Net
searching
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Net searching
The quickest way to locate
data on the Net is to use a
search engine.
Popular examples include
Alta-Vista, Lycos, and
Infoseek.
Other forms of searching
exist [Gopher and Telnet]
but with these you need to
know the data location.
If you are reading this
whilst connected to the
Internet, hot links to
search engines are listed at
the bottom
of this page.
Quality
Remember that anybody can
put data on the Net.
You need to evaluate
the quality of the
information you recover.
Always give the source
of any information you use.
There are new conventions
for citing
electronic sources.
Search
engines
A search engine [SE] will
scan its database (or the
Net itself) for whatever
word(s) you type in the FIND
box.
It will then return a number
of 'hits' - possibly rated
according to likely
significance.
Most of the popular SEs use
slightly different search
methods and databases.
If you don't find what you
want with one, try another.
Some will quote the first
few lines of an extract.
Search
techniques
Be as specific and 'narrow'
as possible in defining your
request.
General and 'wide' requests
will result in too many
hits.
Example
Say you were researching
pineapple production in
Brazil.
A search on 'pineapple'
might result in 10,000 hits.
[You have ten thousand
documents to evaluate!].
Choosing
'pineapples+Brazil+1997'
narrows the search to
documents which include
all these terms.
Boolean
terms
Most SEs will recognise the
use of terms which help you
to narrow your request.
'Bacon AND tomato' will
locate documents which
contain both these terms.
'Bacon OR tomato' will
locate documents which
contain either of these
terms.
'Bacon NOT tomato' will
locate documents which
contain one term, but not
the other.
You can also use keyboard
symbols to refine a search:
|
+ |
plus |
= |
and |
|
- |
minus |
= |
not |
|
( ) |
brackets |
= |
group of words |
|
" " |
quotes |
= |
groups of words |
|
* |
star |
= |
wildcard |
The wildcard is powerful but
should be used with care.
A search for Colum* would
return Columbus, Columbia,
Columbian, Column, and so
on.
General
points
Letter case doesn't matter
with most SEs. 'Smith',
'smith' and 'SMITH' are all
the same.
Don't assume the data you
are looking for must be
available on line.
Thousands of pages are added
to the Web daily, but the
total is still far less than
the volume of printed
material in big libraries.
Many SEs will now allow you
to narrow your searches by
-
language
(Spanish, English
French)
-
date
(in last 2/3 days, week,
month)
-
continent
(co.uk, com.ca, ac.au)
-
source
(Web, newsgroups,
companies)
The same principles can be
used to find software, as
well as named information.
For instance, search for
PKZIPW.EXE for the latest
version of the popular
Windows compression utility.
This is
worth repeating
Always acknowledge your
sources.
Downloading is like
photocopying. Say where you
found the data.
Use the new conventions for
citing
electronic sources.
Hotlinks
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