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Google and Beyond: Internet Research Skills Optimization
- 1. Google and Beyond Rethinking your hunting methods Amanda Deason Internet Researcher [email protected]
- 2. OBJECTIVES • Internet and search basics • Search engine types • Other online sources • Refining an internet search • Evaluating and Citing sites
- 3. RESEARCH MATTERS Research allows us to move from ignorance to knowledge. There is a wealth of information right at our fingertips. We only need to know how to access it.
- 4. THE INTERNET Recently a population of college students were asked to explain how the internet works. Not one person could answer the question correctly. The word ‘magic’ came up often…
- 5. Just how does the Internet work?
- 6. STANDARD SEARCH ENGINES A great place to get your feet wet
- 7. SEARCH ENGINES Web sites used for retrieval of data, files, or documents from a database A search engine search is NOT a live or complete Web search!
- 9. To go beyond Google you first need to understand Google
- 10. • Be Specific small dog breeds vs. dog • Use Professional terms commercial architecture vs. buildings • Do NOT use punctuation or ask questions • Capitalization is not nessessary Houston TX = houston tx
- 11. Turbocharge Google! • Boolean Search Strings • Phrase Searching • Refinement • Combine methods for BOOST!
- 12. BOOLEAN OPERATORS Terms used with keywords to provide further instruction to the search engine Boolean terms MUST be capitalized Boolean Operators save time and reduce inappropriate results that must be scanned for relevancy
- 13. BOOLEAN OPERATORS Narrows the results to only those that contain both terms example, construction jobs
- 14. BOOLEAN OPERATORS Broadens the search results to include those that contain any of the terms separated by the OR operator example, information technology
- 15. BOOLEAN OPERATORS Narrows the search results by excluding the term following NOT from search results example, colorado NOT denver
- 16. NESTING WITH THE MODIFER You can (nest words together) and enclose item like (this OR that) to help (refine OR restrict) your search results. book OR magazine ipad OR tablet violin OR strings
- 17. PHRASE SEARCHING WITH You can “group keywords together” to instruct the search engine to return results that are and “exact match” global warming criminal justice down comforter
- 18. GENERATING A SEARCH STRING Combine keywords, operators, and symbols in a search string to further instruct the search engine to find and exclude specific information banana bread banana AND bread “banana bread” banana OR bread
- 19. IN THE WILD WITH THE The , called the “Wild Card” is used to increase the search results by replaces missing or unknown words in your search query. (Electricity invented by ) (A penny is a penny )
- 20. SEARCH TOOLS These search techniques will save you time and effort Your searches will bring in more relevant results. manipulate the string = manipulate the results
- 21. REFINEMENTS
- 22. REFINEMENTS Refinements do just what they sound like they do; they refine your results! This lecture will cover You will have to experiment with the others!
- 23. Restricts your results to the specified file type. doc ►Microsoft Word pdf ► Adobe PDF ppt ► Microsoft PowerPoint xls ► Microsft Excel
- 24. Restricts your results to those from a specified site. lsus.edu ►LSUS site gov ►Government sites uk.linkedin.co ►LinkedIn United Kingdom site microsoft.com ►Microsoft site
- 25. Restricts your results to those with specified words in the url. directory ►(eg) directory.mozilla.org cache ►(eg)thefreedictionary.com/cache resume|cv ►url resume OR cv, for example: jobstar.org/tools/resume
- 26. Combine methods=Boost! Let’s say I’d like a news article on Information Technology, from a government site, in the form of PDF, Word document, or Excel. Create a search string that would help you narrow down the results. Play around with different combinations See what you come up with!
- 27. Look at the key words: Let’s say I’d like a news article on Information Technology, from a government site, in the form of PDF, Word document, or Excel. Here is an example of a search string you could use: “Information Technology” AND site:gov AND inurl:news (filetype:pdf OR filetype:doc OR filetype:xls)
- 28. BEYOND GOOGLE Meta Search, Libraries, Directories, Oh My!
- 29. METASEARCH ENGINES en.Wikipedia.com www.searchenginepeople.com Meta-Search Engines search standard Search engines This allows you to search faster and smarter!
- 30. METASEARCH ENGINES Some Meta Search engines:
- 31. OTHER RESOURCES Check out other resources beyond search engines like:
- 32. PLAN YOUR ROUTE Don’t get lost in the woods
- 33. CREATE A SEARCH STRATEGY
- 34. EVALUATING SOURCES Bag it and don’t forget to Tag it!
- 35. EVALUATING SITES You have the results, now what? What do you know about the items you’ve found online? How do you determine if the results of your Web hunt are trash or treasure?
- 36. EVALUATING SITES Important because: • anyone can publish to the Web • the Web is not regulated by a governing body • the material on the Web does NOT have to be edited or even true
- 37. URL Uniform Resource Locator (Web page address) Example: Learn more here
- 38. C.A.R.S AN EVALUATION CHECKLIST
- 39. C.A.R.S AN EVALUATION CHECKLIST When evaluating a site for ask yourself: • Who is the author of the site? • What is the author’s credentials? experience? training? education? • Does the author provide contact information? • What does the site’s appearance look like? professional? organized? neat? : anonymous author, misspellings, faulty links, messy appearance
- 40. C.A.R.S AN EVALUATION CHECKLIST When evaluating a site for ask yourself: • When was the material compiled or created? recently? • Is the material presented a comprehensive presentation of the facts? • Why, what purpose, what the site or information created? : out of date information, expired links, inaccurate information, overly generalized information
- 41. C.A.R.S AN EVALUATION CHECKLIST When evaluating a site for ask yourself: • Is the material presented in an objective and non-biased manner? • Does the information make sense to you based on what you already know to be true? • Does the information contradict itself or other parts of the Web site? : manipulative and/or emotional language, one-sided information, Web site and information show a conflict of interest
- 42. C.A.R.S AN EVALUATION CHECKLIST When evaluating a site for ask yourself: • Has the author documented or provided sources? • Can you find other sources (at least two) that support the data presented on the site in question? : lack of documentation, information contradicts other known reliable sources
- 43. EVALUATING SITES Citing Sources Give credit where credit is due! There are even sites that will do it for you: http://www.easybib.com http://www.citationmaker.com And sites that will check for plagiarism & grammar errors: http://www.smallseotools.com/plagiarism-checker
- 44. HUNTING KIT Assembling your hunting tool kit • Keyword search use specific, relevant, professional terms • Boolean operators refine search by including or excluding terms • Phrase search specify term groupings and order • URL checking domain types help identify source type • C.A.R.S. evaluate your sources • Cite sources plagiarism is not flattery it is unethical and wrong • Be safe! You never know where those Web pages have been!
- 46. I LOVE LOVE LOVE www.deeperweb.com ! ! ! ! Powered by Google, it displays results a bit differently through clustering and tags. Very efficient searching! Take the lightning fast tour/tutorial here: http://deeperweb.com/help/tutorial-howto.php
- 47. www.dogpile.com Searches Google, Yahoo, and Yandex. You will find that some meta-search engines display duplicates, dogpile analyzes the results, determines relevancy, and eliminates duplicates.
- 48. Do not underestimate the value of a social network! On LinkedIn you’ll find groups of professionals and novices who share similar interests all collaborating and learning from each other in LinkedIn Groups. For example I am a part of these groups: Join me! http://www.linkedin.com/in/amandadeason
- 49. Pinterest is so much more than just recipes and sewing tutorials. More and more companies are realizing the value of a visual search and storage tool. Learn, share, create, collaborate, and yes even get a good chocolate cookie recipe at http://www.pinterest.com
- 50. Please note I only briefly touched on a few topics I feel are essential to internet research. I didn’t even discuss these:
- 51. AMANDA DEASON Internet Researcher [email protected] I encourage you to contact me regarding any internet research questions and/or comments. Happy Hunting!
- 52. RESOURCES Information in this lecture is a combination of my own prior knowledge and information found from these online resources: GRCC – Holman Library Wordle Ted Rogers School of Management Google tutorials Class Zone Web Research Guide seo.certification.or.in Laura Cohen, The Finer Points of Web Search Life Online World Science Festival