Internet Research

Search Terms

Search engine

A search engine does not actually search the Web during your search.

Search engines continually send out “spiders” (or “crawlers” or “robots”) that visit web sites, read terms and then index those terms.

A huge database of Web sites thus is gathered together and indexed.

Using the keywords you give them, search engines then search their current indexes.

Subject Directory (or tree)

A subject directory is a database of web sites and references, organized by category or subject.

It will not often provide you with ranked web sites. Instead, you will get a broad index related to your topic, divided further by subheadings.

Information is organized and cataloged by a person, not software.

Yahoo is the most popular subject directory.

Meta tags & paid inclusion

An early cautionary note: Web sites can put unseen HTML tags in their pages to help guide or attract search engine spiders. It’s called stacking.

Tags can be abused. For example, some pornography sites put meta tags for “travel” or “Congress” in pages to attract hits.

Some search engines also accept payments from companies so that company web sites show up on certain searches, such as for travel or mortgages.

Meta Tools

Meta tools rely on databases created by other tools.

Meta search engines and meta subject directories search several tools at once.

Example: savvysearch.com looks through several search engines.

Bighub.com and dogpile.com allow you to select the search engines.

Ready reference

Many research inquiries can be handled quickly by use of a ready reference tool.

Reference tools at the ready include almanacs, encyclopedias, dictionaries, a quotation index, and fact books.

You can have shortcuts to these resources on your desktop.

Boolean

Method of searching in which terms like AND, OR, NOT and NEAR can limit or focus the search.

Named for George Boole, a 19^th Century mathematician.

Example: Lehigh AND University NOT Valley

Keyword

When you frame your question or project, you must identify the main concepts – the keywords with which you will search.

Search engines store and index their millions of web sites according to keywords.

You are looking for a match.

Case sensitive

Many search engines are case sensitive: They pay attention to upper case and lower case letters.

Don’t type bill when you want Bill or you will get many unwanted results.

Truncation (Stemming)

Truncation is shortening or cutting off words (to their stems or roots ) so that the search engine will find all forms of the word.

Use truncation with an asterisk (*) to find variant word forms.

The term president* will get results for presidents, presidential and others.

Wild cards

Some search engines refer to the asterisk that accompanies truncation and stemming as a “wild card.”

Child* will get results for child, children, childless and others.

Find Similar

Many search engines and subject directories have this command.

When you find a useful site, you can return to your search results and “find similar” pages.

Spider (or Robot)

Name given to the software that continuously travels the Web to update the databases of search engines.

Crawler is yet another name.

Phrase Search

A valuable search method that allows you to state words exactly the way you want them searched.

Usually the phrase should be placed in quotes.

The phrase, “first heart transplant,” should only get results with that exact phrase on the page.

Proximity Search

A proximity search lets you specify that two keywords appear near each other in a document.

Proximity searches allow you to focus your result.

In Boolean searching, a common proximity operator is NEAR.

Field Searching

Many search engines allow you to search by fields. A field is a specific portion of a document or web page, such as the title, author or text.

You can search for Kurt Vonnegut under “author” and get only documents written by him.

A field search allows you to be more precise in your search.

Successful search

Knowing these concepts will put you ahead of 90 percent of the people who search the Web.

Employing even a few of these concepts will make you a successful Internet researcher.


	A search engine does not actually search the Web during your search.
	Search engines continually send out “spiders” (or “crawlers” or “robots”) that visit web sites, read terms and then index those terms.
	A huge database of Web sites thus is gathered together and indexed.
	Using the keywords you give them, search engines then search their current indexes.


	A subject directory is a database of web sites and references, organized by category or subject.
	It will not often provide you with ranked web sites. Instead, you will get a broad index related to your topic, divided further by subheadings.
	Information is organized and cataloged by a person, not software.
	Yahoo is the most popular subject directory.


	An early cautionary note: Web sites can put unseen HTML tags in their pages to help guide or attract search engine spiders. It’s called stacking.
	Tags can be abused. For example, some pornography sites put meta tags for “travel” or “Congress” in pages to attract hits.
	Some search engines also accept payments from companies so that company web sites show up on certain searches, such as for travel or mortgages.


	Meta tools rely on databases created by other tools.
	Meta search engines and meta subject directories search several tools at once.
	Example: savvysearch.com looks through several search engines.
	Bighub.com and dogpile.com allow you to select the search engines.


	Many research inquiries can be handled quickly by use of a ready reference tool.
	Reference tools at the ready include almanacs, encyclopedias, dictionaries, a quotation index, and fact books.
	You can have shortcuts to these resources on your desktop.


	Method of searching in which terms like AND, OR, NOT and NEAR can limit or focus the search.
	Named for George Boole, a 19^th Century mathematician.
	Example: Lehigh AND University NOT Valley


	When you frame your question or project, you must identify the main concepts – the keywords with which you will search.
	Search engines store and index their millions of web sites according to keywords.
	You are looking for a match.


	Many search engines are case sensitive: They pay attention to upper case and lower case letters.
	Don’t type bill when you want Bill or you will get many unwanted results.


	Truncation is shortening or cutting off words (to their stems or roots ) so that the search engine will find all forms of the word.
	Use truncation with an asterisk (*) to find variant word forms.
	The term president* will get results for presidents, presidential and others.


	Some search engines refer to the asterisk that accompanies truncation and stemming as a “wild card.”
	Child* will get results for child, children, childless and others.


	Many search engines and subject directories have this command.
	When you find a useful site, you can return to your search results and “find similar” pages.


	Name given to the software that continuously travels the Web to update the databases of search engines.
	Crawler is yet another name.


	A valuable search method that allows you to state words exactly the way you want them searched.
	Usually the phrase should be placed in quotes.
	The phrase, “first heart transplant,” should only get results with that exact phrase on the page.


	A proximity search lets you specify that two keywords appear near each other in a document.
	Proximity searches allow you to focus your result.
	In Boolean searching, a common proximity operator is NEAR.


	Many search engines allow you to search by fields. A field is a specific portion of a document or web page, such as the title, author or text.
	You can search for Kurt Vonnegut under “author” and get only documents written by him.
	A field search allows you to be more precise in your search.


	Knowing these concepts will put you ahead of 90 percent of the people who search the Web.
	Employing even a few of these concepts will make you a successful Internet researcher.