Tips and Tricks to Find Internet Information Quick and Effectively

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Why Evaluate Web Sources?

Why Evaluate Web Sources?

Virtually any person can publish almost anything on the Internet.

Unlike most print sources, web sources do not have to be professionally accepted and edited to be published.

Types of web pagesTypes of web pages

Informative pages

Personal web pages

Political/interest group pages

Marketing-oriented or “infomercial” pages

Entertainment pages

Internet: A global network connecting millions of computers

URL (“Web Address”): Universal Resource Locator

Domain: the part of the URL that identifies and calls up the specific computer on the Web that stores the information you requested

Registered Domain name: the three-letter suffix that is part of a URL.

Keyword: the word(s) or phrase(s) you enter into a search engine's search field

Terminology

◦ .com – commercial use (unrestricted)◦ .net – network associated entities (unrestricted)◦ .org – organizations (unrestricted)◦ .gov – government use◦ .mil – U.S. military◦ .edu – educational institutions◦ .biz – for businesses◦ .info – for informative Web sites◦ .museum – museums◦ .name – for individual or personal websites◦ .pro – professionals◦ .au - country designations are usually country

abbreviations

Common Domain Names

Search engines◦Metasearch engines

Search directories◦Invisible web

Types of Search Tools

Similar to the index in the back of a book

Let you search for specific words and topics from a data base

Use robots known as spiders to search for information.

Sites in database not evaluated

Search Engines

Google: http//: www.google.com

KidRex: http://www.kidrex.org/

Wolfram Alpha: http://www.wolframalpha.com/

Clusty: http://clusty.com/

All the Web: http://www.alltheweb.com

Bing: http://www.bing.com

Search Engines for K-5

Sends your search terms to several other search engines at once.

Gives an overview of a topic across the Internet.

Shallow search. Only searches the top 2-3 pages of a search engines database

Metasearch Engines

Turboscout: http://www.turboscout.com/index.php

Ixquick: http://ixquick.com

Yippy: http://clusty.com/

Surfwax: http://www.surfwax.com

Metasearch Engines

Search Directories

Similar to the table of contents at the front of

a book

Allows searching for concepts or subject categories

Go from general to specific.

Sites are evaluated and added by people.

Kidtopia: http://www.kidtopia.info/

Sweet Search: http://www.sweetsearch.com/

Infomine: http://infomine.ucr.edu

Internet Public Library: http://www.ipl.org

Dibdabdoo: http://www.dibdabdoo.com/

Fact Monster: http://www.factmonster.com/

Kids Click: http://www.kidsclick.org/

Search Directories for Kids

Search Engine: lots of information

a specific information need

specific key words

Search Directory: a general information need

vague idea of key words

finding higher quality information

Noodle Tools: Site that gives information on how to best chose what type of search tool to use.

How Do I Chose

Before you begin searching create lists of keywords that describe your topic. 

Use a thesaurus to stimulate your word choice.

Generate synonyms for the concept. 

Use search engines that provide a list of related terms along with the results of your first search.

Sortfix

Key Words

Use the professional vocabulary of the subject you are investigating to create keywords.

Choose words that are unique and descriptive.

Look in the documents returned by the first query.

Upper and lower case

Spelling

Advanced Strategies

Scan for Additional Keywords

Some engines give more weight to the first keyword in a query.   

Try varying the order of keywords. Example: Which keywords will return the most

hits: blues music or music blues

Word Order

Hits are returned and ranked according to-- ◦ How many times terms appear on the page◦ How often terms appear◦ How close terms are to each other◦ How near the top of the page the terms are found

The best results will appear on the first page or two of hits

No two search tools are alike. Try another search engine, or rephrase your terms if you don’t get good results.

Hits

A query is made up of the keywords that describe your topic and the arrangement of those keywords using operators that focus the retrieval process.

Query

ANDRequires all terms to appear somewhere in the document, in any order. Example: curriculum AND high AND school

+Requires all terms to appear somewhere in the document, in any order. Example: +curriculum+high+school

" "Requires all terms within the quotation marks to appear in the order written. Creates a highly specific phrase. Example: "high school curriculum"

NOTExcludes documents containing whatever follows it.Example: high school curriculum not .com

-Excludes documents containing whatever follows it.Example: high school curriculum-.com

ORIncludes any page with at least one of the terms. Example: high OR school OR curriculum

Example

Evaluating Websites

“On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog.”

The above cartoon by Peter Steiner has been reproduced from page 61 of July 5, 1993 issue of The New Yorker, (Vol.69 (LXIX) no. 20)only for academic discussion, evaluation, research and complies with the copyright law of the United States as defined and stipulated under Title 17 U. S. Code.

http://www.nwu.edu/~asmith/di/dc/camps.html

Anatomy of a Web Address

Hypertext Transfer Protocol

World Wide Web

Tilde symbol indicates this is a personal page

Indicates the folder the information is saved in

Specific page in directory folder

Owner and Domain name

http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/atwood.html

http://lit4lib.artshost.com/atwood.htm#atwood

Based on the domain name in the following addresses, which site that would probably contain the more useful information for an authorative information?

Currency

Reliability

Authority

Purpose /Point of View

Web Evaluation

How recent is the information?

How recently has the website been updated?

Is it current enough for your topic?

Find the history of a site by going to Way Back Machine http://www.archive.org

Currency

What kind of information is included in the resource?

Is content of the resource primarily opinion?  Is it balanced?

Does the creator provide references or sources for data or quotations?

Reliability

Who is the creator or author? What are the credentials? Who is the published or sponsor? Are they reputable? What is the publisher's interest (if any) in

this information? Are there advertisements on the website? Go to http://www.easywhois.com to find publisher

of the site

Authority

Is this fact or opinion?Is it biased?Is the creator/author trying to sell

you something?

Purpose / Point of View

Use the best search tool for the job

Read search tool instructions and use the advanced search feature

Use more than one search tool

Choose unique keywords and put your most important terms or words first

Evaluate the source

Know when to look somewhere else

Searching Review