact matches • Try different versions of your search term • Example: “Boston hotel” vs. “Boston hotels” • Rephrase query • Example: “cheap plane tickets” vs. “cheap airplane tickets” Davina Pruitt-Mentle

35. Automatically places “and” between words (expands search) • To reduce search – • add more terms in original search • refine search within the current search results. (adding terms to first words will return a subset of the original query) • Exclude a word by using a – sign • Example: to search bass but not speaker  bass –speaker • Does not support “or” operator • Does not support “stemming” or “wildcard” searches • Not case sensitive Davina Pruitt-Mentle

36. Finds street maps • Just enter a U.S. street address, including zip code or city/state into the search box • Google recognizes query as a map request Try your address Davina Pruitt-Mentle

37. Phrase Searches and Connectors • Phrase Searches are useful when searching for famous sayings or specific names “Gone with the Wind” • Phrase Connectors are recognized • Hyphens • Slashes • Periods • Equal signs • Apostrophes • Example: mother-in-law Davina Pruitt-Mentle

38. Stop Words • Stop words are ignored • These rarely help narrow and slow down search • http • com • certain single digits • certain single letters • to include stop words use [space]+ • Example • Star Wars, Episode 1  Star wars episode +1 • OS/2  OS/ +2 ***don’t forget the space before the + - signs Davina Pruitt-Mentle

39. How to Interpret Results See Handout Davina Pruitt-Mentle

40. Combines in one search a very large full-text Web-page database (~160 million pages) with over 5,400 searchable full-text published (print) journals and an array of online news resources Davina Pruitt-Mentle

41. You may access both relevant web-pages and relevant journals and news releases • Tagged • WWW like other search tools or • Special Collection (published, fee-for-viewing journal articles or other publication) Davina Pruitt-Mentle

42. GOTO http://www.northernlight.com/docs/specoll_help_overview.html • To obtain an item from the Special Collection: • Click on link • Decide if you are willing to pay fee • Page provides citation so you can locate publication in library Davina Pruitt-Mentle

43. Unique Folders Approach • Results grouped in folders listed at left • Folders dynamically generated by search results • From a controlled vocabulary • Similar to library cataloging • Not fixed like subject directories • Click on any folder to refine or further focus search • Sub-folders allow you to further “zero in” Davina Pruitt-Mentle

44. Four Types of Folders • Subjects (baseball, desserts) • Source descriptors (commercial, personal, magazines, databases) • Types of documents (press releases, product review, maps) • Languages (major Romanized languages only) Davina Pruitt-Mentle

45. Approaches to Searching • Basic Search • Power Search • Industry Search • Investext Search • News Davina Pruitt-Mentle

46. Basic Search • Http://www.northernlight.com • From Home Page • Allows Boolean logic • Phrase in “ ” • Truncation (*for many characters or % for 1 character) • + requires, - excludes Davina Pruitt-Mentle

47. Power Search • Http://www.northernlight.com/power.html • Combines ALL basic search features in one search • Limits to major language or country • Can select subject or document in advance Davina Pruitt-Mentle

48. Industry Search • http://www.northernlight.com/business.html • All features of basic search • Can limit by date range or industry-based subject category • Default is ALL industries Davina Pruitt-Mentle

49. Investext Search • http://www.northernlight.com/investext.html • Search or browse thousands of investment research reports written by expert analysts. Davina Pruitt-Mentle

50. News Search • http://www.northernlight.com/news.html • Allows on-line news searches Davina Pruitt-Mentle