Smart Web Search Strategies
Stop Searching - Start Finding!
1. Know exactly what you are looking for before you go online Identify the subject of the text you are looking for. It helps to visualise what the ideal answer would look like; Come up with a title for the imaginary ideal article that would answer your question perfectly. Use field searching techniques (e.g. title:keyword) For more information about field searching, visit: Altavista - Help For more user-friendly field searching (although
less versatile than Altavista's Advanced Search) try out this search engine: FAST - All the Web -
Advanced Search (or here) 2. Choose the right search engine General purpose search engines Altavista's Advanced Search is the most versatile tool for advanced searching. Here you can use: - Boolean operators - Field searching (fields include: title, url, domain, host, image, link, anchor) Specialised Search Engines (use these to fine-tune your search)For example: Health Search Engines Medical World Search (http://www.mwsearch.com/) offers full text search capability for nearly 100,000 Web pages from thousands of selected medical sites. Alternative Health News Online (http://www.altmedicine.com/search/index.cfm): If you are looking for non-traditional sources, try searching. This is a regularly updated directory of news stories featuring credible non-traditional approaches to health and wellness. Legal Search Engine FindLaw (http://www.findlaw.com/) pays homage to Yahoo! in layout and operation. Though it is a specialised law search engine, it's a deep and robust legal resource. For a list of specialised search engines, visit the following websites: http://www.searchenginewatch.com/links/ http://www.allsearchengines.com Remember: No single search engine searches the entire internet! There is a very low degree of overlap of search engine databases (=pages indexed), and different search engines use different indexing techniques, so if you are having trouble finding what you are looking for, try searching with more than one engine. Each search engine has its own search techniques (some
use Boolean operators, some use "+" and "-", some use both, some have
their own search forms and some allow field searching). Check out the relevant HELP file
before beginning a search! Select your most unique and important keywords first. These must be terms that you are certain are correct in the given context. If necessary use synonyms, combined with the Boolean "OR" and parentheses. See examples at: Boolean and field searching syntax Using
parentheses to nest your search criteria See section 9. See also: Correct
punctuation. Use the wildcard to account for trademark symbols (e.g. Actrapid®), plurals (syringe* = syringe, syringes) or various spellings (col*r = colour, color) or different forms (inject*= inject, injected, injecting, injection, injections, injectable). Remember: The "*" can only appear after a minimum of three characters The "*" can stand for from zero to five characters (for more than five expected characters, use "**") See more
examples. Altavista's Advanced Search is the best tool to refine your search. Use Boolean operators (AND, OR, NEAR, AND NOT) and field searching techniques. More information on Boolean operators and field searching. Begin your search! If you are getting too many results, make your search more specific (add different keywords). If you are getting no/too few results, make your search more
general (by using the wildcard to cover more options, by adding synonyms, reducing
the number of different keywords). Once you have opened a page that looks promising, locate your keyword(s) on the page with CTRL-F (or select "Edit/Find on This Page") to make sure that the context is correct. For repeated searching, remember to first click in
an empty part at the top of the page before carrying out another search (otherwise the
search is carried out from the last located term onwards). 9. The biggest mistake that a searcher can make To be blinded by your own assumptions. Do not assume the spelling somebody gave you is correct. Do not assume the date of an event or a publication you are looking for is necessarily accurate. Do not assume that the source you think is most logical to search is the only place the information might be found. Do not even assume that what you are looking for has been published, or is publicly available, or is even available online. The point is to keep your options open, to
always be on the lookout for faulty assumptions that may be limiting or compromising your
results, to examine all the possible angles, and to think creatively about your research
project at every step of the way. For many Web sites, the unofficial standard of the www.company.com address may easily take a searcher directly to the top-level Web page for the organisation's site. A look at the top-level page is useful for understanding the organisation of information on the site as well as providing an overview of what information is available. (e.g. www.cochlearimplants.com) Try out different domain names, e.g. .com, .org, .it, .ch, .de, .co.uk Different domain types (.com, .edu, .gov, .mil, .net, .org, .uk, .fr etc.) Complete list of internet domains by name Or simply type a phrase or the name of the company you are
looking for in the address bar in your browser (without http or www or com or any
other domain name!) and hit ENTER. OTHER LINKS: |