1	3. Search Tools Nancy Woodward J. D. Verdery Library Wooster School Upper School Information Literacy Instruction
2	Picking the Right Tool for the Job! Did you know that there are really only about 6 search engines out there??!?!?!?! Google Yahoo Ask MSN Exalead Gigablast
3	How Can That Be?!?!? The database used at AllTheWeb and AltaVista is the Yahoo database The AOL Search and A9 database comes from Google The Snap.com database comes from Gigablast The Ask Jeeves database is used at Teoma and the 2 were recently merged into Ask.com The Lycos database also comes from Yahoo.
4	Did You Know?!?! Most users view VERY FEW pages beyond the first or first 2 pages. There is only a very small overlap (<5%) of HITS between search engines!
5	How do They Work? Subject Directories Search Engines Meta & Cluster Search Engines
6	Subject Directories You must know something about the topic you’re searching web resources selected by people starts with a general group of topics each time the searcher selects a topic a new, more specific list of topics appears.
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8	LII = Great Subject Directory
9	Really Cool Directory
10	Search Engines Use keywords, combined using Boolean logic, to locate Web pages.
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12	Understanding Google Has basic, directory, and advanced search capabilities. Hits are ranked based on popularity!
13	Special Google Features Default AND Accepts “ “, - & + Spell check Translations ~ searches synonyms ~car Images Videos News – 4500 sources Books Maps
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15	Understanding Yahoo Has basic, directory, and advanced search capabilities. Hit appear based on relevancy! In other words, the number of times your Keyword(s) appear on the site.
16	Special Yahoo Features Default AND Accepts “ “, - & + Spell check Translations Images Videos News – 7000 sources Podcasts Audio Maps
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18	Understanding Ask.com Has basic and advanced search capabilities. Results are ranked by the number of subject-specific pages linked back to the Hit.
19	Special Ask.com Features Default AND Accepts “ “, - & + Spell check Excellent at ranking & organizing results Suggests narrower & broader searches Often provides background info on search
20	Meta/Cluster Search Engines Several web search tools are searched at the same time. The results are clustered together
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22	What About Dogpile? Searches Google, Yahoo, Ask.com, About.com, and more at the same time. Includes “Sponsored” listings. Suggests related searches.
23	Special Dogpile Features Default AND Accepts OR & NOT Offers meta search of: Images Audio Video News Phone books
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25	What About Vivisimo? Searches MSN, Lycos, LookSmart, WiseNut, Ask.com, and more at the same time. Suggests related searches.
26	Special Vivisimo Features Default AND Accepts OR & - Clusters results Good for current events News, business, technology, sports! Good with complex topics Breaks down complex searches for each search engine
27	Cool NEW Web Search Tool: Cuil
28	More Cuil
29	Tips from the Librarian First look through the top ten or so hits, then see if those pages link to more relevant sites. Try different search engines! Implications – different Web search engines index different Websites
30	More Tips Keep an eye on the page’s URL Address. It can help you judge the reliability of the information provider.
31	Here Come Some More Tips? To get just one kind of site, enter i.e. site:gov “energy statistics” To get a specific file type, enter i.e. filetype:pdf money
32	Resource Tips Search Tools Chart Search Tools page - Wooster School Library
33	Important to Remember! No one search engine or index will examine the entire WWW. Try more than one if you have difficulty finding what you want.
34	Remember! The best search method depends on your problem ! Jim Ross - CSUB Computer Literacy Instructor So, Pick the Right Search Engine.
35	Works Cited (my bibliography) Basic Internet Searching accessed 7/22/00 ©1998 Greg R., Reference Librarian >http://www.lib.montana.edu/~notess/li/basicsearch.html< Basic Search Tool Chart. 2006 InfoPeople Project, Accessed 10 August 2006.> www.infopeople.org/search/chart.html< LM_NET@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU. gary price <gary@RESOURCESHELF.COM>Sent : Thursday, June 16, 2005 2:38 AM. Subject : Re: [LM_NET] Search engine comparison On The Net Internet Search Techniques and Strategies Online Inc. Greg R. Notess, Reference Librarian Montana State University; accessed 7/22/00, >http://www.onlineinc.com/onlinemag/JulOL97/net7.html < Ross, J. Web Search Basics. The Garlic Press. Accessed 9 August 2006, >http://www.scuba.edu/~jross/classes/GS390/Internet/WEB_SEARCHING/WebSearch.ppt < Search Engine Showdown Page updated Jul. 12, 2000 accessed 7/22/00 > http://www.searchengineshowdown.com/ < Spink, Amanda. Web Search and Web Search Overlap: What the Deal? Accessed 10 August 2006. >
36	The End Thank you!