Searching the Web

In 2002, there were more than 9 million Web sites available on the Internet.  Did you know that about 55% of Web sites originate in the United States and 72% are primarily English pages? 

When I started in 1998 to create web pages, there were only about 2 million Web sites on the Internet.  I thought that was big (and, it was)!

[For statistical purposes, a site is found at a distinct location in response to an HTTP search for a root page.  The site consists of all interlinked Web pages at that address.   For more statistics, link to http://wcp.oclc.org/ or, look at http://www.mids.org/mmq/603/mid/intrworld.gif]

Hey, who has time to examine the content at more than 9 million Web sites?  Not me.  Finding useful pages is becoming more of an issue all the time.  I use a variety of techniques and I can find what I'm looking for fast.  With a little guidance and some practice, anybody can do the same.

Techniques

1. Search engines are best for finding a wide range of responses for unique keywords, phrases, quotes, and information buried in the full-text of web pages.  Search engines are useful for retrieving documents as well as descriptions about Web sites by related keywords.  A common complaint against search engines is that they find too many pages that have low relevance. 
   
   My tips for beginning with Search engines can be found in The Informer (number 42) last week, at my Web site, or you can use a tutorial for expanded coverage on this topic.
   
   [http://home.sprintmail.com/~debflanagan/engines.html or http://www.lookoff.com/] 
    
2. Directories (and: indexes, portals, or vortals) are subject layers that are created and maintained by human editors.  Directories organize information into a catalog of sites by popular topics, arts, careers, companies, the environment, food, health, home and family, lifestyles, literature, products, recreation, reference, science, services, shopping, society, and the world, etcetera. 
   
   Some of my favorite directories are:
     - Complete Planet (http://www.completeplanet.com/)
     - Open Directory Project (http://www.dmoz.org/)
     - Lycos (https://www.lycos.com/)
     - Yahoo! (http://www.yahoo.com/). 
    
3. Specialty Databases are collections of information that may be even more specialized than directories.   For example if you want to know more about the weather, you can look at information in a  specialty database at http://www.internets.com/sweather.htm or http://weather.yahoo.com/.  Often you can find a specialty database with a search engine.  I used Google (www.google.com) to find weather data (weather information by country).

Finding Useful Web Pages

A search engine is a simple and useful tool that will allow you to quickly find and sift through information when you want to accomplish researching.  Actually, the Internet is a vast but integrated network of computers -- essentially all are joined together.  Searching the Web amounts to searching the "pages" or for the files that are available from these computers that make up the World Wide Web on the Internet. 

One of the most popular and highly rated search engines is Google -- http://www.google.com/.

Uses

You might use a search engine to find sites for shopping, to find educational information and tutorials or for finding online courses, for studying, to find entertainment for a particular age group, to find philosophy, for job listings, to locate health or medical information, to find photo tours, and for so much more.  Take a look at the Google directory page for getting ideas about categories for searching the Web -- http://dir.google.com/.

Input

When using the search engine, type the information in the input box, and click "search," the grey button to the right of the input box.  Google will find the information and link it into your result pages. 

Keep in mind that you may receive a huge number of results.  We have an ancient saying that abbreviates to the acronym, GIGO (Garbage In, Garbage Out).  It means you will get the output that you deserve depending on how good or bad that your input is.

Try this,
   type:

  computers internet search engine tutorial
   into the search input box and click the search button. 

Output

The resulting listing is the first page of several that list related Web pages and other files that are available from the Google database. 

Notice that not all of the results even in the top ten are best matches for tutorials that cover using search engines.

There are certain things you can do to enhance your search on search engines.

Refinement

The simplest thing that you can do when the top results don't exactly match what you want is to narrow your search.  In this case, you might try limiting your search by limiting the subjects in the input box.  Let's try it. 

This time shorten your input; type:

  search engine tutorial
   into the input box and again hit the search button.

With the second example, notice the "better" list of results.  The list is actually grown in overall size and the top results are more to my liking.  Now we're getting somewhere.  Since we still have a lot to learn, I want to try one more search together before I cut you loose to experiment and learn on your own.

Next, try this:

  search engine tutorial, google
   noticing that I've added a coma.

Again, use the search button to get a results listing page.

Now, take a closer look at the results page.  You'll notice that under the Google logo are several "tabs" named: Web, Images, Groups, Directory, and News.  The news tab is the most recent.

You can use these tabs to review your search results against the different targets (Web, Images, Groups, Directory, and News).  For example, click the Web or Directory tabs to review your search for tutorials these two different ways.

Enjoy

Open one or two of the tutorials and learn a few more valuable search engine basics.  Okay, that hopefully will get you started and on your way.  Are you ready to get started then?  I think so.  Open one or two of the directory type sites that I've listed and take some time to learn more about this valuable skill of finding useful Web sites.  

Next topic:

Hackers and Trojans

All information herein is offered as-is and without warranty of any kind. Neither myself, nor contributors are responsible for any loss, injury, or damage, direct or consequential, resulting from your choosing to use any information presented here.