The lecture for week five was based on Using Search Engines: Queries, Strategies and selecting results.
I completed a search engine quiz.
1. Four search engines are firstly, www.google.com, www.vista.com, www.yahoo.com and www.atomz.com
2. Some problems encountered using search engines are the information you receive doesn’t always relate to the topic you are looking for in the most accurate way, sometimes the topic gets off track. Keywords have to be specific otherwise information is not always accurate. Pages or information you receive may appear bias; this may include their personal attitudes and beliefs. The author may not be well educated on that topic and information may not be accurate. Information may also be out of date which often leaves information incorrect and is not useful. Finally, viruses are a major negative of search engines. They can repetitively show up on your screen whilst trying to carry out a search which rapidly slows down and makes you search harder to complete.
3. Strategies I can use to best overcome these problems would be to look at the reference and see if it is accurate, for example, a well educated author, well respected by fellow peers, this way the information will be fictional and useful for research. Check that the information source is up to date and accurate. Analyse wether the web page itself has been designed to show facts, a joke, wether the information is aimed to inform younger children, students or adults. This will make it clear as to if the information being presented is suitable for you as a reader.
4. Boolean search refers to a search that allows you to type words such as and, or, or not etc. Some of these searches allow the symbols such as +, -, = etc to be used.
5. Some features of an advanced search in google are, you get the option to search for an entire phrase, a group of words not as a phrase making sense and you can type in a couple of words that relate to your search. Another option is type in unwanted words in which you don’t want to be searched. And lastly, there is an option under tools, this includes results per page, language, file type, and a search within a site or domain. Advanced search lets you be more specific in what you are researching, this eliminates hundreds of unwanted, useless pages.
There are three basic categories of information on the web. This includes the free, visible web, the free, invisible we, and paid databases over the web. There are only two categories of search tool types, these include search engines and directories.
A search engine is a web based program that covers the internet. Indicis of websites from textual information are created. Sites are commonly indexed according to keywords. A couple of search engines are, Google, Yahoo, AltaVista and AlTheWeb.
Directories on the other hand are human-edited. This allows information to be more accurate as it has been edited and checked not just posted up on the internet. These are some of the most useful directories, http://dmoz.org, http://directory.google.com, http:// dir.yahoo.com, http://www.looksmart.com and http://www.about.com
Search engine rankings were shown to give a clearer idea of what ones are the most accurate and would be the best to use for research.
Tutorial Tasks:
Tutorial Tasks this week were to search through a given website and complete an online quiz by searching for the answers. This was very useful as the questions being asked were on history and I did not know the answers without searching for them online. I not only found out answers, I found the best way to search for a question is to type in keywords. Doing this is more fluent now than before and I automatically type in the most important words rather than less important ones. Also, to summaries three websites by three different authors about using search engines.
Readings:
1. By looking through the web site http://www.monash.com/spidap.html. I found that 4 of the easiest most effective ways to structure a good search in my Learning Log are the following;
Firstly, Keyword Search. This involves typing in the main word of the topic you wish to further research. By using one or two of the main words your search will be much more accurate in finding information you are searching for. If you were to type a sentence searches for every word will appear. This not only wastes time, but makes your search much harder then if you were to type a couple of keywords.
Secondly, Refining my search. This includes different options, ‘basic’ and ‘refined’ or ‘advanced’.
A basic search includes entering one keyword, no adjustments on settings are done, just very basic by typing in the main word of the search.
Differing from one search engine to another is the advanced search options. More than one word is searched by using advanced search, this gives more detail to the search and the search becomes more accurate and straight to the point. Phrases can be searched using this search option.
Another option includes what type of information you search up, for example select the URL you wish to search.
The Boolean operators may also refine your search. You may type in and, or and not and words such as near and followed by. This will define your search more accurately.
Thirdly, Relevancy Rankings. As computers listen to what the user types, does not always mean information or searches are accurate every time. Often dozens of pages and links come up if you type in a certain word, just because an article or a page contains that word, does not mean that it is supplying the correct type of information in a relevant way to what you are looking for. As some words you type in are common words, hundreds of pages will come up containing that word with no relevancy at all to your search. Relevancy of that word is determined by the positioning of that word in a phrase or sentence, if that word appears near the start in a document or in the title. If so, there is a high chance that the document will be relevant.
And finally, information on Meta Tags. Meta tags are also known as head tags. HTML is a meta tag, this means that the authors input was used in the information. Ratings for these sites can rise and drop suddenly so there so no promising a large number of hits.
2. I completed the inline internet quiz on http://www.siteseen.co.uk/questions/historytrivia/
The strategies I used to locate my answers were type keywords such as the persons name or age, biographies popped up and I located my answers on these pages. Information about dates and locations were searched my typing in history on a certain location. These searches were effective as I found the correct answers to the quiz by doing them.
3. So far this module has given me a better understanding of the more advanced search techniques. I have always used a basic search which takes me through dozens of useless pages. By completing these exercises I can find more effective information, much quicker than I have done in the past.
4. The web site created by Robert Harris- Web Search Strategies basically states that you as an information seeker must know what you are looking for and how I can find it, as well as how do you know if what you have found is accurate and useful.
A summary of the free, visible web, the free, invisible web, and paid databases over the web were stated. It states that a search engine searches for the index containing the same word. Four types of search engines are clearly stated and explained what they are used for such as global, regional, targeted, and reference search engines.
There is a guide to choosing a starting place for your search, from a broad search, down to a general subject area, well-known specific subject, very specific and unusual subject, then finally, a research paper.
The best types of keywords to search are, forms, related terms, synonymous terms, and a ladder of generalisation. By searching for these, your results will be pretty accurate.
Search tips such a, using several search tools, read the search tips or help information at each search engine, search for keyword searches, use several words, guess a location, recognise what’s opinion and what’s fact, what’s fictional and what’s non fictional and if the source is trustworthy, and back up to find were you are, so check the directory and if it is accurate or not.
5. The History of the Internet Chapter Four: Search Engines by Richard T. Griffiths is basically about the beginning of the search engines, how it worked and progressed over the years. Also, information on how we find information on the web such as single words, no capital letters, recognising mathematical symbols, do not leave spaces between words, Boolean logic and searching within a category.
Directories were discussed with graphs to help explain the sizes of them. A few databases were names and described.
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