Searching the Web

Deborah Healey, Ph.D.English Language InstituteOregon State Universitydeborah.healey@oregonstate.eduhttp://oregonstate.edu/~healeyd

Agenda

Why search? Vocabulary Using search engines

Keyword Directory Metasearch Specialty

Refining a search Evaluating sources

Your opinion

The Internet has a lot of useful information.

I need to know more about searching the Web.

I like searching the Web for information.

Students usually find what they need. I do a good job of evaluating websites.

Why search?

To find basic information about a topic To find graphics related to a topic To find current news To get different points of view To find deeper information about a

topic To buy something

Web search overview

VocabularySearch engine (Google, Ask, and

many more)Metasearch engine (Excite, Ixquick)Query (your topic)Hit or Entry (each website related to

your question)To Google someone >

Using search engines

Think first What am I looking for? Which search engine

is best? Key words

Techniques Most important word first Quotation marks for phrases Larger category (if not enough hits) Smaller category (if too many hits) Advanced search

Using search engines

Choose the right engine for the task Key word (Google, MSN) vs. directory

• Directory: When you don’t know exactly what you want or looking for a topic

• Google Directory (directory.google.com, Yahoo Directory (dir.yahoo.com/), About (http://azlist.about.com/a.htm)

• High-quality: Librarians Internet Index (http://lii.org/)

Metasearch (Excite, Ixquick)

Sample search: American holidays Google MSN Ask – start screen Librarians Internet Index Excite (metasearch) Ixquick (metasearch)

Ask Jeeves/Teoma – MSN – Wikipedia - EntireWeb – Netscape - Yahoo - Gigablast - Open Directory

Ask.com – American Holidays search

Which search engine?

Choosing the right search engine: Noodle Tools -> Search engine comparison - www.noodletools.com/

Specialty searches

Noodle Tools samples

Kartoo – visual results -

KidsClick! – good sites for children Academic links

Google Scholar and Intute – academic sites• Sample concordance search • Yourdictionary.com – Dictionaries

Pinakes – gateway to portals Biography.com

(www.biography.com/search/)– biographical information

Kartoo – American Holidays

Kartoo – American holidays

Refining a search

Most important word first Quotation marks around phrases + and - to limit a search

Boolean operators exercise Expand a search with OR

Site: to keep a search on a specific website >

Practice: boolean operators

Which letters show

B +C?

A +B +C?

A OR B?

(A OR B) -C?

(B OR C) -A?

Practice: Boolean searches

AND (+) => must have both+Oregon +wildflowers+peanut +butter

OR => either onecougar OR puma

NOT (-) => don’t includepeanut -butter Beavers -OSU

Practice: broader and narrowerPut the following terms in order from broadest to

narrowest: a) Asia b) Vietnam c) East Asia d) Danang

a) grammar b) English c) subject-verb agreement d) nouns and verbs e) language

Alternate phrasing

If you’re not finding the right information

Think: Is there another way to say this?American holidays – US holidays –

holidays United States Should there be another key word?

American holidays historyAmerican holidays dates

Improving Google searches

Adapted from Simson Garfinkel, “Getting more from Google.”

Technology Review, June 4, 2003. Click on Preferences; select 30 or more hits per

page Use OR to broaden a search Use * as a wild card in a phrase (substitute any

word) “English as a * Language” = 2nd, Second, Foreign,

etc. More possibilities at Advanced Search >

Evaluating sources

Remember: Anyone can have a web site! You are the librarian for the web What is the date? Who is the author? Where is the author from (.com, .edu, .org)? What is the content?

Bibliography Balanced view or personal view

Practice: Sources

Rank the following sources from 1 (no academic purpose) to 6 (highly reliable).

An article in Wikipedia. A comment from someone in a Blog called

'Tech Talk.' An e-mail message from a friend about

something that happened to a friend of his last year. >

Ranking, continued

Rank the following sources from 1 (no academic purpose) to 6 (highly reliable).

A message on a mailing list for teachers (TESL-L), written by a well-known person (David Nunan).

A recent article in an online refereed journal, with a bibliography.

Three paragraphs' worth of information you found through a web search. >

Teacher’s role

Help students understand about sources and the Internet

Teach students better search techniques

Don’t tell students “Just search for a topic on Google” Only for advanced language learnersUnless they’re buying something

Teacher’s role

You do the searching – give students appropriate linksAge-appropriateEnglish proficiency-appropriatePurpose-appropriate

Let students choose among links you’ve selectedDoesn’t waste classroom/student time

Library analogy

Happy Searching!