Home

Topics

Resources

Forum

Searching the Web

Introduction

The World Wide Web is a powerful tool for communicating ideas, facts and opinions. Without leaving your desk, you can access and retrieve information on almost any topic. But the Web can also be immensely frustrating, disorganized, chaotic, and ever-changing.

The trick to using the Web effectively is to use the tools which will help locate available resources.

There are many such tools:

Web directories:   a collection of Internet sites grouped into categories; using a directory is analogous to using the Yellow Pages or a library catalog. A directory is often the best place to begin Internet searching because it looks at a narrowed range of information.

Search engines: based on keyword searches of databases that contain millions of documents and words. Search engines provide quick access to massive amounts of information.. A search engine performs more effectively when you use a structured search strategy.

Specialized search engines

Meta-search engines: an outgrowth of search engines. Each search engine accesses a portion of the Internet; while there may be overlap, no two-search engines will return the same results to a query. A meta-search engine accesses several search engines, thereby giving the broadest return to a query.

Organizing Search Results

    Choose a topic.

    Search for sites. You may use as many search engines as you please. We strongly recommend Google. (About Google)

    In your word processor create a table (HOW?) with 3 columns: Site name, Site address, and information.

    Fill in the table with at least eight of the best sites you found on the topic. You can copy and paste both site name and address (HOW?).

    Save the file (HOW?).

    Attach your file to your message to the forum

    Open your peers’ files and visit their sites.

    React to at least 3 messages.

These tables may later become part of the "Resources"  section in your site.