Basic Web Searching



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	Course Homepage Course Modules: Online Community Background Information Basic Web Searching Managing Resources Advanced Web Searching Comprehensive Web Search Strategies Course Projects Assessment	When you click on the course search engine webpage below you will see the names of several search engines with which you may already be familiar. I have selected only a handful of search engines from the hundreds available with the notion that it is better to learn to use a few search engines well than to try every search engine that is available. I selected the search engines that have been consistently rated in the top 10 by information science professionals. As you locate web resources related to your search topic in the activities that follow, add them to your Netscape Bookmarks list. If you didn’t save and delete your current Netscape bookmarks when you were optimizing Netscape for web searching, do that now. Saving and deleting Netscape bookmarks You will begin your exploration of search engines with a simple comparison of the "hits" returned for an identical search query. Resize this web browser window to create some room on the screen. Open NotePad or SimpleText and then open the TEC 3012 digital logbook in a second window. Then open the Search Engine webpage in a new browser window. It is fine if you get sidetracked on this initial visit to the search engines. One of the real joys (and distractions) of using search engines is the serendipitous discovery of interesting webpages. As you locate useful webpages, be sure to bookmark them for use in your web search project. You will notice that all of the search engines have a similar user interface. Somewhere between all the ads and text on the screen you will see a white text entry box. Move the cursor to this box and click once (Hint: on a Mac, you can also hit the TAB key to activate the text box). Enter the search topic you selected (nothing extra this first time through, just the general topic). Click on the Search button or hit the Enter/Return key. While you are waiting for the search engine to return the "hits" (webpages that match your query), examine the search engine interface. Record your observations of the search engines in the digital logbook. At this point, you probably need to give your eyes a rest and stand up to stretch. Do that now. When you return, you will spend some time discovering what was going on behind the scenes when you sent those queries to the search engine. continue

Fresno Pacific University \| School of Professional Studies

Website maintained by Bob Jost \| bjost@josts.net \| last revised Jan. 1, 2002 Copyright © 1998-2002 by Bob Jost & Geoffrey Jost. All rights reserved. No part of this website may be transmitted, stored or recorded in any form without written permission from the authors.



instructor \| listserve \| web board \| project archives \| toolkit

	Course Homepage Course Modules: Online Community Background Information Basic Web Searching Managing Resources Advanced Web Searching Comprehensive Web Search Strategies Course Projects Assessment	When you click on the course search engine webpage below you will see the names of several search engines with which you may already be familiar. I have selected only a handful of search engines from the hundreds available with the notion that it is better to learn to use a few search engines well than to try every search engine that is available. I selected the search engines that have been consistently rated in the top 10 by information science professionals. As you locate web resources related to your search topic in the activities that follow, add them to your Netscape Bookmarks list. If you didn’t save and delete your current Netscape bookmarks when you were optimizing Netscape for web searching, do that now. Saving and deleting Netscape bookmarks You will begin your exploration of search engines with a simple comparison of the "hits" returned for an identical search query. Resize this web browser window to create some room on the screen. Open NotePad or SimpleText and then open the TEC 3012 digital logbook in a second window. Then open the Search Engine webpage in a new browser window. It is fine if you get sidetracked on this initial visit to the search engines. One of the real joys (and distractions) of using search engines is the serendipitous discovery of interesting webpages. As you locate useful webpages, be sure to bookmark them for use in your web search project. You will notice that all of the search engines have a similar user interface. Somewhere between all the ads and text on the screen you will see a white text entry box. Move the cursor to this box and click once (Hint: on a Mac, you can also hit the TAB key to activate the text box). Enter the search topic you selected (nothing extra this first time through, just the general topic). Click on the Search button or hit the Enter/Return key. While you are waiting for the search engine to return the "hits" (webpages that match your query), examine the search engine interface. Record your observations of the search engines in the digital logbook. At this point, you probably need to give your eyes a rest and stand up to stretch. Do that now. When you return, you will spend some time discovering what was going on behind the scenes when you sent those queries to the search engine. continue

Fresno Pacific University \| School of Professional Studies

Website maintained by Bob Jost \| bjost@josts.net \| last revised Jan. 1, 2002 Copyright © 1998-2002 by Bob Jost & Geoffrey Jost. All rights reserved. No part of this website may be transmitted, stored or recorded in any form without written permission from the authors.