Google and Beyond
Your guide to the Web
Today we will:
consider different types of resources and information available via the web evaluate web pages explore the advantages of using a variety of different tools to search the web learn the difference between a classified directory (e.g. RDN) and a search engine (e.g. Lycos) practice using a search engine (google) and classified directory (RDN)
What resources can you access via the web
Books Project Gutenberg http://promo.net/pg/index.html Journals http://www.lmu.ac.uk/lis/lss/quick_access/index.htm - Journals Newspapers
http://www.lmu.ac.uk/lis/lss/quick_access/newspapers/whats_avail.htmReport
Reference sources Oxford Reference Online (Off-campus access
requires Athens password) http://www.lmu.ac.uk/lis/lss/quick_reference/
Bibliographic tools Index to Theses http://www.lmu.ac.uk/lis/lss/ Library Catalogues http://www.niss.ac.uk/lis/opacsalpha.html
What resources can you access via the Web (2)?
Discussion groups and mailing lists Google
Groups http://www.google.co.uk/
Databases http://www.lmu.ac.uk:8082/lco/php/search_tools.php/alpha/ Music Multimedia resources The information Cycle
http://www.libraries.psu.edu/crsweb/instruction/ip/infocyle.htm
Interactive resources Multi-map http://www.multimap.com/ Software
Strengths and weaknesses of web information
Currency e.g. http://news.bbc.co.uk Quality - varied . Large amount of information No consistent structure or standard No single accepted control/standard or structure
Strengths and weaknesses of web information (2)
Instability Accessibility - Open 24/7 But is it really so accessible?
Web search tools do not comprehensively search the web
How do I evaluate a Web page?
Authority Currency Validity / Accuracy Audience Point of View/ Bias
Authority
Is there a contact name? What is the authority of the author and/or publisher of the Web information? Evidence of qualifications, experience? Is there any accreditation. Has the information been reviewed?
Authority (2)
Use the structure of a URL for clues
unique name of computer
Examples of domains: .ac www.lmu.ac.uk .edu www.harvard.edu .gov www.leeds.gov.uk .org.uk www.rspca.org.uk .com www.pepsi.com .co.uk www.cadbury.co.uk
http://www.lmu.ac.uk/welcome/index.htm
type of access (mostly http://) clue about provider .ac.uk .org etc
individual file name
Currency
When was the information created or updated? Are the links up-to-date?
Accuracy / Validity
Are sources of information cited? How does the content compare to other resources? Does the site appear to be carefully edited?
Audience
Who is the information targeted at? Is the level/type of information appropriate to your needs?
Point of View
What is the point of view (bias) of the site? Is there any advertising? Who sponsored the site?
Evaluating web information - examples
Feline reactions to bearded men:
http://www.improbable.com/airchives/classical/cat/cat.html
Martin Luther King sites
http://www.martinlutherking.org/
or
http://thekingcenter.org/
Advantage of using different types of tools to search the Web
Adam AHDS Altavista Ask Jeeves Biz/ed BUBL Cain EdWeb EELS EEVL Excite Gem Go Google Ixquick Lycos NISS OMNI RDN SOSIG
Categories of Search Tools
Search engine
Altavista Google Lycos
Classified Subject Metasearch Directory Gateway engine
BUBL NISS Learning Centre Online EEVL OMNI SOSIG Ixquick RDN
Categories of Search Tools
Search Engine
Automated indexing Relevancy ranking
Classified Directory
Resources selected by someone
Subject Gateway Metasearch engine
Summary
Vast number of resources and different types of information. Web information is not organised. Existing web search tools do not comprehensively search the whole of the web. 4 categories of search tools. The tool that you choose depends on your information need. You may have to use more than one tool.
The difference between a Search Engine and a Subject Gateway
To demonstrate the difference we will look at Lycos (www.lycos.co.uk) and the Resource Discovery Network - or RDN (www.rdn.ac.uk)
Example search:
House prices UK
Resource Discovery Network (subject gateway)
32 results – all give useful information and from a variety of sources: company, news, government, educational, report, data, etc.
Lycos (search engine)
50,624 results –some useful information but majority of results are commercial pages, e.g. „how to buy a house‟ or estate agents. Also a lot of irrelevant results like www.giftidea.co.uk/ - a Web site that sells balloon gifts!
How to use a Search Engine properly
To demonstrate how to use a Search Engine properly we will look at Google (www.google.co.uk)
Tips for using Google properly
Always go to the UK based Google site .co.uk and not .com No need to include AND between search terms Searches are not case sensitive You can do simple OR searches To exclude words from your search enter a minus sign ( – ) immediately before a term or phrase
Tips for using Google properly
You can search for phrases by enclosing the search term in quotes: “ ” Google ignores very short and/or common words. To search for something that contains short words enclose the words in quotes to make a phrase
Using the Advanced Search in Google
You can use the Advanced Search screen to narrow down your results further:
Advanced search features
You can specify how many results to display You can limit your results to a specific language You can choose to search for results in a specific file format You can specify the date of when the Web pages were last updated You can change where your search term occurs in the Web page You may request that all of the pages come from a site or certain domain
Interpreting your Google results
A C F B D E
G H
I
K
J
A = Statistics Bar D = Description G = Size J = Indented Result B = Page Title E = Category H = Cached K = More Results C = Text below the Title F = URL of Result I = Similar Pages
Further Help
Useful online help page - Google Help Central Other Know-it-Alls
Assignments – finding and using information Dissertations – successful research
Searching the Internet pages on LCO and the Information and Research section of S4L. Learning Adviser