Topic: Internet Searching

Search engines:

Each search engine has a different way in which they search for the pages that appear on the screen. Some search on titles only, or they search the entire text of the page, or they search by the keywords submitted by the company to the search engine. Some of the more well known companies are:

Or try one of the search engines above to search for new search engines!

Advanced searching:

Most of the above listed search engines allows you to search by including boolean operators in the list of words you include. Examples of boolean operators are the words "and", "or", "not", "with". Directions for including boolean operators are included with each search engine that uses the words. For example if you are searching for brown cows, try typing in" brown and cow not black not spots".

Metasearch engines:

Metasearching involves searching many search engines at once. This may be a good idea if your topic is very narrow and you are not sure where to start. A list is included at the site www.metasearch.langenberg.com. Try a couple of these since they list the results in different ways, example: gohip.com versus dogpile.com.

Altavista and Google:

Altavista allows you to search for specific file formats for images, sounds, and video. This will come in handy when searching for the right formats for specific projects. For example, when looking for a sound for PowerPoint, .wav files work best.

Google works great with an exact phrase in quotes. A bonus with Google is the lack of annoying advertising! Image searches provide thumbnails. Click on the thumbnail to go to the page at which the image is located. Do not ever save images from the search results page, the quality is horrible.

Today's Assignment: Pick something you know that you will have to teach, but know little about. Try searching for information using a variety of search engines. Broaden and narrow your searches, and also read about the search tips that each search engine provides. By exploring other search engines, you may find a new best researcher on the web!

Your assignment is to go crap detecting. The WWW has much to offer, however, you have to search through many pages to find what you are looking for. Find three totally awesome sites that you feel your classmates must know about! After we crap detect, we will Share the Love! Read Castleton Library's information on how to evaluate web sources as well as citing internet references.

To Share the Love, you are to write an annotated bibliography of your results and post on the course Blackboard site. This will include the Title of the site (located in the top window bar of the browser), it's URL (the thing that starts with http://), and a paragraph descriptor of what is so hot about the sites you found. For example:

Castleton State College (2004). Castleton State College in Vermont [Online]. Available: http://www.castleton.edu [2004, August 30].

This site is all about a groovy school in Vermont. The site is organized in such a way that allows viewers to access the information they are looking for. The site is expansive, and includes information on not only what the college has to offer, but what is available in the local area. One particularly interesting item is the 360 degree view of dorm rooms!

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