Web Indexes

In the last exploration, you were examining web resources that had been collected by machines. While many of the "hits" returned by the search engines are useful, you have undoubtedly noticed that some are totally unrelated to the topic that you entered. The root of the problem lies in the computers that collected the links in the first place.

Computers just aren’t able to read between the lines to determine what the creator of the website was trying to present. They just convert the text to a numerical value and store that in the database. When you query the database, the search engine returns everything with the same numerical value as the text that you entered. Wouldn’t it be great to have a real live human look at the webpage first to see if it is related to the topic that you entered?

That is the concept behind a web index. Webpages are submitted by their creators or by users who have found the webpage. Human reviewers examine the webpage, decide if it has merit and then add it to the appropriate category on the web index.

The broad categories of web indexes offer another option for web searching. Often you will have only a general idea of the topic. A web index can suggest other related topics that you may not have yet considered.

Most Web indexes now have a search feature that can be useful for locating relevant resources. However, this should not be the only way that you approach the resources of a web index. Be sure to also take the time to examine the broad categories for topics and subtopics related to your chosen topic.

It is important to remember that searching a web index is very different than using a web search engine. In most cases, a web index search engine only searches the web index itself, not the entire web. However, since the webpages in the web index have all been reviewed, the returns are often more useful that those returned in a global web search.

Examine the web indexes and see how they compare with your previous search engine experience. If you feel that you exhausted your previous topic with the search engines, feel free to select a fresh topic for this set of online explorations.

Record your observations and reflections in the logbook as you are searching.

Online Exploration: Web Indexes