lecture 3: SEARCHING THE INTERNET

SEARCHING THE INTERNET

 

The Web and the Internet

  

The two are sometimes used interchangeably but there is a difference.

ž  The Internet connects computers

¡  File transfer, involving a variety of protocols (e.g. ftp) 

ž  The web connects pages

¡  Hyperlinks: the http at the beginning of the URL of every web page

 

The World Wide Web

 

The World Wide Web or WWW or "The Web" consists of documents which have been turned into web pages which are stored on computers around the Internet. These pages are interconnected by hypertext links. Each group of related pages in one location on the network is called a web site. Information on any of these pages can be in any data format including text, graphics, tables, sounds and movie clips. Pages are written in the HyperText Markup Language (HTML). HTML is text with embedded codes (tags) that represent instructions for the display of the text and any images.

 

Search Engines

 

SEARCH ENGINE is a  program that searches documents for specified keywords and returns a list of the documents where the keywords were found. Although search engine is really a general class of programs, the term is often used to specifically describe systems like Alta Vista and Excite that enable users to search for documents on the World Wide Web and USENET newsgroups

 

A search engine like google can be used to look for other search engines. You can call and use google by typing the google address at the URL www.google.com

ž  http://www.sou.edu/library/searchtools/

 

The Use of Address bar

In the Internet Explorer Address bar, type Find, Go, or ? followed by a keyword, website name, or phrase, and then press ENTER. If you want the search results to display in a new tab, press ALT+ENTER after typing the phrase

Use more than one search provider     

If you don't find what you're looking for with a particular search provider, you can search using a different one. You can use the Internet Explorer search box to add additional search providers and then switch among them to improve your search results. In Internet Explorer 8 you can quickly change which search provider to use on a search by clicking the provider's icon below the search box. For Internet Explorer 7, click the arrow next to the search box, and then click a provider.

Search more efficiently

 

Here are a few ideas for improving the results of searches:

·         Use specific words rather than generic categories. For example, instead of searching for "dogs," search for a specific breed of dog.

·         Use quotation marks to search for specific phrases. Surrounding terms with quotation marks limits the search results to only those webpages that contain the exact phrase you've specified. Without the quotation marks, the results will include any page that contains the words you've used, regardless of what order those words are in.

·         Use the minus (-) sign before a keyword to tell search providers to exclude pages with that term. Using a minus sign will retrieve webpages that don't include the word. It's important not to include any spaces between the signs and the search terms (for example, -Bogart, not - Bogart).

·         Eliminate common words such as "a," "my," or "the," unless you're looking for a specific title. If the word is part of something you're looking for (a song title, for example), include the common word and surround the phrase with quotation marks.

·         Use synonyms or alternative search terms. Be creative or use a thesaurus for ideas. Type thesaurus in the search box to find an online thesaurus.

·         Search only a specific website or domain. To narrow the search to a specific site, type the search term you're looking for followed by site: and the address of the website you want to search. For example, to search the Microsoft website for information about viruses, type virus site:www.microsoft.com (with no spaces between site: and the URL).

·         Use a specialty search engine or provider, such as an image search, to look for pictures. Many websites offer their own special searches for anything from shopping to hobbies. Internet Explorer can detect specialty search providers on some websites, which you can add to your list of search providers.

Find words or phrases on a page

Once you've found a webpage that seems like what you're looking for, Internet Explorer can help you find a specific word or phrase. Here's how:

To find a word or phrase on a webpage in Internet Explorer 8

1.      From a webpage, press CTRL+F to open the Find box below the tab row.

2.      Type a word or phrase, and then press ENTER to scroll to the first match.

3.      Click the Highlight All Matches button to show or hide all matches on the page.

4.      To filter the matches, press Options, and then click one or both of the following:

·         Match Whole Word Only.

·         Match Case.

5.      Click Next or Previous to move from one matched word or phrase to another.

Internet Explorer 8 Find box

To find a word or phrase on a webpage in Internet Explorer 7

1.      From a webpage, press CTRL+F to open the Find dialog box.

2.      Type a word or phrase in the Find box, and then press ENTER to scroll to the first match on the page.

3.      To filter the matches, select or clear the Match whole word only or Match case check box.

4.      Click Next or Previous to move from one matched word or phrase to another.