Module title:

How to search the

internet

Module Description: The goal of this module is to tackle on how to search in two of the most popular search engines in the internet- Google and Alta Vista

Introduction:

The Internet is a global network of networks. People and organizations connect into

the Internet so they can access its massive store of shared information. The Internet is an

inherently participative medium. Anybody can publish information or create new services.

The Internet has greatly changed the way people use computers and communicate today.

Many Internet terms have become part of people's everyday language and e-mail has added a

whole new means through which people can communicate.

The internet is really, really big and it keeps growing bigger every day. If you want to search it effectively you’re going to need to develop a couple of tricks to help you narrow the search.

SCOPE Lesson I. Simple Steps to Open a Web Page Lesson II. Basic Google Search

1. Search with Quotes (“ “) 2. Search with Plus/Positive Sign ( +) 3. Search with Minus/Negative Sign (–) 4. Search with Tilde Sign (~)

Lesson III. Boolean Logic/ Operators in Alta Vista

a. ADD b. OR c. NOT d. NEAR e. TRUNCATION

Lesson IV. How to Search Like a Pro

Google and Alta Vista are the most popular search engines on the Web, but most people don't realize how much more powerful they can make their Google and Alta Vista searches with just a few simple tweaks.

I. Follow these simple steps on how to open web pages. A. In your PC or laptop’s desktop, look for your Mozilla Firefox icon or you can open other

popular web browsers like Internet Explorer and Google Chrome. For example:

B. Once the web browser opens, type in popular search engines such as Google, Yahoo,

MSN, Alta Vista etc. For example www.google.com or www.altavista.com in the

location bar then press or hit ENTER on your keyboard.

For Google:

For Alta Vista

C. When the Web page opens, there will be a box for you to type in the key words or the

topic that you want to search then on your keyboard press “enter” or click “google

search”.

Location

bar

Location

bar

For Alta Vista - Type in the key words or topic you are looking for then on your keyboard

press “enter” or click “search”

Once you hit enter or click the search icon, the web browser will populate the related

topics closest to what are looking for. Usually, the search engines will search on the area

that you are in. Say for instance, if you are in the Philippines, the search engine will

prioritize within your area or vicinity.

Below are the simple tips on how to search the internet with less but accurate results.

Search Box

Click to

search

Search Box

Click to

search

Lesson II. Basic Google Search 1. Search with Quotes (“ “)

If you want Google to return your search as a complete phrase, in the exact

order and proximity that you typed it in as, then you’ll need to surround it with quotes

“ ”

Example. If you want to search for three blind mice with using quotes you will have

3,750,000 results.

But, if you typed in, “three blind mice” you will get about 1,430,000 results.

2. Search with Plus/Positive Sign ( +)

The + sign is usually used to tell the search engine to make sure to include that particular term in the search results. Don't return any results that don't include at least one instance of this particular keyword.

For example, if you include a search phrase like 'financial +money matters', you are telling the search engine to return all results that have at least one instance of the keyword 'money'. You are also telling the search engine to return all results that include any instances of the other two keywords in any combination.

When searching, use the + sign to narrow your search to the most relevant listings. The +

sign helps to focus your search like a laser beam.

3. Search with Minus/Negative Sign (–)

When you use the – sign in front of the keyword, you are telling the search engine to not include the keyword in the search. This is the classic addition by subtraction. If you are conducting a search and a particular irrelevant keyword keeps you from getting relevant results, simply slap a – sign in front of the offending keyword and it will no longer appear in your search. For example: If you want to search for a speed of an animal Jaguar but exclude the listings that include information about "car”, just type in, jaguar speed –car in the search box.

4. Search with Tilde Sign (~)

Normally, synonyms might replace some words in your original query. Add a tilde sign (~)

immediately in front of a word to search for that word as well as even more synonyms.

Example: ~food facts

Note: The result will also include "nutrition facts”

Boolean Logic

Named after the nineteenth-century mathematician George Boole, Boolean logic is a form of algebra in which all values are reduced to either TRUE or FALSE. There are three Boolean operators that can be used to manipulate values and help insurethat one's online searches will yield valuable results.

The terms--part of a century-old system called Boolean logic--act as extremely effective filters for finding just the information one needs on databases and on the Web. Most of today's search engines support some form of Boolean query. Check the help section of a favorite search engine to find out whether it allows Boolean searches.

While most of the search engines and databases use Boolean logic, they don'talways express this concept using the same terms. Therefore, it is important to have a basic understanding of logical systems so one can recognize the underlying process whenever one encounters a new search engine or database. We will be using examples from AltaVista, a popular Web search engine.

Boolean Operators

AND, OR, NOT...they're simple words. Use them correctly and the result will be relevant hits instead of thousands or millions of unrelated ones

a. AND - The AND operator makes sure ALL the terms one requests appear in the search results. If one types hockey the result will be a lot of hits on that sport. If one types sharks the result will be a lot of hits, mostly on the animal. But if one types hockey AND sharks, there is a better chance of retrieving hits about the San Jose, CA team.

b. OR - Use OR to retrieve records or pages that contains EITHER of two or more terms.

For example hives or urticaria will find information that mentions either or both companies. OR is frequently used to search for synonymous terms or a variety of specific ways of expressing a general concept.

Note: It can also be in 3 word search. Example: minority or asian or latino

c. NOT Use NOT to ensure that certain words won't appear in the search selections. For example, modems NOT internal will narrow the search to external modems. Of course one could have used external AND modems to search for the same concept, and, all-in-all, using AND is usually preferable. As we will discuss later, NOT is a very powerful operator that should be used with caution.

d. NEAR

The NEAR command is used in order to specify how close terms should appear to each other.

For example: moon NEAR river

e. Truncation If you are looking for information on gardening, you could use it as your keyword.

However, if your results are limited in number (though not likely with gardening) and you want to broaden your search, use a root part of the word and abbreviate it with an asterisk (garden*). The engine will return links to documents containing gardens, garden, gardener, gardeners, and so on.

Lesson IV. HOW TO SEARCH LIKE A PRO

Lets say you were looking up apples on Google.com. If you just type in apples you get 122

million returns.

If you are looking for green apples specifically. To see all the apple websites that also have

the word “green” on them type this: apples +green

Example:

Now you will only see those apple sites that also have the word green on them. Unfortunately

we are still getting almost 71 million returned websites:

To narrow the search even more lets eliminate a word. For example, some of the websites

are also about Apple Computers so lets get rid of them by typing this:

apples +green -computers

The search gave us only 22,100 results.

Remember: If the search engine finds no results and returns a message saying something like "Your search did not match any documents", you will need to expand the search by using different terms which have to do with the subject you're looking for, or remove some of the ones used.

If the opposite happens — too many results — you will need to narrow the search by adding

restrictions, such as requiring that results contain only all of the words request, or by excluding certain words.

REFERENCES:

Duchesne, Joe. (2008). Why use the + when searching on the internet? Retrieved November 5,2012, from http://www.yowling.com/articles/misc-articles/why-use-the-+-when-searching-on-the-internet.htm

Boswell, Wendy. (2012). Top ten Google search tricks. Retrieved November 5,2012, from http://websearch.about.com/od/focusongoogle/tp/google-search-tricks.htm

Learn the Net. (n.d.) Advanced web searching. Retrieved November 5,2012, from http://www.learnthenet.tv/how-to/advanced-web-search/index.php

Sullivan, Danny. (2001). Boolean searching. Retrieved November 5,2012, from http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2049150/Boolean-Searching

Exploratorium Learning Studio. (1998) Searching the World Wide Web Boolean Logic. Retrieved November 5,2012, from http://www.exploratorium.edu/lc/search/boolean.html

Kioskea.net. (2012) Searching the net. Retrieved November 5,2012, from

http://en.kioskea.net/contents/utile/recherch.php3