Helix Charter High School20002001200220032004captured Jan 10, 2004

Searching Strategies
 
The World Wide Web has grown so vastly that there seems to be no problem of not enough information, but too much. Searching for the right information online can often seem like a daunting task. There are many techniques you can use to help you search the Internet more effectively. This worksheet below is designed to teach you steps towards refining your searches to generate the results you desire. Look for the word clues within the searches to help you solve the problem below.

My Searching Techniques

Command
Symbol
Visual and Example
Reasoning
include
+, and

Picasso and Guernica
Use when you want only sites with both terms
all
or

Picasso or Guernica
Use when you want sites with either terms
exclude
-, and not

Picasso and not Guernica
Use when you want the first term without the second term
wildcard
* ,?

Paint* or Paint?

Site Results: Paint, Painting, Painter, Paints
Use when you want sites with the term and extensions of the term's base
phrase
" "

"Girl Before a Mirror"

Site Results: "Girl Before a Mirror"
Use when you want sites that use a complete phrase
proximity
near, /

Picasso near Guernica

Picasso/Guernica

Site Results: Picasso's masterpiece mural "Guernica" is now displayed in the Museo Del Prado in Madrid Spain

 
Use when you want sites that have the first and second terms within 10 words of each other
all linked pages
link:
link:Picasso
Use when you want all pages linked to the particular URL
only in title

title:

intitle:
Olga's Gallery : PabloPicasso
Use when you want sites with the term in the web page title

Please note that there are many types of searching commands and many of them are particular to each search engine. This list offers some of the most popular strategies. Check with each search engines searching techniques prior to using the commands above because they may differ slightly. Pick three or four search engines that offer various results to become familiar with and then learn their special commands. This will make searching easier and more efficient. See below the linked search engines for your own preferences.

 

Directories

 

 

World Wide Search Engines

 

Altavista Netscape Excite Hotbot Hotwire
Lycos WorldNet Google SimplySearch4it weknowabout
Yahoo alltheweb looksmart Webcrawler AskJeeves
dmoz AOL msn search.com comcast

 

USA Search Engines

 

ZenSearch WiseNut About ScrubTheWeb ArborSearch
Teoma Zerx ooBdoo TheCyberWiz Outsmarted
Go Infomine WebWorld Galaxy intelSeek
4Seek ExactSeek PleaseRetrieve TheUSsearch whatUseek

 

MetaSearch Engines

 

SurfWax Dogpile Zworks Internet Sleuth WindSeek
SgtSearch Turbo10 1Blink MonsterCrawler ithaki
ProFusion One2Seek HoneyDijon MyNetCrawler Widow
Highway61 Beaucoup! mamma searchhawk MetaGopher

Plus check out this site for specialized search engines

Links for the Arts: Art, Crafts, and Hobbies

Search these topics to find the results

Use a different search engine and search strategy for each one

Maxfield Parrish
Genre Painting
songs about artwork
"Snap the Whip"
Salvador Dali not paintings
artwork with cowboys
Dada and Duchamp
art, artists, artwork
Frida the movie
Searching Strategies Worksheet

Types of search mechanisms:
o Directory (searches cataloged web sites)
o Search Engine (searches entire web)
o Metasearch (uses many search mechanisms to search)

Title of Search Mechanism
Type of Search Mechanism
Keyword or phrase used
Number of Hits
Does it find what you want?
How does it display information?

Sample:

Alta Vista
Google Dogpile

Sample:

Directory
Search Engine Metasearch

Sample:

Art
Picasso
Cubism
Sample:
How
many sites did it find?

22

Sample:

Yes / No

Sample:

List of words
Title and Summary
List of Links
           
           
           
           
           
           

The search mechanism I thought was best is __________________________________
because_________________________________________________________________

1. What is one thing you learned from this assignment?__________________________

________________________________________________________________________
2. How does this assignment help you to search the internet? ____________________

________________________________________________________________________
3. Which search mechanisms do you think you will use for your career path research?

________________________________________________________________________

Copyright ©2003 by Christine Colera and Susan Hill.